Previous Webinars
Webinar 5: A Call to Climate Action - UM’s COP26 delegates share their insights on the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference and how it scales back to UM and the greater Ann Arbor region
The University of Michigan’s COP26 Delegation share their insights on the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference and how international policy scales back to the University of Michigan and the greater Ann Arbor region. The panelists aim to convey a sense of urgency for climate action and the need for stronger, more decisive UM leadership.
Moderator:
Evan Gonzalez, NERS PhD Candidate, University of Michigan
Panelists:
Muhammad Abdullah, ME PhD Candidate and SEAS MS Student, University of Michigan
Lauren Balotin, MPH and SEAS MS 2021, CDC
Sarah Collins, SEAS MS and SOE MA Student, University of Michigan
Kristina Curtiss, FSPP MPP Student, University of Michigan
Natasha Dacic, CLaSP PhD Candidate, University of Michigan
Chelsea Johnson, SEAS MS Student, University of Michigan
Emily Johnson, SEAS MS Student, University of Michigan
Annie Linden, SEAS MS and Taubman MURP Student, University of Michigan
Jessica Miller, SEAS MS Student, University of Michigan
Webinar 4: How Large Institutions Can Manage The Deep Organizational Change Required For Carbon Neutrality
The University of Michigan has 52,540 employees and 64,582 students, housed in 38.5 million square feet of building space in 1164 buildings in 11 states. Since previous efforts by the university to lower its energy usage have failed, what does it need to do now to ensure that the critically needed reduction in its carbon footprint required by the United Nations IPCC by 2030 can be achieved?
How have other leading organizations across sectors led an operational and cultural change of the magnitude required to get to carbon neutrality? What kind of organizational change will be needed to implement its anticipated Carbon Neutrality Plan? A panel of leaders from other large institutions discussed the kinds of organizational changes that they have found to be effective.
Moderator:
Sara Soderstrom, Associate Professor of Organizational Studies and Program in the Environment. Professor Sodertrom’s research is focused on how corporations engage in societal sustainability challenges.
Panelists:
Liesl Clark: Liesl Eichler Clark is Director of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, EGLE. Liesl created the department by combining the Departments of Environmental Quality, Office of the Great Lakes, and the Michigan Agency for Energy and changed the name to reflect the state’s new commitment to climate action.
Ramé Hemstreet: VP of Operations and Chief Energy Officer for Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated, nonprofit health system, has become the first health care system in the United States to achieve carbon-neutral status. It operates 39 hospitals and more than 700 medical offices, with over 300,000 personnel, including more than 80,000 physicians and nurses.
Meghan Fay Zahniser: Executive Director for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education AASHE. AASHE is comprised of over 900 members across the US, Canada, and 20 countries. One of its many services is to manage the STARS program for colleges and universities.
Webinar 3: University Approaches to Carbon Neutrality: A Conversation with Sustainability Leaders from MIT, OSU and Iowa
This webinar featured sustainability leaders from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Ohio State University (OSU) and the University of Iowa (UI). Each of these institutions has initiated plans to urgently reduce carbon emissions. MIT is creating a living lab experience and provides generous subsidies for low-carbon commuting—including subway, bus, bicycling, and commuter rail—to engage the entire campus in their initiative. OSU and UI entered into public-private partnerships that provided 100% financing for energy projects, and provided upfront cash payments exceeding $1 billion to each institution that is being used for a wide variety of projects on campus, including academics.
Moderated by:
Tom Lyon, Dow Professor of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy,Professor of Environment and Sustainability, Director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise.
