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8th Annual Green Campus Energy Efficiency Summit: Fueling the Future

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Date: Feb 10, 2012

Program manager Renee Lafrenz sets the tone for the three days
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Renee Lafrenz

The Alliance convened over 170 attendees at the 8th Annual Green Campus Energy Efficiency Summit at UC Berkeley Jan. 28-30.   Speakers included UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau and Director of Global Facilities Operations for Adobe Michael Bangs. 

The Summit consisted of intensive student energy efficiency trainings, followed by facilitated project planning and best practice sharing among  students, faculty, staff and administrators from the respective campuses.  Alliance Associates in attendance included Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison, Sempra Energy, and Schneider Electric. 

Hands-On Training Now, Green Career Development Later

Key sessions of the Summit were:

  • Academic Infusion Advisory Group: Attendees at this targeted session discussed sustainability in academics and strategies to strengthen Green Campus’ role in curricula development.
  • Interactive energy and water auditing trainings: Training was offered by student peers, as well as experts from a local engineering firm and PG&E’s Pacific Energy Center.
  • Energy Career Panel: Sustainability professionals – including Director of University Partnerships for Schneider Electric Cassandra Quaintance, Executive Director for Strategic Energy Innovations Cyane Dandridge, Founding Principal for kW Engineering Jim Kelsey and Program Manager for San Diego Gas & Electric Linh-Chi Hua –discussed their career paths.
  • Breakout Activity “Green Campus Project Bowl”: Attendees were broken up into inter-campus, small groups to brainstorm about the best ways to reach out to students on the topic of energy efficiency.
  • Green Campus Alumni Panel: Program alumni discussed their transition to full-time work in the sustainability field.
  • Hands-On Technology Stations: Small groups of students rotated to several “stations” of field professionals and student experts, who taught each group about cutting-edge energy and water efficiency technologies.
  • Green Career Development: Alliance staff led workshops on resume building, interviewing, writing, and other valuable job search skills.

More on the Green Campus Summit