The ninth annual sustainability conference, Sustainability Strategies for People, Profit & Planet, will be held at Lawrence Technological University on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27-28. The conference is presented by Michigan Interfaith Power & Light and Lawrence Tech’s Center for Sustainability.
For more information and to register for Friday’s seminars, go to www.sustain4p.ltu.edu. No registration is required for Saturday’s complimentary tours and movies.
The conference will bring together architects, engineers, entrepreneurs, homeowners, educators, students and those responsible for both for-profit and non-profit buildings.
Friday’s seminars will feature the latest information on energy efficiency tips/techniques, urban gardening, efficient lighting options, the living building challenge, interfaith theories on faith and sustainability, resource reuse in Detroit, and much more. Two highlights will be the EPA Portfolio Manager Utilities Tracking Workshop and Solar Detroit: Going Beyond Net Zero.
Saturday attendees will be treated to two inspirational sustainability movies and tours of the on-campus stormwater management education trail, a 10kW photovoltaic system, and the A. Alfred Taubman Student Services Center, a LEED Silver building which has a green roof, a geothermal heat pump system, rainwater flush toilets and waterless urinals, and many more sustainable features.
The two keynote speakers for this year’s conference are William Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, and Terry Gips, CEO of Sustainability Associates based in Minneapolis.
Since 2001 Spratley has led the statewide, non-profit organization, Green Energy Ohio, whose membership includes more than 600 individuals and businesses. Last year he was appointed to the American Solar Energy Society Board of Directors.
An attorney since 1973, Spratley was Ohio’s first consumers’ counsel from 1977 to 1993. His office represented four million residential ratepayers in more than 1,200 public utility proceedings. He has served on U.S. Secretary of Energy advisory boards under three presidents.
Gips is a nationally recognized sustainability leader, business consultant, agricultural economist, ecologist and author of “Breaking the Pesticide Habit” and “The Humane Consumer and Producer Guide.” Sustainability Associates works with business, government, congregations, healthcare organizations, schools and nonprofits to save money, improve performance and become sustainability leaders.
“This year’s conference has something for everyone, whether a professional, student or homeowner,” remarked LTU Associate Professor Janice Means, the conference chair.
Michigan Interfaith Power & Light (Michigan IPL), a non-profit organization started in 2002, is geared toward assisting houses of worship make the connection between faith and the environment, primarily through energy efficiency education, efficient upgrades, and behavioral changes, with the main goal of reducing utility bills and encouraging additional sustainability measures. Michigan IPL members include more than 190 Michigan congregations of various faiths including Catholic, Episcopalian, Evangelical Christian, Jewish, Lutheran, Muslim, Quaker, Sikh, United Methodist, Unitarian Universalist and others.
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. Lawrence Tech is listed in the Princeton Review’s “Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2013 Edition.” PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 7 percent of universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Students benefit from small class sizes and experienced faculty who provide a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student clubs and organizations and a growing roster of NAIA varsity sports.