2007 Administrators Conference


November 1-3, 2007 | Minneapolis, Minnesota
Host School: University of Minnesota
Chair: Tom Fisher, University of Minnesota, College of Design and John Koepke, University of Minnesota, College of Design

Theme 

Clearly, global climate change has become the most profound challenge facing modern civilization. This year’s ACSA/CELA Administrators Conference will provide both inspiration and information on how we, as academic leaders, can help our students, faculty, colleagues, and constituencies embrace more environmentally responsible ways of learning, teaching, operating, and practicing. Just as design provides the bridge between science-based knowledge and its practical application, our programs straddle the worlds of research and practice, and so we, as much as anyone in our institutions, hold the key to helping create a more sustainable future.

With construction and building operations in North America releasing over 700 million metric tons of carbon, and transportation another 500 million metric tons, into the atmosphere each year, and with buildings and transportation consuming 75% of the energy we use annually, programs in architecture and landscape architecture have an especially important role to play by:

•  Educating the next generation of practitioners in how to change the ways we shape, operate, and maintain our physical surroundings,
•  Providing knowledge about what it means to live within the environmental footprint of the planet and to minimize greenhouse gas emissions,
•   Helping our regions and institutions transform themselves to reduce energy consumption, conserve water, minimize waste, and cultivate local ecologies.

Please join us at this important event.  There is no time to lose and no better time to start this journey than now. 




Keynote Lecturers


Will Steger is known for his numerous polar expeditions and his efforts to raise international awareness of environmental threats. He led the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole (1986), a 1,600-mile traverse of Greenland in 1988, the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica, and recently returned from a 1,200 mile trip across Baffin Island to document how the Inuit are coping with global warming. Through his expeditions, Steger has been an eyewitness to the gravest environmental threat of out time--global warming. In 2006, Steger formed the Will Steger Foundation, whose first initiative is Global Warming 101, is engaging and empowering individuals and policy-makers to translate their concern into action on this critical issue.

J. Drake Hamilton, Science Policy Director for Fresh Energy, heads the nonprofit's nation-leading global warming solutions program. A climate scientist by training, Hamilton works to transform our energy systems to 21st century technologies that support the health of our economies, our communities, and our environment while moving us towards energy independence.