Sustainability "Green Bag" Series - Fall 2009

Join us this fall for the inaugural "Green Bag" series. Each month we will host a brown bag lunch presentation focused on a topic in sustainability. Whether highlighting efforts to address sustainability on campus or providing tips for living a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle, this series presents an opportunity to learn about and discuss issues of sustainability in our community.

August 28: Get on the Bus: A Public Transit Primer
Noon to 1 PM, Kansas Union, Jayhawk Room
Go green by getting on the bus! Learn the basics about buses through this introduction to Lawrence public transit. Find out how you can use the coordinated transit system to get to campus and get around town. As an added challenge, try catching the bus to the Kansas Union! Visit the transit website for routes and schedules.

September 10: Greening Your Workplace
Noon to 1 PM, Kansas Union, Big 12 Room
The Office of Student Financial Aid and the Sabatini Multicultural Resource Center engage in office practices that focus on environmental impact, conservation and sustainability. Each office has focused on recycling, energy and resource conservation, sustainable eating and green purchasing. "Greening Your Workplace" will offer other KU staff members the opportunity to learn more about how they can increase green efforts in their own offices, much as the OSFA and the MRC have done.

Download the Power Point Presentation

October 8: Climate Change, Humans and Nature in the Global Environment (C-CHANGE)
Noon to 1 PM, Kansas Union, International Room
Climate change and its impact on the planet's biological, ecological, and social systems has been identified as one of the "grand challenges" of the 21st century by the National Academies of Science. The KU C-CHANGE program creates collaborative classroom and field research experiences to examine the human and natural causes and consequences of climate change by bringing together students and faculty in the social and natural sciences and engineering. Learn more about this program that is working to advance scientific knowledge about global climate change by connecting researchers, disciplines, and institutions.

November 13: Sustainability in the Built Environment
Noon to 1 PM, Kansas Union, Parlors
Bill Hanlon, director of the Sustainable Living Center in Emporia, will be discussing sustainability in the built environment, including opportunities for retrofitting existing buildings to improve energy efficiency and incorporating alternative energy sources. Mr. Hanlon has been involved in the construction field for 35 years as a carpenter, building contractor, truss manufacturer, and teacher. His work in the field has focused on energy efficient building, and the teaching of alternative methods and approaches to make homes more efficient and sustainable. For the past 14 years Mr. Hanlon has been an instructor in the Construction Technology program at Flint Hills Technical College in Emporia, KS, and he is currently the director of the Sustainable Living Center at the college. His book Outside the Box introduces the reader to simple methods that produce a much more energy efficient home at little extra cost.

December 10: Greening the Holidays
Details coming soon