Engineering Sustainability Conference

From 2005 to 2019, MCSI hosted a biannual Engineering Sustainability (ES) conference which brought together engineers and scientists from academia, government, industry, and nonprofits to share the results of cutting-edge sustainability research and practices.

This event, held in Pittsburgh, featured invited speakers, oral presentations, and poster sessions alongside social events and networking opportunities.

The ES conference was a collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research.

Program History

Featured speakers and sessions past conference  programs can be found in the dropdown below.

Engineering Sustainability 2005

Engineering Sustainability 2005:
Next-generation technology for green construction and sustainable water use

Featured Plenary Presentations

• The Heinz Distinguished Lecturer: Amory B. Lovins, Chief executive officer, Rocky Mountain Institute, “Integrative Design for Advanced Resource Efficiency”
• Dr. Bernard Amadei, Founding president, Engineers Without Borders; Professor of civil engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, “Sustainable Engineering Solutions for the Developing World: Challenges and Opportunities”
• Dr. Takashi Asano, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Davis, "Sustainable Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse"

Invited Speakers

• David Eakin, PE, Chief Engineer, Office of the Chief Architect, Public Buildings Service, General Services Administration, "The Cost of Being Sustainable"
• Dr. William Fisk, Senior staff scientist and department  head, Indoor Environment Department, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, "Impact of Indoor Environmental Quality on Health and Productivity and Implications for Building Design and Operation"
• Dr. Bernard D. Goldstein, dean, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, "Clean Water and Human Health"
• Dr. Vivian Loftness, University professor, School of Architecture, Carnegie Mellon University; senior researcher, Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Carnegie Mellon University, "Environmental Sustainability Contributes to Health, Productivity, and Quality of Life"
• Dr. Farhang Shadman, director, NSF/SRC Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semi-conductor Manufacturing, University of Arizona, "Sustainability: A Technology Driver in Semiconductor and Nano-Scale Manufacturing"
• Dr. H. Dennis Spriggs, president, Matrix Process Integration, "Make Sustainable Development Work: Conserve Resources, Cut Emissions, and Generate Profits—Simultaneously"
• Dr. Jorge A. Vanegas, Fred and Teresa Estrada, Professor, College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, "Built Environment Sustainability: A Roadmap for Implementation"

Engineering Sustainability 2007

Engineering Sustainability 2007:
Innovations That Span Boundaries

Featured Plenary Presentation:

University Investment In Sustainability: Research, Teaching, and Practice

Featuring:

• Mark A. Nordenberg, chancellor and chief executive officer, University of Pittsburgh
• Jared L Cohon, president, Carnegie Mellon University
• Jonathan Fink, vice president for research and economic affairs and professor of geological sciences, Arizona State University

Engineering Sustainability 2009

Engineering Sustainability 2009:
Innovations That Span Boundaries

Under construction

Engineering Sustainability 2011

Engineering Sustainability 2011:
Innovation and the Triple Bottom Line

Under construction

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Engineering Sustainability 2013

Engineering Sustainability 2013:
Innovation and the Triple Bottom Line

Under construction

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Engineering Sustainability 2015

Engineering Sustainability 2015:
Innovation and the Triple Bottom Line

Plenary Speakers

• Christopher Flavin, Senior Fellow and President Emeritus of the Worldwatch Institute, “Building a Sustainable Future: The Road to Low Carbon Energy"
• Shahzeen Attari, Assistant Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, “Water Use: Effective Actions, Perceptions and System Thinking”
• Richard Luthy, Silas H. Palmer Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, “Re-Inventing Urban Water Supplies in the Arid West"
• Joylette Portlock, President of Communitopia, “Communicating Climate Change with Humor”

