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Online agenda

Final Agenda – INSS Annual Conference
April 8-10, 2015
Online

Pre-conference information

This year, in an effort to reduce travel impacts, we are experimenting with a novel hybrid conference model. Several “nodes” are available for participants to gather and engage with us:

UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Oregon State Univ. Cascades, Bend, OR

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
University College London, London, UK

Some sessions will be for local attendees only, but many of the sessions, including the keynote session, will be shared during on-line connections times.

All sites will be exploring the intersection of infrastructure and social sustainability. Through our keynote presentation and the infrastructure sub-themes each site has elected to emphasize, we will consider the ways in which we understand, study, and create linkages between infrastructure and social sustainability.

Instructions to join Charlotte activities here: AdobeConnectInstructions015

For London activities, indicated with these links next to the activities: 

Thursday: http://inss.adobeconnect.com/insslondon/

Friday: http://inss.adobeconnect.com/insslondonday2/

ALL TIMES EASTERN DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME (EDT) – Charlotte, NC local time

Thursday, April 9, 2015
(red denotes events simulcast across all sites)
8:00 am EDT London welcome (http://inss.adobeconnect.com/insslondon/)
8:30 am EDT

Papers (http://inss.adobeconnect.com/insslondon/)

• Michael Drinkwater – Human Security and Well Being: Addressing Inequality and the Dysfunctions of the Economic Growth Model
• Atiyeh Ardakanian – Sustainability of Social Values or Social Aspects of Sustainability?
11:00 am EDT Formal Welcome and Site Introductions (all sites)
12:00 pm

Keynote speaker: Adjo A. Amekudzi-Kennedy, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Tech (all sites)

Infrastructure Investment to Create Enduring and Human-Centered Wealth: A Capital Asset Management Theoretic and Analytical Framework

Viewing the development of towns, cities, nations and regions through the lens of a capital asset management theoretic framework can tell us different stories about the holistic management of capital to create human-centered wealth. This talk presents a capital asset management theoretic framework and analytical model for conceptualizing and evaluating sustainable development. Sustainable development is modeled as a function of an entity’s capital stocks, and the rates of use of these stocks to generate human-centered capital, relative to their rates of regeneration. The framework is applied to selected nations to explore sustainable development risks and opportunities relative to dynamics in human, economic and environmental capital, and to envision infrastructure investment alternatives to create enduring and human-centered wealth.
1:15 pm Break
1:30 pm Cross-site shared activities (select one to attend in person or join online):
Bend: Communities of Well-being, Eco-wellness, and Building sustainable mental health systems
Charlotte:
Planning for Social Sustainability
Using the premise that social sustainability is most useful as a process rather than a set of objective criteria, several INSS investigators will guide attendees through considering how groups can engage in making and sharing each other’s plans to better understand how different “sustainabilities” across different organizations and interest groups complement and contradict one another. We will have the opportunity to grapple with how to help previously disparate groups begin to internalize each other’s priorities.
Lansing: Sustainability, Transdisciplinarity, and Infrastructure in Detroit
London: Building the Engineering Exchange: experiences and lessons
Phoenix: Six major themes/issues related to social sustainability that we are pursuing at ASU

• Sally Kitch and Joni Adamson: Environmental Humanities at ASU
• Clark Miller (and Dave Guston): Center for Science Policy Outcomes (CSPO) and proposed degree program
• Mike Chester: Infrastructure design and social vulnerability to extreme heat (the NSF IMEE project)
• David Manuel-Navarrete: MEGADAPT project: vulnerability and emerging policy solutions
• Chris Boone: The Vision of the School of Sustainability
3:10 pm Cross-site presentation session (all sites) and heavy appetizers
Presenters at all sites will be available (online and in person) to discuss their presentations, which will be available online ahead of time in some format.
3.30 pm Panel:
Queen City Social Sustainability Initiatives: Charlotte-area leaders discuss their efforts to engage with social aspects of sustainability.
Confirmed panelists:

  • Candace Taylor Anderson, Director of Sustainability, Belk Stores, Inc.
  • Shannon Binns, Founder and Executive Director, Sustain Charlotte
  • Marcus Carson, Environmental Sustainability Manager for Mecklenburg County
  • Michael Lizotte, UNC Charlotte Sustainability Director
4:30 pm Small group discussions: Each of our sustainability leaders will help guide us through a discussion about their particular area of sustainability engagement.
5:15 pm Break
5:30 pm Small Group Debriefing
6:45 pm Panel Discussion
We are partnering with the Keeping Watch on Water: City of Creeks initiative to offer a panel with members who reflect the different lenses through which Charlotteans view our local rivers. Just as in the ancient fable of five blind men who each discover a different part of an elephant and then proceed to describe five vastly different creatures, stakeholders in river conservation also often encounter each other with different values and language. Conservationists come from a variety of disciplines and derive their expertise from a wealth of sources including culture, history, technical training, spiritual education or direct experience. However, sometimes disconnects in values and language can make it challenging to align on objectives and proposed policies. Conservation efforts seem like an endless tug of war between landowners, industries, regulators, environmentalists, citizens and others who engage in the debate. This panel discussion will seek to discover contradictions and complementarities in the various visions of sustainability that are held by engineers, policymakers, river dwellers, and citizens.Panelists (6:45 pm estimated start):

  • Rusty Rozzelle, Mecklenburg County Water Quality Program Manager, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services
  • Kevin Mosteller, Senior Vice President at HDR Engineering, Inc.
  • Wenonah Haire, Executive Director at Catawba Cultural Preservation Project
  • Rick Gaskins, Executive Director, Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation
  • Marek Ranis, Assistant Professor of Art, UNC Charlotte
  • Tina Katsanos, Lecturer, Religious Studies, UNC Charlotte
Friday, April 10, 2015
(red denotes events simulcast across all sites)
9:00 am EDT Case studies: International sustainability initiatives: planning for disasters using culture and social relationships (Santa Cruz, Serrano Lazo, Arora)
10:00 am Case studies: US and North Carolina sustainability research: engaging locals in sustainability efforts (Hjarding, Griffith, Boyer)
11:00 am Social sustainability initiatives in planning and engineering organizations: We will hear from representatives from several national organizations about their sustainability efforts.
Panelists:

  • Rachelle Hollander, National Academy of Engineering
  • Robert Kerns, American Planning Association
  • Jeffrey R. Seay, American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Sustainable Engineering Forum Chair
  • Richard Wright, American Society of Civil Engineering’s Infrastructure Education Committee Chair, member of ASCE Committee on Sustainability
12:30 pm Cross-site conference conclusion