Berea College will host a Sustainability Summit on April 13 in Baird Lounge in the Alumni Building. This day of sustainability conversations will feature nationally recognized authorities David Orr, Debra Rowe, Rev. Sally Bingham and Leander Lacy.
Sustainability Summit events will begin at 9 a.m. and each session will be presented twice until 5 p.m.. Lunch with be served in Woods Penn Commons for all participants and will offer additional opportunities to learn and talk together.
David Orr is a Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College where he is the special assistant to the president and a James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont. Orr has received five honorary degrees and awards including The Millennium Leadership Award from Global Green, the Bioneers Award, the National Wildlife Federation Leadership Award, and a Lyndhurst Prize. Orr is the author of six books and co-editor of three others, some of which are used in hundreds of colleges and universities. Orr helped to launch the green campus movement with his studies on energy, water and material use on campuses. Orr organized the effort to design the first substantially green building on a U.S. college campus which was later named “One of Thirty Milestone Buildings in the 20th century,” the building is powered entirely by sunlight. Currently, Orr is working on a $2.2 million collaborative project to define a 100 days climate action plan for the Obama administration among other projects.
Debra Rowe is a Senior Fellow in Education for Sustainability at the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future. Rowe is working on a national public communication campaign about sustainability as well as with k-12 and higher education associations on the integration of the sustainability paradigm into all levels of formal education. Rowe has taught renewable energies and energy management at Oakland Community College for over 20 years where she created an Energy Awareness Center. As a consultant to the Partnership for Environmental Technology Education (PETE), Rowe created a model energy management degree design for community colleges to utilize the material and to develop their own programs. Rowe is a consultant to over twenty colleges and helps them incorporate energy and sustainability into their institutions.
The Rev. Sally Bingham is an Episcopal priest and Canon for the Environment in the Episcopal Diocese of California and founder and president of The Regeneration Project. Bingham has been active in the environmental community for 25 years and her Regeneration Project focuses on the Interfaith Power & Light Campaign (IPL) which is a religious response to global warming. Recently, Bingham joined President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She serves on the board of directors of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Environmental Working Group, and the U.S. Climate Action Network as well as the national advisory board for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Bingham has received many impressive awards including the 2007 U.S. EPA Climate Protection Award, the Purpose Prize, the Energy Globe Award and commendation as a “sacred gift to the planet” by the World Wildlife Fund. Bingham was named one of the top 15 green religious leaders by “Grist” magazine and has been recognized as a Climate Hero by “YES!” Magazine.