California State University, Monterey Bay
IN-2: Innovation 2

Focus the Region Beginning as one of the hundreds of schools that participated in the January 2007 Focus the Nation national teach-in on global warming awareness and solutions, CSUMB turned this into one of its signature events each year. To emphasize the more local emphasis of the event, it is now called Focus the Region and it takes place as an all-day event mid-week each February, such that our university president can participate. We have had four events thus far and we are now planning for our fifth. Some features of the event include: -Significant community involvement in the planning, leadership, and attendance (participating organizations have included Monterey Peninsula College, the Sustainability Institute, UC Santa Cruz, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Hartnell College, and the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association ( ALBA). -Free admission to all students, faculty, staff, and community members -free local, generally organic, vegetarian lunch and snacks for all attendees -zero net waste -paperless registration and raffle -Regional elected officials as speakers and panelists -On-campus speakers -Local author presenters -Breakout groups and charettes -Exhibition Hall with regional green businesses, agencies, and organizations’ booths. -Low cost ($1500 for food, ~ $200-$500 misc.) -Around 500 attendees each year. Local exhibitors during the 2011 event include: *ALBA *AMBAG Energy watch *Commute alternatives *Applied Solar Energy *Ausonio Incorporated *The Bike Blender Guy *BuildingWIse *Citizens for a Sustainable Monterey County *Ecology Action *EcoEnergyLoan *Electric Auto Association *Central Coast Chapter *FGI, Inc. *Green Vehicles *KART/AITS Vanpool (Kings County) *Monterey Bay Electric Vehicle Alliance *Monterey County Business Council *StepUp2Green *Monterey County Workforce Investment Board *Monterey-Salinas Transit *Passion Purveyors *SunPods *The Sustainability Academy *The Offset Project *The United States Green Building Council Recent Survey Results from the FTR 2011 event: Survey Based on 2011 event (N=60 respondents from~ 500 attendees) 1. Are you a CSUMB: student (40) faculty (5) staff (3) community partner (2) visitor (10) 2. How did you arrive to campus today? private vehicle (36) carpool (11) public transportation (3) bicycle (2) walk (7) other (skateboard) (1) 3. How did you learn about today’s Focus the Region event? CSUMB website (1) word of mouth (8) friend or colleague (13) flyer/email (1) Other (36 faculty) (1 on FtR planning committee) 4. To what extent does CSUMB provide opportunities to enhance understanding of sustainability concerns for the Tri-County region? a great deal(19) quite a bit(25) a little(10) too little(0) none(2) don’t know(4)