Invited Speakers

• Joule Bergerson, University of Calgary, “Energy Systems Sustainability Analysis”
• Matthew Eckelman, Northeastern University, “Non-energy Benefits of Residential Energy Efficiency Measures”
• Shelie Miller, University of Michigan, "A Proactive Approach to Manage Unintended Consequences of Emerging Technologies"
• Sally Ng, Georgia Institute Of Technology, “Air Quality and Health: Does 'Particulate Matter' Matter?”
• Kristen Parrish, Arizona State University, “Small Buildings, Big Impacts: Promoting Energy Efficiency in Small Commercial Buildings through 2030 Districts”
• Jordan Peccia, Yale University, “Engineering Healthy Buildings”
• Mike Stenstrom, UCLA, “Sustainable H2o Supplies: Options for Better Stormwater Management”
• Ashlynn Stillwell, University of Illinois, “Water, Energy, And A Sustainable Future: An Interdisciplinary Approach”

Engineering Sustainability 2017

Engineering Sustainability 2017:
Innovation and the Triple Bottom Line

Plenary Speakers

• Susan Handy, University of California Davis, "The Future of Travel Demand"
• Brent Stephens, Illinois Institute of Technology, "Indoor Exposures to Outdoor Air Pollution"
• Mike Walsh, MetroQuest,"Sustainability Applied: Using Smart Cities as a Framework for Engineers to Implement Sustainability"
• Amy Pruden, Virginia Tech, "Answering the Call: The Need for Modern Academics to Step Up as Leaders in Addressing Our Failing Water Infrastructure"

Invited Speakers

• Anu Ramaswami, University of Minnesota, "Urban Infrastructure Transformations Toward Sustainable, Healthy and Equitable Cities"
• Sean Qian, Carnegie Mellon, "Big Data Analytics for sustainable mobility"
• Amy Landis, Clemson, "Water Quality: The Often Ignored Consequences of Emerging Technologies"
• Callie Babbitt, Rochester Institute of Technology, "Applying Circular Economy Principles to the Lithium-Ion Battery Waste Management Hierarchy"
• John Little, Virginia Tech, "Rapid Methods to Estimate Exposure to SVOCs in the Indoor Environment"
• Kyle Bibby, University of Pittsburgh, "Source to Tap: What Shapes Microbial Communities in Our Drinking Water?"

Engineering Sustainability 2019

Engineering Sustainability 2019:
A Climate for Change

Plenary Speakers

• Suzanne Shelton, Shelton Group, "The Time Is Now! The Market Is Ready—and the Planet is Beyond Ready—for the Private Sector to Move Sustainability Forward"
• Sustainability on Campus Panel: Aurora Sharrard, University of Pittsburgh; Mick Dalrymple, Arizona State University; Jim Walker, University of Texas at Austin; Kristen Parrish, Arizona State University (Session Chair)
• Sustainability: Where Engineering Meets Behavioral Science Panel: Ines Lima Azevedo, Carnegie Mellon University; Erin MacDonald, Stanford University; Marisa Henry, Johns Hopkins University; Leidy Klotz, University of Virginia (Moderator)
• Cyrus Wadia, formally Nike, "Sustainable Innovation – A Growth Opportunity, A Leadership Opportunity"

Invited Speakers

• Julie Haack, University of Oregon, "Greener Sports Product as Intellectual Flypaper: Reducing Impacts, Improving Performance and Creating Business Opportunities"
• Erin MacDonald, Stanford University, "Quantified Cognitive Empathy for Design Stakeholders to
• Increase Sustainability"
• Bill Reed, Regenesis Group, "Regenerative Design and Development: Re-Membering the Patterns of Life"
• Erich Hester, Virginia Tech, "Can Stream Restoration Solve the Excess Nitrogen Problem?"
• Linda Weavers, Ohio State University, "Design Standards for Emerging Technology"
• Eric Williams, Rochester Institute of Technology, "How do We Decide what We Know? Epistemology Challenges in Sustainability Modeling"
• Paul Mathew, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, "Efficiency for the Rest of Us: Scale Adoption of Integrated Systems in Commercial Buildings"

Event Photos

Photos from the 2017 and 2019 ES conferences are available on MCSI’s Flickr page.