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Institute for the Environment / What's New
Purpose:
The George Washington University and The World Bank are convening a one and a half day associated event to consider the challenges to academia in developing and using new educational criteria and methodologies for the advancement of environmentally sustainable development in all disciplines. Environmentally sustainable development (ESD) is premised on the need to integrate environmental and social criteria within economic constructs.
This linkage is critical to the work of international finance institutions, as well as in the design and applications of assessments and technologies. Without the intellectual investment of academia, those completing undergraduate and graduate level studies will be unable to respond professionally to the new staffing requirements of development institutions. These staffing requirements call for a skill mix enabling interdisciplinary and integrative approaches responsive to the ESD paradigm. The challenge is to have the training and intellectual capacity essential to transfer ESD from theory to reality.
This associated event begins the afternoon of the closing of the Fourth Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development: "Rural Well-Being," and precedes the week of the World Bank's annual meeting. The ESD conference of international leaders provides an unparalleled opportunity to link current Bank ESD work with the academic community.
The research and development, information, and educational functions of the world's academic community can provide a significant foundation for the objective and non-partisan development and application of knowledge to ESD solutions. The academic community can also connect the investigation of disciplines to the processes of governments, corporations, nongovernmental organizations and other institutions to support ESD.
The University has created an Institute for the Environment to lead its Green University Initiative, a campus ecology effort conducted in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Institute will act as the executive secretariat for this event. University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, an international member organization of signatories to the Tallories Declaration, is working in conjuction with the University on this event. Over 245 members (including The George Washington University) in over 40 countries have endorsed the Tallories Declaration, a ten point plan outlining university action to advance global environmental literacy and sustainable development. This effort will build on the work of the World Bank, The George Washington University, and University Leaders for Sustainable Future in a synergistic effort to accelerate environmentally sustainable development.
Objectives:
Program:
The event will commence Friday, 27 September at 3 p.m. with a by invitation symposium of 50 participants in plenary at The World Bank in JB1-080 following the Fourth Annual Conference on Sustainable Development. The first session will focus on the challenges in advancing environmentally sustainable development in the development and educational communities.
Saturday morning the participants will reconvene on the campus of The George Washington University in the Marvin Center, Room 414, 4th floor, in workgroups based on specific academic clusters to consider the advancement of ESD from the perspectives of the disciplines, including the identification of barriers and opportunities in academia. The five workgroups will be: Environmental Management Practices; Health and the Environment; Law, Global Politics, and the effects on Environmental Policy; Science, Technology and Environment; and Ecology, Economy and Community.
Saturday afternoon participants are to assess the potential of new interdisciplinary arrangements based on the morning workgroup sessions, from the perspective of the overall objectives of the symposium.
Description of Workgroup Content
Environmental Management Practices: Coordinated by the Strategic Environmental Management and PolicyProject of the School of Business and Public Management, and the Department of Engineering Management in GW's School of Engineering and Applied Scie nce, the environmental and energy management roundtable will address questions of environmental systems analysis, decision making and problem solving, environmental impact analysis, environmental auditing and compliance, and similar issues related to the management side of environmental engineering. Businesses, governments and nonprofit organizations have cooperated with one another around the world in developing successful pollution prevention and depletion prevention programs. Case-based teaching to l earn from and train graduates to propagate these activities will address the range of learning needs.
Health and the Environment: Coordinated by GW's School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the environmental and occupational health roundtable will address the relationship between health and development. In addition to the interplay between human development, health, and the environment, the workshop will consider the assessment of human health risks and the design of programs for industry, government and the population at large. Topics will include epidemiological methods, the development of toxicologital profiles, exposure pathways, workplace hazards, and other environmental and occupational health and safety issues.
Law, Global Politics- and the Effects on Environmental Policy: Coordinated by GW's School of Law, the environmental law roundtable will explore evolving legal issues of interest to practitioners in private practice, government agencies and the judi cial system. These include such topics as environmental justice, takings, prosecution of environmental crimes, adequacy of scientific foundations underlying environmental regulations, and the export of hazardous wastes.
Science- Technology and Environment: Coordinated by the Department of Civil, Mechanical and Environmental Engineering in GW's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the science and environmental engineering roundtable will address issues related to the design and construction of environmentally conscious projects. Topics will include state of-the-art information in the areas of air, water and waste stream treatment technologies, environmental chemistry and Microbiology, numerical methods, and other subjects related to technological approaches to protecting human health and the environment.
Ecology. Economy and Community: Coordinated by GW's Columbian Schools of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Political Management, the environmental sustainability roundtable will address the interplay between humans and the natural environment, including advocacy of environmental issues, and the ability to shape debate and advance political agendas in the environmental area. It will include such issues as sustainable community development, issues management, and grassroots organizing.