Inaugural Commons Unplugged Week includes Green Forum and Green Fair
The first-ever Commons Unplugged environmental awareness week, from Sunday, February 15 to Saturday February 21, 2015 will celebrate sustainability, natural resource conservation and energy conservation through various events focusing on Vanderbilt’s first-year student population. Commons Unplugged is co-sponsored by The Ingram Commons, in partnership with the Sustainability and Environmental Management Office and the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt.
The kick-off event will be the Green Forum which takes place on Sunday, February 15, from 3 – 5 pm in Commons Center, Room 237. In its inaugural year, the Green Forum will feature Professor Michael Vandenbergh, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair of Law and Professor Craig Philip, Former Ingram Barge CEO and Director, Vanderbilt Center for Transportation Research.
Professor Vandenbergh is the Director of the Climate Change Research Network and the Co-Director of the Energy, Environment and Land Use Program. He will deliver an extended version of his TEDx talk “Buying Time: The Private Governance Response to Climate Change” followed by an interactive Q&A. For more information on the topic of this talk, please visit http://ssrn.com/abstract=2533643 to read the working paper “Beyond Gridlock,” co-authored by Professor Vandenberg and Professor Jonathan Gilligan.
Professor Philip is the former Ingram Barge CEO and newly named director of the Vanderbilt Center for Transportation Research. He is also a research professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. As an on-the-ground example of how corporations are not just reducing emissions to mitigate climate effects but also to adapt to its effects, Professor Philip will discuss how Ingram Barge is adapting to climate change.
As part of the Commons Cup Sustainability category, Houses can earn participation points for the greatest percentage of residents who attend and are engaged with this event. Points will only be awarded for those students who stay for the duration of the presentation. Students will also be participating in a week-long House energy conservation competition to earn points for the Commons Cup sustainability category.
Also part of the Commons Unplugged project is the Green Fair on Wednesday, February 18 from 6 – 8 pm in the Commons Center Atrium. Sustainability-related departments and student organizations, as well as local environmental leaders, will be on hand to talk about what we can do as individuals to build a sustainable future together.
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