Events
2008 Southern California Campus Climate Summit
- Cal Poly Pomona, April 24, 2008
Attendees: Over 80 faculty, administrators and students from over 25 colleges and universities in Southern California.
Description: The 2008 Campus Climate Summit was held to focus participants around a discussion of experiences and strategies for colleges and universities in Southern California to reduce their net greenhouse gas emissions in a meaningful manner within a short period of time. The Summit included a briefing by Cal Poly President James Ortiz and NWF Vice-President for Education Kevin Coyle on the role of higher education in global warming solutions, and break-out sessions addressing the nuts and bolts of greenhouse gas emission inventories and climate action plans, emissions from the transportation sector and strategies for including sustainability across the curriculum. The Summit was jointly organized by Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) and the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program (NWF) and drew more than 80 participants from 22 colleges and universities and 3 other organizations in southern California.
Outcomes: A key outcome of the Campus Climate Summit was the formation of the Southern California Climate Action Network. This network comprises students, faculty, staff and administrators from more than 20 campuses across Southern California focused on exploring how campuses can achieve emissions reductions relatively quickly and in amounts suggested by leading scientists. The network’s key goals include: 1) Sharing goals for reducing the campus carbon footprint on campuses individually and collectively; 2) Helping identify and overcome barriers to reducing the campus carbon footprint such as speaker or contact bureaus, annual summit or workshops, incentives and resources; 3) Reporting periodically on progress made in achieving goals on individual campuses and collectively.
Pasadena City College Green Summit
Attendees: 300+ from more than 15 colleges and universities in Southern California
Description: The Pasadena Green Summit was held at Pasadena City College on November 2, 2008 as a follow-up gathering to the Campus Climate Summit held at Cal Poly Pomona in April 2008 organized by the National Wildlife Federation and Cal Poly Pomona. The Pasadena Summit, attended by over 300 students, faculty and staff, focused on several working group discussions around initiatives and collaborative projects the Southern California Climate Action Network (SoCalCAN) can take on to accelerate climate leadership and action in the southern California region. Working groups included: Sustainable Campus Operations, Sustainability Across the Curriculum, Environmental Research, Student Activism ,Green Buildings and Architecture, and Community Engagement. The Summit was attended by 300+ students, faculty, and administrators from Cal Poly Pomona, Occidental College, Azusa Pacific University, Burbank High School, Cal State University Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara, Citrus Community College, Claremont Graduate University, Harvey Mudd College, Pomona College, Pitzer College, Glendale High School, Los Angeles Valley College, University of California Davis, and UCLA.
Other components of the day’s activities include 1) a keynote address on Climate Change and Water, an issue many participants at the April summit indicated was an area that needed further attention, 2) a community fair that brought together the larger Pasadena City College community and 3) the Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium, which explored through dynamic group interactions, leading edge information, and inspiring multimedia the current state of our planet, and connected participants with a powerful new vision for our future, the pursuit of an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this Earth.
The event was co-organized by the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology program and Pasadena City College along with support from members of the SoCalCAN network.
Outcomes: Formation of a core planning group for Southern California Climate Action Network to develop goals, fundraise for network. Pasadena City College signing the President’s Climate Commitment
