Unity, Maine – February, 2012 – On Wednesday, February 8, Unity College President Stephen Mulkey will serve as a panelist at the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo’s Sustainability Symposium.
The panel will consider the problem of greenhouse gases and options for mitigation. President Mulkey will be joined by Don Scott, National Biodiesel Board Director of Sustainability Speakers; Dr. Richard Nelson, Kansas State University, USEPA advisory panel on biogenic carbon; and Don O’Connor, developer of the GHGenius lifecycle model.
The conference & expo is being held from February 6-8 at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
Sustainability will take a front seat on Wednesday as the day will be devoted to discussions about greenhouse gases, food security and biodiversity, and how biodiesel fits in. Biodiesel is the most sustainable liquid fuel on the planet. Serious questions arise about the sustainability of any liquid fuel. During various sessions experts will answer tough questions about biodiesel’s long-term sustainability.
President Mulkey’s scientific research spans over three decades and has included research in ecosystems spanning the globe. He has pursued research on the functional ecology of forests in Eastern Amazonia, tropical forest canopies in wet and dry forests of Central Panama, and tropical alpine rosette species in East Africa.
Under his leadership Unity College is strengthening its focus on sustainability. Both curricular and co-curricular majors and programs across the curriculum focus on the emerging field of Sustainability Science, which probes interactions between global, social and human systems, the complex mechanisms that lead to the degradation of these systems, and concomitant risks to human well-being. He has made training students for careers in service to the mitigation of global climate change a unifying focus at the environmental college founded in 1965.
Unity College is a small private college in rural Maine that provides dedicated, engaged students with a liberal arts education which emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through active learning experiences within a supportive community.
In 2011, Unity College was named to the top 30 of the Washington Monthly college rankings, and was one of eighteen U.S. colleges and universities named to The Princeton Review’s 2010 Green Rating Honor Roll.