The ASP is very pleased and grateful to announce that Dr. Lisa Shaffer, Executive Director of the Environment and Sustainability Initiative at the University of California, San Diego, has invited us to take a "Learning Journey" of the campus with her to see how sustainability is being integrated into the entire fabric and culture of this phenomenal institution. Nestled along the Pacific Ocean on 1,200 acres of coastal woodland, UC San Diego is a powerful magnet for those seeking a fresh approach to education and research. Serving some 29,000 students from California and around the world, UCSD, under the leadership of Dr. Shaffer and others, is focused on greening the campus in a way that integrates its strategy for being a destination choice for thousands seeking a top flight education with its uniquely distinctive research portfolio in such fields as Oceanography.

The Tour

Beginning on our arrival on campus at 2 pm, our schedule for the UCSD Learning Journey will include:

(1) Being joined on our bus by John Dilliott, Campus Energy Manager; Maggie Souder, Campus Sustainability Coordinator; and Lisa who will take us to the campus central power station where John Dilliott will briefly describe UCSD's cogeneration facility and overall green energy strategies, in non-technical terms. (80% of UCSD's power is co-generated.)

(2) Getting a 30 minute presentation (including Q&A) on sustainability strategies for UCSD and the UC system from Gary Matthews, Vice Chancellor for Resource Management and Planning. Gary, the University's senior strategic planning executive, will talk about how the institution incorporates sustainability into overall long-range planning and financial management. Lisa will then give a 10-15 minute presentation on our research, education, and outreach activities in sustainability, focusing on our new Sustainability Solutions Institute and the opportunities for partnerships with non-academic organizations (such as your membership) in which we seek to define questions and develop solutions that integrate academic knowledge with "real-world" practitioners' expertise to maximize the potential impact. (Note: the University has some funding available for these partnerships.) Lisa will include some ideas about how we work with outside organizations, including opportunities for students to gain hands-on research experiences, and programs to leverage resources aimed at building university-industry relationships.

(3) At 3:00 we will stroll down our Sustainability Walk, guided by Maggie Souder, campus sustainability coordinator. Maggie will point out some of the innovative arrangements for photovoltaics, use of reclaimed water, native vegetation, informational display systems, and the efforts to engage students, staff, and faculty in changing the campus culture to incorporate sustainability as a core value. We will stop at the Rady School of Management for a brief report on how we teach sustainable enterprise in our MBA, executive training, and undergraduate programs. Then we will visit the San Diego Supercomputer Center to learn about our research and practices in "greening" IT infrastructure and using state-of-the-art wireless sensor networks for more efficient resource management.

At 3:45 the group would will get back on the bus and drive to our hour long tour of the Birch Aquarium, which will concentrate on the impact of climate change on the world's oceans and fisheries and the relevance of those dynamics for strategic thinking.

Our Host: Dr. Lisa Shaffer and her Background in Corporate Planning

Building on more than 100 years of excellence, including pioneering work in climate sciences, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the ESI incorporates UCSD's other assets -- the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, as well as the traditional disciplines in engineering, biological, physical, health, and social sciences; humanities, and the new Rady School of Management.

Lisa has a particular fondness for strategic planning, having worked for five years as a corporate planner for the Bendix Corporation (now part of Allied Signal). She is an adjunct professor in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UCSD. Lisa spent the first 25 years of her career in Washington, DC, in a variety of positions in NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the private sector, focusing on international cooperation in studying the earth from space. In 1998 she joined Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she was responsible for international relations and program development for nine years. In September 2007, she left Scripps to join the UCSD Office of Research Affairs to devote her time to building a sustainability program across the UCSD campus, and to pursue an executive MBA at UCSD's Rady School of Management. She earned her BA in political science and international relations from the University of Michigan, and her PhD in public policy almost 20 years later from the George Washington University.

This is a very special opportunity for participants at the ASP Conference! A maximum of twenty-five places can be reserved for our visit to UCSD on the afternoon of February 23rd.