Clemson to host Environmental Teach-In

Published: February 20, 2012

By Aliza Darnell

CLEMSON – Clemson University students, faculty and staff are working together to host the Clemson Environmental Teach-In: Focus the Nation on Energy Initiatives from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 23, in the Lila Holmes Ballroom of Clemson House.

The event will be an open forum bringing together people from the community and beyond to discuss this year’s theme of energy initiatives. Speakers will discuss energy conservation, renewable energy solutions and sustainable building practices.

The Teach-In is a collaboration between Clemson University and Focus the Nation’s Forums-to-Action Program. Focus the Nation is a national clean energy youth empowerment organization with which Clemson has partnered with before to bring clean energy forums to campus. From Clemson’s biosystems engineering program to the university housing office, students, faculty and staff collaborate to bring the issues of sustainability to the forefront in Clemson’s own community. 

There are four components to the Environmental Teach-In: the Green Expo, speaker interest sessions, a networking reception and a film showing. The Green Expo will showcase the sustainable efforts of a variety of organizations and businesses to highlight the ways these groups are implementing solutions and shaping the future.

The second component features speaker interest sessions, panel discussions and a student facilitated brainstorming session. Topics will include passive building plans for residential housing, net-zero emissions solutions, an international perspective on sustainable technology and Clemson’s energy future. The discussion will feature innovators and professionals in clean energy from both Clemson’s campus and beyond.

The conversation will extend to New York City via Skype to bring Matt Allen from the German American Chamber of Commerce into the conversation with an international perspective. Key Clemson speakers will include Tony Putnam, director of utility services, who will speak on Clemson's energy future and Leidy Klotz, assistant professor of civil engineering, who is the keynote speaker, will discuss the Clemson University Institute for Sustainability and the need for sustainability across the curriculum.

“We are getting perspectives on what is going on in the global community, but also on campus,” said David Thornton, Clemson professor and research associate for the biosystems engineering program. “We take a look around the world, then bring it back to Clemson to ask ‘What can we do here?’"

Attendees will have the opportunity to weigh in with a student-facilitated discussion on climate change led by Gabriel Fair, a senior computer science major and president of Student Environmental Action (SEA). Fair is a strong supporter of the Environmental Teach-In as an opportunity for Clemson to showcase efforts being done to address climate change and to foster discussion on pressing issues.

“I really want to see the culture at Clemson University change to embrace the importance of acting sustainably,” said Fair.

To wrap up the event, a networking reception will begin at 7 p.m. including refreshments and a FrontLine film called “Hot Politics” examining the politics behind addressing global warming in the United States government.

There is also an effort to incorporate conversation on energy initiatives and sustainability into the classroom on the week of the event.

“We want to get the word out to professors to spend a little time in each of the classes that they teach to talk about sustainability under the area of subject matter that the course is concerned with,” said Gary Gaulin, associate director of sustainability for university housing.

There are many sustainable efforts happening on campus right now that students are not aware of without these conversations. For example, through his creative inquiry program Thornton and his students are diverting cooking oil from the dining halls to produce 3,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel a year. Unknown to many students, this biodiesel production is a big initiative happening everyday at Clemson.

“We are striving for 10,000 gallons by the end of 2013. The more we produce the less greenhouse gases we have,” said Thornton.

Thornton believes in the importance of the Focus the Nation Forums-to-Action program at Clemson because it gives student groups, professionals and businesses the opportunity to network and foster development of renewable energy.

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