Green Innovations 2010: Realizing Our Sustainable Future

Join business and community leaders as we examine the triple bottom line and work toward the realization of a sustainable future. Gain the insight and knowledge of how successful sustainable business strategies can positively affect your organization.

Symposium Topics

• Sustainability in Transportation
• Wind Energy Focus
• Regional Health
• Regional Sustainability
• Water Management

Keynote Speakers

David Wann

Author and speaker
Speaking Thursday, April 22 at 7 p.m.

Dave Wann, co-author of the best-selling book, Affluenza and author of Simple Prosperity, will lead-off the 2010 Green Innovations symposium with a presentation, The New Normal: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle, at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 22 in the Phoenix Room of the University Union, UW-Green Bay. The best-selling book and PBS series, Affluenza, raises questions about America’s overload of debt, stress, and waste, resulting from pursuit of more at any cost. Wann shares provocative exploration of the social and environmental cost of materialism and over consumption and what can be done about it. Wann is an author, filmmaker, and speaker on the topic of sustainable lifestyles. He's written nine books; his most recent, Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle, is a sequel to Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, which is now printed in nine languages. He co-designed the cohousing neighborhood where he lives, has taught at the college level, and worked more than a decade as a policy analyst for U.S. EPA. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Matthew J. Frank

Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Speaking Friday, April 23 at 8:40 a.m.

Matt Frank has served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) since September 2007 when he was appointed by Governor Jim Doyle. A Wisconsin native, Secretary Frank has helped Gov. Doyle achieve significant conservation milestones, including long-term reauthorization and increased funding for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship fund, passage of the Great Lakes Compact, and enacting a strong mercury rule that will significantly reduce mercury and other hazardous air pollutants in the environment. Secretary Frank also is a strong proponent of Doyle's Energy Independence initiative and action to address climate change. He was a member of the Governor's Global Warming Task Force, which provides a blueprint for Wisconsin to be a national leader in clean and renewable energy, energy conservation and greenhouse gas reduction. He is a member of the Governor's Energy Independence Cabinet, promoting state-wide energy conservation and the development of clean and renewable energy through state agency collaboration and through local partnerships. An extended bio is available on the WDNR website.

Jeffrey Rafn, Ph.D.

President of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
Speaking Friday, April 23 - Luncheon Keynote

H. Jeffrey Rafn is the president of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College managing the operation of NWTC’s three campuses and six regional learning centers, which serve over 43,000 students and more than 1,100 businesses annually. Rafn, a native of Chippewa Lake, Ohio, served for 21 years as an administrator and educator in Massachusetts and New Hampshire before moving to Northeast Wisconsin in 1997. The last seven of those years he served as the commissioner to the New Hampshire Community Technical College System.

Dr. Rafn serves or has served on several boards and commissions including: Global Corporate College; AACC Commission on Academic, Student & Community Development; ACT National Career Readiness Community College Advisory Panel; Trans-Atlantic Technology and Training Alliance (TA3); Advisory Board of Community College Research Council at Teachers College at Columbia University; Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis Council – UW Madison; Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance (NEW ERA) (past chair); NEW NORTH Executive Committee and Board of Directors; NEW NORTH Educational Attainment Committee (chair); Advisory Council for St. Vincent Hospital, Green Bay; Executive Board of Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce; Executive Committee of Advance Business Development Center; and, Partners in Education (past chair).

Awards/Recognition: He received the 2008 New North People, Possibilities, and Progress Award; Recognized as the fastest growing large Community College in the nation in 2003 by Community College Weekly; PIE Partnership Award; Hmong Community Leadership Recognition; American Heart Association Partner; and, Cloverleaf High School Academic Hall of Fame. He earned his Ph.D. from Boston University.

Douglas B. McLaughlin, Ph.D.

Principal research scientist with the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI)
Speaking Friday, April 23 at 2:45 p.m.

Douglas McLaughlin is a principal research scientist with the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI), and is located at NCASI’s Northern Regional Center on the Western Michigan University campus in Kalamazoo, Michigan. NCASI is an independent, non-profit research institute that focuses on environmental topics of interest to the forest products industry. McLaughlin joined NCASI in 2002 and works primarily in NCASI’s water science investigative program. He has worked on water quality issues relevant to the pulp and paper industry for most of his career, including five years as a consulting scientist responsible for the design and implementation of technical studies at PCB-contaminated sediment sites. Current research interests include the application of statistics to support environmental decision-making, and approaches for the development of water quality criteria and standards. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biology and Aquatic Biology (Environmental Science and Policy) from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in 1983 and 1985, respectively. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994 where his research focused on the fate of polychlorinated biphenyls in aquatic sediments.

 

Schedule