University of Pennsylvania
ER-T2-6: Sustainability Events

The Green Campus Partnership frequently holds events and/or partners with other campus groups on campus to host lectures. For example, in January 2012, the Green Campus Partnership in collaboration with Wharton’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership hosted the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to speak about greening athletics. Penn’s Athletics Eco-Reps helped to organize the event and represented a large portion of the audience.

The Wharton-led, Penn-wide Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) promotes knowledge for business sustainability through world-class research, transformative teaching and constructive dialogue between top alumni, academic, corporate, government, and non-government organizations. IGEL is a hub for business and sustainability, connecting and leveraging academic capital at Penn to help business leaders of today and tomorrow to create more sustainable industries. IGEL organizes annual conferences that include a hands-on workshop component, and a monthly seminar series where business leaders are invited to speak about the best practices in their field. These events create a two-way conversation between faculty, students, and business and NGO professionals.

The Institute for Environmental Studies (IES) is dedicated to improving understanding of key scientific, economic, and political issues that underlie environmental problems and their management. IES addresses the gaps between science and policy, and studies problems that arise from the lack of integration of traditionally separate disciplines. The Institute is committed to two specific areas - urban environmental problems and watershed issues. The Institute for Environmental Studies runs a weekly seminar series to promote interactions among faculty, students, and interested members of the community. The talks tend to be interdisciplinary and often cut across departmental and school bounds.

In addition to numerous lecture series featuring sustainable design advocates such as Peter Calthorpe and Phillippe Rahm, PennDesign and the TC Chan Center have facilitated several other sustainability-focused events. In 2011, the TC Chan Center hosted the United Nations Sustainable Buildings Climate Initiative Symposia, where speakers from around the world came to discuss the technology, policy, and recent environmental contexts that advance sustainable building practices both regionally and globally. Another example, the Architecture and Energy Symposia held in both 2012 and 2013 by PennDesign, encouraged attendees to explore and discuss the integration of architecture, style, and building energy efficiency, as well as the influence of climate and region on architecture and energy.

In a similar vein, the Penn Institute for Urban Research (IUR) has partnered with various Schools at Penn and numerous outside public and private agencies to hold events fostering sustainability-related dialogue. Penn IUR's mission to better understand how cities function through cross-disciplinary research, instruction, and civic engagement focuses on three areas: urban development strategies, building sustainable cities, and the role anchor institutions play in urban areas. Recent symposium topics have included financing energy efficient buildings, food security in a rapidly urbanizing world, and integrating the use of geographic information systems with environmental initiatives.

Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership:
http://igel.wharton.upenn.edu/events/
The Institute for Environmental Studies:
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/earth/ies_ss.html
PennDesign:
http://www.design.upenn.edu/calendar
Penn IUR:
http://penniur.upenn.edu/events