Sustainability Series Kicks Off March 24 with Guest Speaker Judi Schweitzer

In an effort to create an ecologically sound, socially just and economical campus and community, Truman has created the Sustainability Series. The inaugural event will take place at 7 p.m. March 24 in the Student Union Building Georgian Room.

Judi Schweitzer of Schweitzer + Associates, a strategic sustainability solutions firm designed to help companies and organizations realize and achieve their sustainability goals, will be the keynote speaker. The main focus of this first event is to introduce the Sustainability Series to the campus and community, as well as to introduce ways to increase the triple bottom line of the University by identifying sustainable actions to adopt in the upcoming year.

Thanks to Schweitzer and her firm, Truman’s Presidential Installation last fall was a carbon-neutral event, the first of its kind in the United States. Schweitzer purchased 15 megawatts of Renewable Energy Certificates to offset the approximately 23,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide associated with the travel, lodging and building use surrounding the Presidential Installation. This amount of carbon dioxide is equivalent to the amount produced through the combustion of 1,211 gallons of gasoline.

A 1989 alumna of the University, Schweitzer is also a member of the President’s Sustainability Action Committee (PSAC). University President Troy D. Paino formed the PSAC in 2010 in response to the Sustainability Initiative developed by the campus community and signed by then President Darrell W. Krueger in April 2009. The charge of the committee is to recommend actions to the president to help Truman endure and be a more sustainable place in the future than it is today.

The Sustainability Series will host guest speakers each semester and will work in conjunction with existing University programs when possible. The Sustainability Series will join the Global Issues Colloquium April 21-22 to host speaker Ted Howard and a workshop on keeping the economy local.

Those interested in attending Schweitzer’s presentation are encouraged to RSVP online at http://sustainability.truman.edu/web/form_builder2/form_builder.asp?testId=349.

More information about all of Truman’s sustainability efforts is available at http://sustainability.truman.edu.