LVAIC Campus Sustainability Conference Explores Topics in Environment

March 5, 2018, @ 8:00 AM

An LVAIC student connects with vendors at the 2018 LVAIC Campus Sustainability Conference.

On Saturday, February 17, 2018, LVAIC hosted its Campus Sustainability Conference at Lafayette College whereby 173 students, faculty, and staff from its six member campuses gathered to learn about, discuss, and create action steps for trends in environmental practices. This conference also welcomes members of the Lehigh Valley community.

This year, the conference hosted film director and environmental advocate Kirsi Jansa as the keynote speaker with her session titled “Three Steps Toward Sustainability.” Jansa showcased her address with a presentation of her documentary, Gas Rush Studies, regarding the current state of the environment and what steps even local community members can take to make changes for the better. Jansa also provided an afternoon workshop regarding visual storytelling to teach attendees the ways video can create a social movement.

Students had the opportunity to create and present posters to attendees throughout the day. These posters ranged from Exploring the Triple Bottom Line Approach to Sustainable Business Practices in the Craft Brewing Industry to Making Cedar Crest College a Bird-Friendly Campus. The full list of poster sessions is available here. These poster sessions were mixed in among concurrent breakout sessions and longer afternoon workshops that produced tangible output.

Local sustainability-focused vendors were also present in an expo setting. These exhibitors included Citizen’s Climate Lobby, the Stonehouse Group, Lehigh Valley Sustainability Network, and more. The full list of sponsors and exhibitors, along with their websites, is available here.

Overall, the conference produced numerous opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the Lehigh Valley community to network, collaborate and plan next steps for making sustainability a priority. One conference attendee explained, “I felt like the networking and conversational opportunities between activities, during lunch, and even some presentations were useful. I was able to learn really cool stuff that wasn’t covered in the talks or that I didn’t have a chance to ask at the time.” It is opportunities such as this that truly achieve the goals of LVAIC to allow members of our campuses to grow, connect, and collaborate.