MISSOULA –

A new lecture series at The University of Montana will introduce students and the community to sustainability concepts and careers and provide a forum for discussion on local sustainability efforts.

Lectures in the series titled “Will Work for Sustainability – Creating Jobs through Sustainable Development” will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays during autumn semester in Gallagher Business Building Room 122. All lectures are free and open to the public, and students can take the lecture series for credit through the UM Environmental Studies Program.

The series kicks off Wednesday, Sept. 1, with “Community Livability & the Path to Sustainability” presented by Dan Kemmis, former director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at UM. Kemmis is a UM alumnus, former Missoula mayor and state representative, and author of numerous books, including “Community and the Politics of Place.”

The Sept. 8 series event, “Sustaining the Best Place,” is a panel discussion of Missoula Mayor John Engen’s “Best Place Development Plan” and how to incorporate sustainability as a cornerstone of local development planning. Panel members will include two members of the mayor’s task force: UM Executive Vice President Jim Foley and Northwestern Energy President and CEO Robert Rowe. Kaia Peterson of the Montana Community Development Corporation and Richard Barrett, UM economics professor emeritus and co-author of “Cowboy Economics,” will provide feedback to the task force.

The series is co-sponsored by UM’s Environmental Studies Program and the Sustainable Business Council. Other lectures in the series this fall are:

• Sept. 15: “Greening Food Services.”
• Sept. 22: “Sustaining Water Resources in the Clark Fork Basin.”
• Sept. 29: “Will Work for Sustainability – Careers in Sustainability Services & Consulting.”
• Oc. 6: “Potpourri of Sustainability Jobs.”
• Oct. 20: “Basins of Relations: Thinking like a Watershed.”
• Oct. 27: “Sustainable, Affordable Transportation for All.”
• Nov. 3: “Living Buildings.”
• Nov. 10: “Deconstructing Buildings, Reconstructing Democracy.”
• Nov. 17: “Sustainable Energy.”
• Dec. 1: “Seeking a Sustainable Population with the Most Cost-effective Carbon Legacy Reducer – Family Planning” and “Shrinking Baby’s Ecofootprint.”

For more details about upcoming lectures, visit http://www.cas.umt.edu/evst/sustainability_lectures.htm. Information about other sustainability events and the lecture series also is on the Community Conservation Calendar website at http://www.cas.umt.edu/evst/events_calendars.htm.

For more information, call UM Professor Vicki Watson at 406-243-5153 or e-mail vicki.watson@umontana.edu.

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