Featuring:
Ben Fish: Interim Director, Utility Operations, Facilities Management, University of Iowa
UI to become coal-free in energy production on campus by January 1, 2025, if not sooner
Joe Higgins: VP for Campus Services & Stewardship, Office of the Executive Vice President and Treasurer, MIT
MIT is closing in on their 32% carbon reduction by 2030 goal early and strategically evaluating options to be “climate positive” through a portfolio of large-scale carbon reduction initiatives
Mike Shelton: Associate Director, Sustainability Institute Office of Academic Affairs, OSU
OSU on track to achieve carbon neutrality goal as early as 2030
WEbinar 2: Towards a just and equitable carbon neutrality plan
This webinar focused on the pressing issue of climate justice. Like COVID, climate change will hit communities of color and the poor the hardest. UM has a societal responsibility to be responsive to this issue. This panel featured:
Garlin Gilchrist II – Gilchrist is the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Michigan. Since graduating with honors in computer science at the University of Michigan, LG Gilchrist had a successful career as a software engineer for Microsoft and for several entrepreneurial companies before serving as the first Director of Innovation & Emerging Technology for the City of Detroit. Throughout his career he has had an ongoing commitment to using technology to solve problems of community inequality and to spearhead campaigns for equality and justice with groups like MoveON and the Center for Community Change in Washington D.C. As LG, he has led a number of efforts to ensure social justice and will be playing an active role in overseeing and ensuring equity in Michigan’s bold new carbon neutrality plan.
Jayson Toweh - Jayson is an environmental scientist and program analyst at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also serves on the Harvard Board of Overseers, the highest elected Board at the University where he represents Harvard Forward, a coalition of alumni, students, and faculty seeking to address both the symptoms and the causes of Harvard's insufficient response to the climate crisis. Jayson has centered his career and student leadership around public service and sustainability. He holds a B.S. from UM and an MS in Environmental Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Ember McCoy - Ember is a PhD student in Environmental Justice at the University of Michigan School for Environmental Sustainability (SEAS). She has extensive experience researching and promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and justice within organizations and energy systems, including as a Project Manager for SEAS' Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs office, as an organizer for the Union of Concerned Scientists, and through her master's thesis research on coal-fired power plant siting.
Samuel Stolper - Sam is an Assistant Professor at SEAS and a faculty member of SEAS' Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. His research and teaching focus on environmental economics, policy, and justice, and the distribution of environmental and economic impacts of energy systems plays a central role in his work. He recently co-authored a report assessing the costs of several potential emissions-reduction projects that UM could undertake in its effort to achieve carbon neutrality. Sam holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University.
Missy Stults - Missy is the Sustainability and Innovations Manager at the City of Ann Arbor. She has led the development of one of the most aggressive carbon neutrality plans in the country, A2Zero, which spans multiple sectors and centers rectifying existing injustices in our city. Missy holds PhDs in Urban and Regional Planning and in Natural Resources and the Environment from UM.
WEbinar 1: Emerging Financing Options to Deliver Carbon Neutrality
Our first webinar focused on financial options for carbon neutrality including successful public private partnerships in the past two years. VCN is concerned (1) that U-M will not move quickly enough given the scale and urgency of the climate crisis and (2) that as a result of the extra resources needed to keep U-M running during COVID, leadership may feel it won't have the resources to fully implement a CN plan. While CN is often framed as competing with other efforts for resources, proven CN financing models can instead provide resources to UM to address CN and other issues simultaneously.
Featuring panelists:
Juan Macias is the CEO of AlphaStruxure, a joint venture of the Carlyle Group and Schneider Electric. AlphaStruxure designs, constructs, owns, and operates clean energy systems with no customer capital expenditure. Current projects include JFK’s terminal one in New York.
Robert Johnson is Senior VP of Hannon & Armstrong (NYSE:HASI), the first U.S. public company solely dedicated to investments that increase resilience to climate change or reduce carbon emissions. In 2019 Hannon & Armstrong participated in the University of Iowa public-private partnership for carbon neutrality that provided the University with $1.6 billion in up front cash with which the University can finance other carbon neutrality projects.
Andrew Marino is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Strategy at Generate Capital, an infrastructure company that builds, owns, operates, and finances sustainable resource infrastructure. Generate is currently in a 20 year power purchase agreement with the city of New York, to provide more than 19 Megawatts of clean power through solar energy to the city.
Larry Davis is a former President and Managing Director of MAP Energy, LLC a leading energy investment and development company in the renewable energy and natural gas space. MAP currently has hands-on-participation in the development of over 400 projects, including 300 projects under development, 94 operating, and 10 under construction as of June 30, 2019. These projects total 11 GW of operating wind energy projects, approximately 11% of all operating wind energy capacity in the US. Similarly MAP has interests in over 40,000 natural gas wells which represent approximately 5% of US daily natural gas production.