March 4 - Sustainability Showcase Panel Sessions

Clary Theater, Bill Moore Student Success Center, 225 North Avenue
(closest parking: Area 1 Visitor Lot, 176 North Avenue Northwest, Atlanta, GA, 30313)

1:15 - 1:30 PM | Welcome and Sustainability Next Strategic Plan Vision
Jennifer Chirico, Associate Vice President, Sustainability and Co-Chair, Sustainability Next
Beril Toktay, Regents’ Professor, Brady Family Chairholder, and Co-Chair, Sustainability Next

1:30 – 2:30 PM | Conversations with Cabrera – panel discussion on partnerships for climate mitigation based on Drawdown Georgia, as described by panelists in Higher Education and SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals, Cabrera and Cutright (Eds), Emerald Publishing Ltd (2023).

• Ángel Cabrera, President, Georgia Tech (moderator)
• John Lanier, Executive Director, Ray C. Anderson Foundation
• Marilyn Brown, Regents' and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems, School of Public Policy
• Michael Oxman, Managing Director, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business
• Beril Toktay, Regents' Professor and Professor of Operations Management, Scheller College of Business

2:45 - 3:45 PM | The Georgia Tech Climate Action Plan (CAP) – panel discussion. The CAP will be launched and begin implementation during Spring, 2024. This panel will discuss the components of the plan, including Georgia Tech’s current Greenhouse Gas inventory, the CAP implementation plan, and how students, faculty, and staff can get involved.

• Jennifer Chirico, Associate Vice President, Sustainability (moderator)
• Allison Bridges, Program Manager, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business
• Michael Chang, Deputy Director, Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems
• Jermaine Clonts, Associate Director of Utilities Management, Office of Sustainability
• Greg Spiro, Interim Associate Vice President, Infrastructure
• Jim Stephens, Senior Associate Vice President, Infrastructure

4 - 4:30 PM | Tech Talks Business – This Sustainability Showcase edition is part of a series of conversations between Dean Anuj Mehrotra and leaders at the forefront of business, technology, entrepreneurship, public policy, and civic innovation.

• Anuj Mehrotra, Dean and Stephen P. Zelnak Jr. Chair, Scheller College of Business (host)
• Laurel Hurd, President and Chief Executive Officer of Interface, Inc., a pioneering company in sustainable business practices, will be his guest.

4:30 – 5:30 PM | Networking and refreshments

March 6 - Sustainability Showcase Events

Atlantic Theater in the John Lewis Student Center, 351 Ferst Dr. NW
(closest parking: Visitor Area 3: Student Center Deck (W02) near 353 Ferst Dr. NW, Atlanta, GA 30332)

9 - 10 AM | The Role of Philanthropy in Climate Action and Sustainable Development

• Kaye Husbands Fealing, Dean, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts (moderator)
• Blair Beasley, Managing Director, Environment, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
• John Lanier; Executive Director, Ray C. Anderson Foundation 
• Carlos Pagoaga, Senior Director, Circular Economy, The Coca Cola Foundation 
• Suzanna Stribling, Executive Director, Glenn Family Foundation

10 AM – 1:30 PM | Lightning Talks Session I

These are 7-minute “lightning” talks by Georgia Tech researchers, staff, and partners on their sustainability research and projects. Please join us for as much of the session as possible and enjoy getting to know colleagues with like interests. (see PDF for most recent schedule)

March 7 - Sustainability Showcase Events

Atlantic Theater in the John Lewis Student Center, 351 Ferst Dr. NW
(closest parking: Visitor Area 3: Student Center Deck near 353 Ferst Dr. NW, Atlanta, GA 30332)

9 – 10:45 AM | Lightning Talks Session II

These are 7-minute “lightning” talks by Georgia Tech researchers, staff, and partners on their sustainability research and projects. Please join us for as much of the session as possible and enjoy getting to know colleagues with like interests. (see PDF for most recent schedule)

11 AM – 12:15 PM | Innovative Teaching with the U.N. SDGs: Examples from Georgia Tech Faculty - Rebecca Watts Hull, Assistant Director, Faculty Development for Sustainable Education Initiatives (facilitator). Join us to learn how faculty across diverse disciplines are enhancing teaching and learning with U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This dynamic panel presentation will provide exciting examples for aligning your teaching with Tech’s strategic commitment to advance the SDGs.

