Event Recap from April 2010:

Clinton Global Initiative University

Building on the successful model of the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges, President Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world.

Each year, CGI U hosts a meeting for students, national youth organizations, and university officials to discuss solutions to pressing global issues. The third annual CGI U Meeting was held at the University of Miami from April 16-18, 2010.

ESW was represented at CGI U by the team of Junzi Shi, Ren Chung Yu, Ankur Asthana, Ismael Abdala (all from ESW-Northwestern) and Joniqua Howard from ESW-USF. Over the three day event, they networked, found new groups for ESW chapters to work with, and Joniqua facilitated a skill session. They came away with an increased sense of motivation, perspective, and a lot of new ideas and people to work with. In particular, they had four major takeaways:

Adding a voice to the environmental movement
“Green to me was 1960s bell-bottom pants hugging a tree, maybe on mind-altering chemicals.”
-Bob Dixson, Mayor of Greensburg, Kansas, At CGI U 2010 panel. Greensburg is now a model city of sustainability.
This quote has a lot of relevance to ESW. One thing that ESW can help provide is a stream of young professionals who support environmental sustainability, adding a thoughtful and academic voice to the environmental movement. (Not that we don't appreciate the tree-hugging hippies, who are awesome)
Scalability of technologies
A UNDP official from France talked about how small projects, if successful, can be duplicated and scaled up. There are two takeaways here: First, this is motivation for ESW projects. Knowing that our projects have the potential to be scaled up, or that the projects are a part of a larger implementation, perhaps would motivate our project members. Second, that we need to be cognizant of the scalability potential, and ask ourselves whether this project that we are working on has the potential to be scaled up or not (keeping in mind that not all projects need to be scalable).
Holistic knowledge is important
During the "Future of Water" plenary session, Andy Revkin asked the panel on promising water technologies. Patricia Compas, former EWB member and co-founder of Polytech Waterbag mentioned development of point of use water sources, like rain-water catchments, and emphasized that the technologies would vary depending on location. Marta Echavarria, the Founding Director of EcoDecision followed up with a better answer-- drip irrigation agriculture. she mentioned that 80% of our water use is for agriculture, and 65% of that water is wasted. If we could scale up drip irrigation, we'd save a whole lot more water than a rain catcher could collect. The point here-- we need to tackle the problem from a holistic big picture perspective.
Collaboration
Perhaps the most important and obvious take-away from CGI U-- there are tons and tons of people out there working on many "good causes" projects. If you try hard enough, you can find someone who can help you with your project, either through past experience, connections, or funding. It was also motivating to know that there are many young people out there eager to try and better this world.

Photos via Picasa

EPA Sustainable Design Expo & P3 Competition

The 6th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo took place on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on April 24 - 25, 2010. The Expo brings together students, scientists, engineers, and business leaders whose innovative technologies are designed to advance economic growth while reducing environmental impact. A highlight of the Expo was the technologies developed by P3 student teams to address alternative energy, purification and distribution of drinking water, reducing pesticide run-off, green buildings, and more. The Expo also provides a forum for government, nonprofits, and the business community to demonstrate their diverse approaches to sustainability.

ESW was represented at the EPA SDE/P3 (EPA P3 for short) by Alexander Dale and Chris Thai, both from the University of Pittsburgh, with some assistance from Ren Chung Yu of Northwestern. Although less participatory than CGIU, this event, being public, provided a great opportunity to explain projects and sustainability to families, as well as connect with project teams from across the country, hopefully sparking new partnerships or even new chapters.

Events