General Sustainability Announcements

"The Sustainable Endowments Institute today released its College Sustainability Report Card, which grades 100 leading colleges by looking at campus greening practices and endowment policies."

To learn more about this College Sustainability Report Card and to view the full report, http://www.endowmentinstitute.org/sustainability/.

"There is no time": Six Nobel Laureates say averting world's climate
crisis requires immediate energy research, conservation, and regulation

Six Nobel Laureates participated in a discussion on Energy. Click here to access the press release complete with web cast.

Since 1990, Acterra's awards program has been recognizing outstanding Bay Area businesses for their environmental innovation and leadership. For more information about these awards go to www.acterra.org/bea. A copy of the application can be found below this text. Please note that Acterra recognizes programs that have already been implemented and have achieved measurable results. The application deadline is February 2nd.

Application

Students are invited to participate in focus groups on either January 29th, 30th, or 31st to look at ways to rethink, revitalize, and redevelop the Lower Sproul Plaza area.

This study provides the opportunity to consider how the Plaza and surrounding buildings could become a truly vibrant place for student programs, activities, groups and government. The student focus groups are a vital component of the effort to ensure that Students have a significant say in what the new student center complex will look like.

As you may have heard, there are plans to create a new vision for the Lower Sproul Plaza, which also includes the King Student Union, the Cesar Chavez Center, and Eshleman Hall. This area was designed and built over 50 years ago, and no longer adequately addresses the needs of the contemporary student body. Because substantial seismic, life safety and accessibility improvements are needed, this is the perfect time to not only address safety, but shape a place that works for you.

Please click here to view all of the session times and to RSVP for one of the Focus Group sessions. Please respond by Wednesday, January 24.

Regardless of your perspective (e.g., Commuter Student vs. International student), you are welcome to attend any of the groups.

Food and Drinks will be provided at all focus groups. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We are pleased to announce a conference: Cap and Trade as a Tool for Climate Change Policy: Design and Implementation to be held at the University of California at Berkeley on February 22-23, 2007. Please visit our web site at: www.ccelp.berkeley.edu/capandtrade.

This two-day meeting is an ideal setting to learn about the challenges faced by business and government in designing and implementing emissions trading for greenhouse gases, the state of the underlying science and the anticipated costs of action or non-action. International practitioners and experts on law, economics, and technological innovation will debate key issues in using cap and trade programs to control greenhouse gas emissions. Leading climate modellers, litigators, energy industry executives, legislators and government representatives will update and inform the business, finance, legal and policy communities on the directions climate change policy is taking regionally, nationally and internationally.

Date and Location:
February 22-23, 2007
University of California, Berkeley
California, USA

Speakers include:
US Senator Diane Feinstein (invited)
Inez Fung, Professor of Atmospheric Science, co-author: Climate Scientists' Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Massachusetts v. EPA
Fernando Tudela, Under Secretary for Planning and Environmental Policy, Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources of the Government of Mexico
Michael Hanemann, Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California-Berkeley
Kevin Fay, Executive Director, International Climate Change Partnership
Lorraine Hamid, Senior Economist, Energy markets and policy instruments, HM Treasury; Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change [INVITED]
Manik Roy, Director of Congressional Affairs, Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Barry Rabe, Professor, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Diane Wittenberg, President, California Climate Action Registry
Dan Farber, Professor, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California-Berkeley
Ann Carlson, Professor, University of California-Los Angeles School of Law
Ruth Greenspan Bell, Resident Scholar, Resources for the Future
Kyle Danish, Attorney, Van Ness Feldman
Raoul Estrada Oyuela, Chairman, Kyoto Compliance Committee Enforcement Branch [INVITED]
Dane Ratliff, Legal Counsel, Permanent Court of Arbitration
David Caron, Professor of Law, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California-Berkeley
F. William Brownell, Partner, Hunton & Williams
Ken Alex, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Office of California Attorney General
David Doniger, Climate Center Policy Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
Martin Wagner, Managing Attorney, EarthJustice International Program
David Mowery, Professor of New Enterprise Development, Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley
Bob Epstein, Co-Founder, E2-Environmental Entrepreneurs
Frank Convery, President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists and Professor, University College Dublin
David Victor, Director, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development; Professor, Stanford Law School
David Vogel, Professor, Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley
Ken Newcombe, Head of Strategic Development, Carbon Markets, Climate Change Capital [INVITED]

Organizers:
American Society of International Law
Global Commons Project at the California Center for Environmental Law and Policy (School of Law, UC Berkeley)
Center for Environmental Public Policy (Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley)
Berkeley Institute of the Environment (UC Berkeley)

Co-Organizers:
Energy & Resources Group (UC Berkeley)
California Climate Change Center (UC Berkeley)

Conference Information and Registration (including registration fee information):
Conference website: www.ccelp.berkeley.edu/capandtrade
For further information please contact:
Ms. Mary Elliott (melliott@law.berkeley.edu)

Environmental Film Festival
Laney College Theater, Oakland
January 16-21

Saturday, Jan. 20th:

Environmental Film Festival - Films focusing on Global Warming. OUT OF BALANCE (5 pm) - The influence that the largest company in the world has on governments, the media and citizens, and what can be done about global warming. Panel discussion follows, featuring Tom Kelly, Kyoto USA, and Andy Katz, EBMUD Director. KILOWATT OURS (6.45 pm) - from the coal mines of West Virginia to the solar panel fields of Florida, what are the causes behind America's staggering energy consumption? What practical conservation solutions we can all implement in our homes?


Sunday, Jan. 21st:

Environmental Film Festival - Films focusing on protecting native land and habitat. TALES OF THE SAN JOAQUIN (4.15) - Follows the San Joaquin River from its source in the Sierra Nevada Mountains south of Yosemite to its eventual merging with San Francisco Bay. HOMELAND (5.15 pm) - Four Portraits of Native Action. Tells the inspiring story of four battles in which Native American activists are fighting to preserve their land, sovereignty, and culture.

All Events at Laney College Theater, 900 Fallon St, by Lake Merritt BART, Oakland. 510-272-6695 http://www.sustainableperalta.org/events/filmfest/ Free Admission.