1 - 2 PM | Connecting for Sustainability: Collaborative Paths to Environmental Justice - This panel will feature three researcher-community partner pairs speaking about their collaborative projects.

• Eric Greenlee, BBISS Graduate Fellow and PhD Student, College of Computing (moderator)
• Jung-Ho (John) Lewe, GT Aerospace Systems Design Lab, and Erica Holloman-Hill, Ayika Solutions: Household energy efficiency issues in historically marginalized communities in the Southeast
• Russell Clark, The Coastal Equity and Resilience Hub, Georgia Tech Savannah, and Ofun Maja Egunjobi, Harambee House: The co-development of climate mitigation strategies and tools with community members and public officials in the Savannah area
• Elora Raymond, School of City and Regional Planning, Georgia Tech and Alison Johnson, Housing Justice League: The creation of data-driven trackers and tools to prevent eviction in the City of Atlanta

2 – 3 PM | Young Alumni Keynote: Exploring Pathways to and Partnerships in Advancing Energy Equity - Andrew will speak about his interdisciplinary experience that bridges engineering and social science. He’ll also discuss his energy equity work at PNNL, where he supports communities in realizing a just clean energy transition. Andrew White is Energy Equity & Environmental Justice Systems Researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Lab he holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech, where he held a Stamps President’s Scholarship and a Strategic Energy Institute Fellowship, and an MA in Political Ecology from Lancaster University as a Fulbright Scholar.

March 8 - Sustainability Showcase Events

Atlantic Theater in the John Lewis Student Center, 351 Ferst Dr. NW
(closest parking: Visitor Area 3: Student Center Deck (W02) near 353 Ferst Dr. NW, Atlanta, GA 30332)

8:45 – 10:30 AM | Lightning Talks Session III 
These are 6-minute “lightning” talks by Georgia Tech researchers, staff, and partners on their sustainability research and projects. Please join us for as much of the session as possible and enjoy getting to know colleagues with like interests. (see PDF for current schedule)

10:30 – 11:30 AM | Innovation, R&D, and Sustainability

• Chaouki Abdallah, Executive Vice President for Research, Georgia Tech (moderator)
• Michael Chanin, CEO, Cherry Street Energy
• Larissa Fenn, Director New Products R&D, Rayonier Advanced Materials 
• Josh Raglin, Chief Sustainability Officer, Norfolk Southern Corporation
• Suzanne Lindsay-Walker, Vice President, Sustainability, Novelis

March 7 & 8 - Posters and Art on Display 

Outside of Atlantic Theater, John Lewis Student Center, 351 Ferst Dr. NW

• Locally Enhanced Electric Field Treatment (LEEFT) for Next-Generation Water Disinfection (Xing Xie)
• Energy Sharing Boundaries for Buildings and Vehicles (Daniel Castro and Soowon Chang)
• Indoor Air Quality in the Kendeda Building (Jennifer Kaiser)
• Environmental Influences on Sleep Quality in African Americans with Mild Cognitive Impairment (Eunhwa Yang and Ibrahim Bilau)
• Freshman Engineering Students See Value in Sustainability-themed Project-based Learning (Raghu Pucha)
• Sustainability Programming and Curricular Resources in K-12 Education (Sabrina Grossman)
• Expanding Climate Data and Flood Risk Through Embroidered Bike Paths Down the Mississippi (Heidi Biggs)
• Creative Reuse of Discarded Plastic Bags (HyunJoo Oh)
• Altera (Elizabeth Marmo, Madeleine Tran, Kavya Jade, and Angie Bai)