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Talking About Sustainability

Rich Egger

This week on Emphasis, Rich Egger’s guest is Timothy Collins, Assistant Director, Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs. They talk about sustainability and the upcoming series of Sustainability Brownbaggers at Western Illinois University.

Collins said people volunteered to be speakers during this semester’s series.

“I think it’s an indication of how much sustainability has risen in the consciousness of people across campus,” Collins said.

He thinks the definition of sustainability has evolved over the years. He also said climate change has brought the issue of sustainability to the forefront, including on the WIU campus.

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“We’ve  put in the green building.  The Multi-Cultural Center is what they call LEED certified so it meets certain standards for sustainability,” Collins said.

“We see recycling bins being put in around the campus. We’ve seen things happening all over our facilities in terms of new chilling systems that are more efficient. All sorts of things like that. Very exciting stuff.”

Collins said the first presentation in the Brownbaggers series will be a webinar. He said this is the first time they’ve tried doing a webinar for the series.

All of the Brownbaggers begin at 12:30 pm and take place on the fourth floor of Malpass Library at WIU. They are free and open to the public:

January 29 – Aaron Viles, Deputy Director, Gulf Restoration Network -- Impacts of the BP Oil Spill on the Gulf of Mexico

February 5 – Gordon Rands, Management – Living With Green Power: One Homeowner's Experience with Using Solar and In-Ground Geothermal Energy

February 19 – Rob Porter, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration – Federal and State Funding for Open Space Acquisition

February 26 -- Mari Loerhlein, Agriculture -- LEDs: A Bright Future for Sustainable Lighting

March 5 Fred Iutzi, IIRA Value Added Sustainable Development Center; Loka Ashwood, University of Wisconsin, Community and Environmental Sociology – Spring Lake Case Study

March 19 Dan Moorhouse, Environmental Activist -- Musings of a Local Environmental Volunteer.

March 26 – Diane Sandage, Sociology and Anthropology -- Making Peace with the Planet

Rich is TSPR's News Director.