Sustainability Scientists Tom Lovejoy and Jon Foley to Speak Nov.13 to Celebrate Fifth Anniversary of CSU’s SoGES

Note to Reporters: Photos of Thomas Lovejoy and Jonathan Foley are available with this release at news.colostate.edu

Colorado State University’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) is celebrating its five-year anniversary on Wednesday, Nov. 13 with two world-renowned experts on the sustainability of our biosphere who will share their Visions of Sustainability.

The day starts with award-winning conservation biologist Thomas Lovejoy speaking about his “48 Years of Amazon Science and Conservation.” His talk, which is free and open to the public, begins at 11 a.m. in Lory Student Center Room 224-226.

Lovejoy conceived the idea for the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project, also known as the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, a joint research project of the Smithsonian Institution and Brazil’s National Institute for Amazon Research. For this work and many conservation initiatives in Brazil, Lovejoy became the first environmentalist to receive the Order of Rio Branco from the Brazilian government in 1988. He has received numerous awards including the Blue Planet Prize, the John & Alice Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from CSU in 1982.

Then, at 5:15 p.m., global environmental scientist Jonathan Foley will present “Planet Levers: A More Strategic Approach to Global Sustainability,” in the Ballroom of the Hilton Fort Collins, 425 W. Prospect Road.

Foley is the Director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on complex environmental systems and human societies. He and his students have contributed to our understanding of global food security, global patterns of land use, the behavior of the planet’s climate, ecosystems and water cycle, and the sustainability of the biosphere. This work has led him to be a regular advisor to large corporations, NGOs and governments around the world.

This lecture, which is also free and open to the public, will be followed by a panel discussion on “Visions of Sustainability” moderated by Foley, and featuring Lovejoy. Other panelists, include Maggie Fox from The Climate Reality Project; Kim Jordan, founder and CEO of New Belgium Brewing Co.; and Osvaldo Sala from Arizona State University. All speakers and panelists are members of the External Advisory Board for the School of Global Environmental Sustainability.

The public is also invited to attend a reception celebrating SoGES’s five-year anniversary immediately following the lecture and panel discussion, located in the atrium of the Hilton.

About the School of Global Environmental Sustainability
The School of Global Environmental Sustainability is at the core of a growing number of exciting sustainability initiatives in research and education at Colorado State University. SoGES serves as a hub to connect CSU’s community of scholars and practitioners interested in applying interdisciplinary perspectives to large-scale environmental, economic, and social questions not easily addressed through traditional approaches. The School was uniquely designed to reach across disciplines and colleges to forge new alliances and advance greater understanding of the challenges to achieving sustainability faced by our nation and global community. SoGES is meeting this challenge and continues to strengthen CSU’s reputation of being at the forefront of addressing the world’s sustainability issues through research, education, and outreach. www.sustainability.colostate.edu.