This page is an archive of all past Sustainability Lecture Series events sponsored or co-sponsored by the President’s Sustainability Action Committee, which started in the Spring 2011 semester. To view more past events, please visit our interactive Timeline.
Spring 2016
check back for updates.
Fall 2015
N/A
Spring 2015
March 25, 2015 – 6pm – BH 176
Dr. Alex Tetlak, a Truman Classics Department professor, gave a presentation entitled “Bicycle Safety on Campus,” which discussed the importance of using bikes on campus, as well as the growing movement of bicycle friendliness on college campuses across the nation.
April 1, 2015 – 6pm – BH 176
Ethan Hughes, a local community leader and head of the Possibility Alliance in La Plata, MO, visited campus to discuss the sustainability of our food system in a discussion entitled simply “Food Sustainability.” The topic of this discussion, specifically, was the importance of food permaculture and being knowledgeable about where one’s food comes from. Ethan’s work on the Possibility Alliance has been featured on national news and has been the catalyst of many sustainable changes in the community.
Fall 2014
October 22, 2014 – 4pm – BH 176
In a lecture entitled “Creating Life-Sized LEGOs for a Global Village,” also featured on TED Talks, Marcin Jakubowski explained a system which would create open source designs of the Global Village Construction Set, a set of 50 items deemed to be essential to modern life. Jakubowski is a 2013 White House Champion of Change, the founder of Open Source Ecology, and a 2011-12 TED Senior Fellow.
Spring 2014
April 22, 2014 – 6 pm – BH 176
Wolfgang Hoeschele, Professor of Geography, gave a presentation in conjunction with Earth Week programming entitled “Growing the Abundance of Life.” This lecture expounded on some of Hoeschele’s past presentations surrounding the topic of improving the world via the commons movement.
Fall 2013
September 19, 2013 – 7pm – MG 2001
Truman Professor Wolfgang Hoeschele, Professor of Geography, gave a speech entitled “The Commons Abundance Network: Towards a Global Network of Local Initiatives for Abundant Life” which detailed Hoeschele’s ideas about how to create a better world. Hoeschele is the co-founder of The Commons Abundance Network, an online resource that attempts to provide a platform for free information exchange regarding the commons movement, including various sustainability and environmental information.
October 3, 2013 – 7pm – Baldwin Auditorium
Willy Crane, a representative from GreenTown Joplin, a non-profit organization that provides local resources for those looking for sustainable construction and building information, gave a speech entitled “GreenTown: Experiences from Greensburg and Joplin.” Their presentation discussed how their organization has helped to rebuild tornado-stricken areas such as Joplin in a sustainable and responsible way, in order to make the houses not only more efficient, but also more durable against future threats.
Spring 2013
April 18, 2013 – 7pm – MG 2001
Truman’s own Professor of Anthropology Anton Daughters gave a presentation entitled “Globalization at the Ends of the Earth: Rural Livelihoods and Wage Labor in Southern Chile’s Archipelago of Chiloé.” This lecture examined the role of changing labor practices in the shaping of local identities, and traced the modern history of Chiloé, in economic, anthropological, and environmental perspectives.
Fall 2012
November 15, 2012 – 7pm – MG 2001
Jay Walljasper, editor of OnTheCommons.org and author of All That We Share: How to Save the Economy, the Environment, the Internet, Democracy, Our Communities and Everything Else that Belongs to All of Us, led a presentation entitled “All That We Share: The Rediscovery of the Commons as a New Tool for Creating a Greener, More Equitable and Happier World.” This discussed creating a better society and described how the commons movement, a way of viewing the world as a shared experience, can contribute to a more sustainable and equal future.
Spring 2012
N/A
Fall 2011
October 14, 2011 – 7:30pm – VH 1000
This presentation was co-sponsored by the Global Issues Colloquium. Entitled, “Hungry Planet,” after their book of the same name, was given by co-authors Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. The two elaborated on their experiences as a photojournalist and an award-winning television news producer, respectively. Their book discusses the various food cultures and eating habits of different societies across the world.
Spring 2011
March 24, 2011 – 7pm – SUB Georgian Room
Judi Schweitzer of Schweitzer and Associates represented the Presidential Sustainability Action Committee and introduced the Sustainability Lecture Series at Truman. She also gave a speech tackling Truman’s “triple bottom line” in a speech entitled “Towards a More Sustainable Truman: Action Plan,” which shed light on Truman’s environmental plans for the future. Other speakers for this event included President Troy Paino and other members of the Presidential Sustainability Action Committee. It represents the first in a now long line of sustainability based speeches that are given on campus each semester.
April 21 & 22, 2011 – 7pm – BH 176
In partnership with Truman’s Global Issues Colloquium, the Presidential Sustainability Action Committee was able to host Ted Howard, who in 2008 helped launch The Evergreen Cooperative Initiative in Cleveland, OH. Mr. Howard presented a speech entitled “Cooperating for Economic Development,” which dealt with issues in the American economy tied to the competitive attitude of industry. Howard discussed the experiences of this initiative so far, which could have served as a model and inspiration for efforts elsewhere (including Truman State University as it sought to become more sustainable in cooperation with the larger Kirksville and Adair County community).