UCSB will host the first annual South Coast Sustainability Summit next week at the Loma Pelona Center for organizational representatives, local government officials and campus faculty and administration to discuss the conservation of local resources.

The summit will focus on four main issues — energy, transportation waste and water management — and feature a series of panels consisting of officials from UCSB the City of Goleta, Santa Barbara County and the Goleta Water District The meeting — in concert with South Coast Energy Efficiency Partnership and MarBorg — seeks to provide a space fostering green policy communication and collaboration among community members and government offices.

According to keynote speaker Mark Heintz, the discussion highlights the importance of working alongside businesses to ensure accountability for their environmental impacts.

“My goal is to help enlighten the audience on the function of corporate responsibility, how it’s important and how it can help power change,” Heintz, director of corporate responsibility and sustainability at Deckers Corporation of Goleta, said. “We want to minimize the environmental footprint of our operations and product design.”

Ron Cortez, UCSB associate vice chancellor of administrative services and a co-chair of the Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee, will begin the summit with a welcome address at 9 a.m. A panel session discussing innovation in energy efficiency, reclaimed water and the possibilities of zero waste on the South Coast will follow the opening speech.

UCSB College of Creative Studies Dean Bruce Tiffney, a co-chair of the Chancellor’s Sustainability Committee, said the conference is an opportunity for students to improve their ability to address dynamic and developing social issues.

“This summit provides the opportunity to educate our students and engage them as future citizens of our community, state and planet in taking practical actions to move ‘sustainability’ from a concept to a way of life,” Tiffany said.

Fourth-year environmental studies and psychology major Colin Twohig is organizing a career forum after the conference from 2 to 3 p.m. to discuss sustainability and entrepreneurship in the private sector.

The conference will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Loma Pelona Center. For a full schedule of events, please visit http://www.sustainability.ucsb.edu/conferences/.

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