Climate Leadership Summit 3 Program
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8:30am
Registration and Breakfast
9AM
Welcome Remarks: Jim Poyser, Earth Charter Indiana and Joe Bowling, Englewood CDC
9:45am
The Science: Purdue Climate Change Research Center's Impact Assessment Reports, Jeff Dukes, PCCRC
10:30AM
Tools: Indiana University's Environmental Resilience Institute Update, Janet McCabe
11Am
Tools: ICLEI and Clearpath, Indiana Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Therese Dorau, City of South Bend Office of Sustainability
11:30am
Tools: An Eye on Education, Economic Development, and Energy. Kumar Menon, Director of City Utilities, Fort Wayne
12PM: LUNCH
1:20pm
Mayor's Roundtable in the Sanctuary, Moderator: Janet McCabe, IU Environmental Resilience Institute
Track 3: Boardroom
Track 1: Parlor
Track 2: Chapel
Track 1:
2pm Tools and Tips for GHG Inventories
Therese Dorau, Director of Sustainability, South Bend
Greenhouse gas inventories, whether for your municipal operations only or for the community as a whole, can feel an overwhelming project. Templates, tools, and calculators help organize data, follow protocols, and improve quality of inventory results. This session will introduce some available resources and share South Bend’s experience using these in both local government operations and community GHG inventory processes.
3pm IU Environmental Resilience Institute Toolkit Workshop
Andrea Webster, IU Environmental Resilience Institute
The Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute, part of the Prepared for Environmental Change Grand Challenge, is pleased to announce the Environmental Resilience Institute Toolkit (ERIT). ERIT is a free resource created to help local governments, especially those in Indiana and the Midwest, effectively deliver services to their communities even as the climate changes. ERIT facilitates the exchange of ideas and delivers resilience and adaptation strategies, case studies, trainings, and funding opportunities. Issues addressed include extreme heat, wind and solar power, flooding, algal blooms, air pollution, the spread of vector-borne diseases and more. Attend this session to become an expert on ERIT’s offerings, and to learn how to submit resources and case studies to the Toolkit.
4pm Keep Indianapolis Beautiful's Nature and the Canopy Study
Karl Selm, Geographic Information Specialist, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful invested in developing a state of the art Canopy Map that informs the organization of the tree density of the county. The organization uses this data to strategically plan its tree planting efforts through the Community Forestry program. Using this map, the organization can effectively reach out to communities to assist them in developing their tree planting plans and apply for grants from KIB to plant trees, as well as plan its own projects to meet its contracted goals with the City of Indianapolis, Citizens Energy Group, Indianapolis Power and Light and other key partners of the organization.
Track 2:
2pm: Urban Agriculture at Fishers Agripark
Jonathan Lawler, Brandywine Creek Farms
Jonathan Lawler, owner of Brandywine Creek Farms, has been demonstrating for years his commitment to fighting hunger by growing fresh, nutritious food in Central Indiana. His next project, Fishers Agripark, might be his most ambitious to date: a 33-acre farm that is the largest urban farm in the country. Lawler will describe the farm and the partnership he formed with the City of Fishers.
3pm: Jumpstarting Solar in Your Community
Madeline Hirschland, Solarize Indiana
Leah Thill, MACOG
Darrell Boggess, SIREN
Sue Maki, City of Carmel Utilities
Autumn Salamack, City of Bloomington
Between June and December 2017, teams of volunteers across our state roughly doubled the number of solar arrays in their cities. Where city governments partnered with these volunteers, the results were particularly remarkable: 97 new arrays in Goshen and South Bend, 56 in Bloomington and five times the previous number in the Hamilton County area. Having solar become a “new normal” is a feather in these cities’ caps - and the work required of the city was minimal. (In parts of Bloomington, one in ten homes now sport solar panels!) If your city might be interested in partnering with a Solarize team, join us to learn what’s involved.
4pm: Thrive Indianapolis Project
Reed Rouch, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
John Gibson, Resilient Indiana
As part of its climate resiliency plan, the City of Indianapolis launched Thrive Indianapolis in 2018 to engage all citizens in developing a Climate Action Plan. Learn more about Thrive from two youth who serve on a committee, along with the newly appointed Resilience Ambassador for Englewood neighborhood. Dig deeper with John Gibson’s Pike Township-focused resiliency planning process that uses an intergenerational approach.
Track 3:
2pm: Next Generation in Sustainability with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
Libby O’Neal, Youth Tree Team Manager, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
Adam Schmutte, Urban Naturalist Manager, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
Representatives from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s Youth Tree Team and Urban Naturalist programs will share details of their work, how it fits into the context of KIB’s broader work, and the impact they hope it will have on improving the urban environment of Marion County. Youth Tree Team is a program of high school and college students who are hired as seasonal staff to water 1000s of trees each week to ensure they survive. Urban Naturalists are teams of college students from a variety of fields of study hired to further KIB’s habitat restoration and green infrastructure efforts and contracts.
3pm: Youth Empowered
Jim Poyser, Earth Charter Indiana
Over the past two years, we’ve seen young people step up to argue for a more sustainable future. In the process, they’ve addressed both our environmental and civic crises. Learn more about what young people are doing throughout Indiana to work with city officials to preserve their chance for a livable future.
4pm: Building a Hoosier Resilience Index
Janet McCabe, IU Environmental Resilience Institute
An important initiative is underway at the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute to develop a dynamic resilience index that will be used by local government officials to assess vulnerabilities and preparedness for climate change. The tool is designed for a Hoosier audience of small towns, counties and mid-sized and slightly larger cities. Development of the Index is happening now, and this session will give attendees an opportunity to both learn and contribute to making the Index as useful a tool as possible. Attend this session to become part of that project.