Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute

Green Monday 12

Janna — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:54:33 +0000

The Eco-Crisis and The Built Environment

February 22, 2010

What choices should we be making now in order to diminish the impact of development on the natural world? Better yet, from a more positive point of view, what are the opportunities for designing the built environment so that it encourages human interaction, improves productivity and conserves natural resources?

“The Built Environment” is the subject of the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute’s next Green Monday, February 22, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce second floor conference room. Admission is free and open to the public.

We will explore our options as citizens and stakeholders in the built environment and in how best to mobilize diverse factions into positive, cooperative action. Scheduled panelists are Moderator Andrew Euston, FAIA, former Senior Federal Urban Design Administrator with the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Jim Barton, focusing on The Great Shift: Peak Oil, Climate and Transformation, and Asheville’s role as a town in transition; Linda Giltz, AICP, Regional Planner, Land of Sky Regional Council, on innovative land and natural resource initiatives; Patricia Hinkley, on cold season vegetable greenhouses; David Johnson, FAICP, on his visits to Curitiba, Brazil, and other cutting-edge planned communities; and Jan Moran and Paul Rollins will share their experience in developing Civano, a planned, sustainable community in Tucson, Arizona.

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy.

Scheduled Panelists

Andrew Euston, FAIA, Moderator, former Senior Federal Urban Design Administrator with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Jim Barton

Linda Giltz, Regional Planner, Land Of Sky Regional Council

Patricia Hinkley, Wintergreen

David Johnson, FAICP

Jan Moran, formerly of Civano Community, Tucson, Arizona

Paul Rollins, formerly of Civano Community, Tucson, Arizona

Presentation

Civano

Green Monday 11

Steve — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:20:04 +0000

Sustainable Bioenergy

January 11, 2010

What are the opportunities for sustainable bioenergy in Western North Carolina? How do we integrate environmental, economic, and social sustainability into the biofuels supply chain?

“Sustainable Bioenergy” is the subject of the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute’s next Green Monday, January 11, from 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce second floor conference room. Admission is free and open to the public.

As background, we will explore definitions of bioenergy and biofuels, and describe the multifaceted biofuels supply chain, including feedstock production, harvesting, storage and transportation; biofuel production; biofuel distribution; and biofuel uses in transportation and power generation. Topics to be addressed include research on cane crops, forest products, biodiesel production and distribution, and environmental benefits of biomass boilers.

This Green Monday is presented by the Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute with support from the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce and a generous grant from Progress Energy, and is cosponsored by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Center for BioEnergy Sustainability and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Panelists

Rebecca Efroymson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute

Dean McCraw, Biofuels Center of North Carolina

Susan Fox, USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station

Tom Ranney, North Carolina State University, Mountain Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center

Brian Winslett, Blue Ridge Biofuels

Randy Dellinger, Foothills Bio-Energies

Garald Cottrell, Wellons Energy Solutions Groups

Presentations

Audio

Green Monday 11 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks

Green Monday 10

Steve — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:44:56 +0000

Sustaining Human Health During Climate and Environmental Change

December 14, 2009

Concern about climate and related environmental change tends to focus on the impact on the natural environment, exemplified by effects on plant life, and on the built environment, exemplified by coastal flooding and attendant loss of property. But these changes can also have a profound effect on human health. Increases in air pollution—particularly of ozone and aerosols—have a demonstrable, significant impact on respiratory health, even though the consequences of aerosols are only now being researched and understood. Addressing public health in the context of climate and environmental change is especially important in Western North Carolina, with its higher than average incidence of asthma and other respiratory disease in children as well as adults.

Panelists

Rangasayi N. Halthore, Senior Research Scientist, Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center, University of Maryland – Baltimore County

Jeffrey D. Schmitt, Adjunct Professor, Physiology-Pharmacology, Translational Sciences Institute, Program for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Michael A. Torres, Professor of Biology, Warren Wilson College

John E. Allen, Jr., Interim Chief Scientist & Director of Atmospheric Science, Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute

Presentations

Rangasayi N. Halthore

Michael A. Torres

Jeffrey D. Schmitt

Audio

Green Monday 10 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks, www.PurpleCat.net

Green Monday 9

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:24:27 +0000

WNC Water Resources: Sustainable or Not?

November 9, 2009

Scientists at the National Climatic Data Center have projected a high probability of a return to drought conditions for our region. In addition, they have stated that future rainfall is more apt to occur in high volumes but in limited areas. The combination of those factors, plus ongoing development practices that favor rapid channeling of rainwater off of residential and commercial property, would lead to further reduction in groundwater supplies as well as increase erosion, the #1 source of NC water pollution.

Panelists

Richard Heim, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center

Ted Campbell, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Quality

Carter Cone, North Carolina State University, Water Quality Group

Bill Eaker, Land of Sky Regional Council

[in absentia] Robert Sweeney, BRSI Water Quality & Resources

Presentations

Audio

Green Monday 9 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks, www.PurpleCat.net

Green Monday 8

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:08:21 +0000

Measuring Sustainability

October 19, 2009

An important conversation on advances in sustainability measurement throughout the region and through BRSI’s own Sustainability Indicators Project (SIP).

Panelists

Michael Leahy, Sustainability Coordinator for the Asheville Hub’s Asheville Buncombe Sustainability Community Council

Bill Hargrove, Ecologist, Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center of the U.S. Forestry Service’s Southern Research Station

Ty Hallock, Founding Partner and CEO, TopFloorStudio

Dave Brown, Executive Director, Asheville Hub Alliance

Ron Townley, Director of Local Government Services, Land of Sky Regional Council

Drew Kitt, Leader, BRSI’s Sustainability Indicators Project, and President, Renewable Logistics, Inc.

Presentations

Audio

Green Monday 8 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks, www.PurpleCat.net

Green Monday 7

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:44:15 +0000

Atmospheric Aerosols and Pollutants

June 8, 2009

“How does air quality fare in Western North Carolina, in light of atmospheric aerosol loading and other atmospheric pollutants?”

“What impact do atmospheric aerosols and pollutants have on the region’s ecology and economy, and on human health?”

“What can be done to reduce atmospheric aerosols and pollutants, and to mitigate their effects?”

Panelists

Dr. John A. Allen, Jr., Chief Scientist and Director, Atmospheric Science, Blue Ridge Sustainability Institute, and former Deputy Chief, Astrochemistry Branch, NASA/Goddard Flight Center

Jessica Blunden, Scientific Editor, STG Inc. at National Climatic Data Center

Paul Muller, Regional Supervisor, Division of Air Quality, North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources

Presentations

Jessica Blunden

Paul Muller

Paul A. Allen, Jr.

Audio

Green Monday 7 Audio
Click to play or right-click to download.

Video

Videographer/Editor: Peter Brezny of PurpleCat Networks, www.PurpleCat.net

Green Monday 6

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:45:34 +0000

Sustainability: Farms, Forests, and Land

May 11, 2009

“How can we make our farms, forests, and land more sustainable?”

“What is the relationship between our natural environment and our urban communities?”

“Which changes to the built environment have a negative impact on the ability of our land to produce, and how can we grow and gather more from our land without destroying it?”