2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Green' conference fosters dialogue, dissent
Alex Roehrkasse
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: Campus News
The Brown is Green conference, which aims to bring together experts and activists from across a variety of backgrounds in a dialogue about environmental sustainability, kicked off yesterday with a panel featuring the Watson International Scholars for the Environment and an art exhibition at Hillel exploring the history of an 80-year old campus elm tree that fell prey to Dutch Elm Disease in 2003.
But the conference will really get underway this afternoon when a number of environmental movers and shakers converge on College Hill for a series of lectures and panels.
Event organizers said that the conference was originally conceived as an opportunity to foster better communication between a diverse group of scientists, policymakers, businesspeople and activists who all fall under the banner of the "sustainability movement."
Event organizer Aden Van Noppen '09 said she hopes to get conference participants "fired up" about sustainability.
"I hope for both the speakers and people attending the conference - for everyone - to have their assumptions questioned," Van Noppen said. A dearth of discussion and disagreement among those interested in sustainability has meant that contemporary environmental problems are addressed with the antiquated strategies of 1970's vintage environmentalism, she said. But Brown, with its reputation for "innovative thinking and the questioning of the status quo," is the perfect venue for generating innovative ideas about sustainability and setting new standards for environmental leadership, Van Noppen added.
At 2:30 p.m., former president of the Sierra Club and Global CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi S. Adam Werbach '95 will deliver an address on environmental leadership. Werbach dropped jaws at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in 2004 by declaring environmentalism dead. At the same venue earlier this month, he unveiled a new perspective for understanding and achieving environmental sustainability that he says goes beyond the popular concept of "green" to "blue."
But the conference will really get underway this afternoon when a number of environmental movers and shakers converge on College Hill for a series of lectures and panels.
Event organizers said that the conference was originally conceived as an opportunity to foster better communication between a diverse group of scientists, policymakers, businesspeople and activists who all fall under the banner of the "sustainability movement."
Event organizer Aden Van Noppen '09 said she hopes to get conference participants "fired up" about sustainability.
"I hope for both the speakers and people attending the conference - for everyone - to have their assumptions questioned," Van Noppen said. A dearth of discussion and disagreement among those interested in sustainability has meant that contemporary environmental problems are addressed with the antiquated strategies of 1970's vintage environmentalism, she said. But Brown, with its reputation for "innovative thinking and the questioning of the status quo," is the perfect venue for generating innovative ideas about sustainability and setting new standards for environmental leadership, Van Noppen added.
At 2:30 p.m., former president of the Sierra Club and Global CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi S. Adam Werbach '95 will deliver an address on environmental leadership. Werbach dropped jaws at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in 2004 by declaring environmentalism dead. At the same venue earlier this month, he unveiled a new perspective for understanding and achieving environmental sustainability that he says goes beyond the popular concept of "green" to "blue."