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The thirteenth Sustainable City Series event sponsored by the Urban Design Studio will take place on Tuesday, March 16 at 6:00pm at the Glassworks on West Market Street. This time, the Series will discuss the role universities play in regional sustainability initiatives. Representatives from the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky will be part of the panel. Here’s a bit of info from the Urban Design Studio:
“Universities play a key role in the promotion and implementation of sustainable practices in our communities. Not only do universities contribute to regional sustainability through fundamental research and an existing knowledge base, but also through education and training, community involvement and outreach, and the institutions’ own development of space, energy policy and environmental programming.
“Our guest speakers will be:
“Justin Mog serves as the University of Louisville’s assistant to the provost for sustainability initiatives. He is the first to hold this position at UofL and has been working with the university’s Sustainability Council since August 2009 to integrate sustainability into everything the university does – from operations and facilities to administration and finances to education and research. Justin holds environmental studies degrees from Oberlin College (B.S.) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (M.S., Ph.D.) and recently completed three years of service in the Peace Corps promoting sustainable development in Paraguay.
“Larry Owsley has served as the University of Louisville’s vice president for business affairs since 1983. He has graduate degrees from the University of Virginia and the University of California, Berkeley in public administration and public policy analysis respectively. His undergraduate degree is in history from Centre College of Kentucky.
“Brent Fryrear is the Director of the Partnership for a Green City – a collaboration of Louisville Metro Government, Jefferson County Public Schools and the University of Louisville – working together to address climate change and “green” institutional practices within the organizations themselves as well as working to achieve real results that will have long-term positive impacts on the health, education, and well-being of our citizens. Brent has been in the environmental arena for almost 25 years in industry, emergency response, consulting, government and higher education. He has a Masters degree in Higher Education Administration and Organizational Development and a Bachelors in Biology, both from UofL.
“Shane Tedder was recently hired by the University of Kentucky to serve as their first Sustainability Coordinator and reports to the Vice President for Facilities Management. Prior to this appointment, Shane worked for 6 years as the recycling and sustainability coordinator for the Office of Residence Life at UK. During this time he created the Wildcat Wheels Bicycle Library (www.wildcatwheelsorg) and Earthdays in the Bluegrass (www.edbg.org).”
The event is free but seating is limited and the Urban Design Studio requests attendees to RSVP on their web site. As usual, coffee will be provided by Heine Brothers and Ramsi’s Cafe will have snacks. These events always fill up quickly, so I recommend reserving your spot as soon as possible.
There’s no doubt you have heard about the Sustainable City Series or perhaps you’ve even been to a couple of the talks. SSC forums cover various topics from urban agriculture to the future of transportation and bring together some of the leading minds in Louisville to discuss important topics on the future of the city. Now the Urban Design Studio who puts on these events is seeking your input to improve the program. Here’s a message from the UDS:
“I would like to ask for suggestions on topics you would like to see covered by the Sustainable City Series in the future. If a third of the people who receive this email respond we will have an incredible body of ideas to draw from. I cannot promise that all ideas will be covered, but if patterns begin to emerge that will help us determine which topics are the most pressing and work towards getting speakers to address the issues.”
What topic would entice you to spend a couple hours of your afternoon at an upcoming Sustainable City Series talk? Let the UDS know by filling out this form on their web site.
The tenth edition of the Sustainable City Series will be help Tuesday, July 7th at the Glassworks. These forums, hosted by the Urban Design Studio, have proven to be popular. Patrick Piuma, director of the UDS, tells us that there has been record interest for the upcoming “Urban Gardens” event, so be sure to RSVP soon on the Urban Design Studio’s web site. Food will be provided by Ramsi’s and coffee will be supplied by Heine Brothers. Here’s some information about the forum:
The tenth forum of the Sustainable City Series held by the Urban Design Studio focuses on the appropriate and sustainable ways to go about urban gardening from private to community-based gardens.
The growing demand for locally grown foods has been accompanied by an ever-increasing interest in the development of community and private gardens. There are many different types of community gardens out there and many more plans and hopes for the future, however there are some things that all these gardens have in common… the environment. The importance of taking the proper steps early on is critical, because even though your food may be grown locally, if you don’t know what is in the soil you are using, the food you produce is not necessarily any better than those shipped from thousands of miles away, and perhaps even worse.
