New approaches to environmental sustainability

The annual Engineering Executives Forum this Thursday and Friday, Nov. 30-Dec.1, will feature an extraordinary lineup of speakers focused on helping industry develop sustainable responses to global warming, oil and water constraints, and other global environmental threats.

Held at the Fluno Center, 601 University Avenue, the conference is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin–Madison department of engineering professional development (EPD). For more information, contact EPD Program Director Thomas W. Smith at (800) 462-0876.

Speakers will outline industry efforts to implement sustainability strategies on major environmental and resource issues. They include:

– Sanjay Correa, the global leader for energy technologies at GE, who will outline GE’s “Ecomagination Initiative.”

– Allan Emkin, principal author of the paper guiding the $140 billion sustainability commitment of the California State Teachers Retirement Fund, who will discuss Wall Street views on sustainability.

– Jonathan Foley, director of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment at UW–Madison, who will discuss climate issues as they relate to industry and commerce.

– Robert Hirsch, former VP of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), who will discuss oil production and energy issues.

– Hiroshi Komiyama, president of the University of Tokyo, who will describe Japan’s commitment to sustainability.

– Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project, who will present on global water shortages.