Whether you are interested in starting a community garden, currently belong to one, have a backyard garden, or just enjoy local food, join us on July 7th to learn more about how to ensure that our local food system is sustainable.
Our guest speakers will be:
Ann Carroll works for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization. Carroll has training in science and public health and over 25 years experience working on a range of environmental protection and health issues in the US and internationally; including over 15 years with the US Environmental Protection Agency and former Office of Technology Assessment with the US Congress. Her efforts have focused on a range of environmental health hazards including hazardous wastes, lead and heavy metals as well as risk assessment and risk communication. She has worked in private consulting, with the National Governor’s Association and US EPA Offices in Washington DC and Boston Massachusetts and managed the Lead Reference Center of the NSW Environmental Protection Authority based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia from 1996 to 2000, provided consulting services to India, Indonesia and a range of countries before returning to US EPA in February 2002 to work in the Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization. Carroll recently has been accepted to Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health to begin her doctorate in public health in Environmental Health Sciences beginning the fall of 2009.
Wayne Long has worked at the Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Service since December 2008 as the Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent and County Coordinator. Prior to coming to Louisville, Wayne had a consulting company working with Central Kentucky equine farm managers and owners on various forage and environmental issues. He joined the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture’s Plant and Soil Science Department in 2001 as a member of the research team investigating causes of the Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS). While at UK, Long began a PhD program in Equine Forage Management and Ecology that he hopes to complete soon. From 1981 to 2001 he worked in management positions at Spendthrift Farm and Shadwell Farm. In the late 90s, while working on a master’s of Biology degree from Eastern Kentucky University that focused on wetland flora and aquatic ecology, Long became acutely aware of the devastating power humans have on the environment committing him to do his part of lessening the impact and assisting others to do the same. He now looks forward to the collaborative efforts between the Extension Service, local agencies and communities.
Sarah Fritschner is the Board President of the local sustainable composting and economic development project, Breaking New Grounds. Fritschner is currently a member of the Food in Neighborhoods Economic Development Committee, part of Mayor’s Healthy Hometown. She is also a board member of Bern heim Arboretum. Her interests involve increasing the communication between and improving the relationships among Kentucky farmers and Louisville Metro institutions. That relationship creates a more vibrant local food economy by providing Kentucky-grown foods to institutions from corporate offices to schools and nursing homes to emergency food supplies. She is the sole proprietor of BetterWorld-PR, presently engaged in project management, communications and marketing for several non-profit and for-profit enterprises.
The event will be held on Tuesday, July 7th at Glassworks (815 W Market Street, Louisville, KY) and is free and open to the public. For more information on the Sustainable City Series, to RSVP for the upcoming event, or to learn more about the Urban Design Studio, please visit our website at http://uds.louisville.edu or contact Patrick Piuma, the Director of the Urban Design Studio at 502.587.7015 or email udslouisville@gmail.com.
The Sustainable City Series‘ ninth forum will be all about transportation. The event if free, but you must sign up by 1:00pm tomorrow (Tuesday). Featured speakers include Barry Barker, Executive Director of TARC, and Dirk Gowin, Transportation Planning Administrator of Bike Louisville. It’s going on at the Glassworks on Ninth and Market Streets on Tuesday at 6:00 pm, so if you want to go, you’d better act fast. We’ve already signed up and at the time of posting there were only 51 seats left out of 340, so this event looks to be well attended. Here’s some information from the Urban Design Studio:
The ninth forum of the Sustainable City Series held by the Urban Design Studio focuses on transportation modes that promote more sustainable communities.
Transportation is the backbone of regional development. Urban form has been largely dictated by the available modes of transportation at the time cities developed. This can be seen in the compactness of older city centers where the mode of transportation was by foot or horse drawn carriage. The placement of cities along navigable waterways, such as Louisville, was driven by transportation. With the advent of the automobile we witnessed the subsequent development of suburbs, spreading farther from the core of urban activity extending infrastructure needs and creating less efficient land uses. More efficient transportation systems must be developed if we are serious about promoting regional sustainability.
In order to return to a more sustainable region, transportation modes such as bicycling, rail and bus systems must be further developed. Join us on May 26th to hear what our region is doing to develop these modes of transportation.