Environmental Center news release
Two-dozen select University of Colorado Boulder student leaders will work this weekend with a nationally renowned social innovator to map out leading-edge solutions that fuse diversity, social justice, and sustainability into a more effective campus and community platform for change.
The Innovation Lab event is designed to better illuminate the bridge between ecological sustainability, diversity, and social justice.
Nationally renowned social innovator, Markese Bryant, founder of Fight for Light, will facilitate the two-day session designed to spark a new generation of campus leaders to work effectively on issues of diversity, social justice and sustainability.
Victor Hernandez, director of SORCE, is excited to provide his diverse team of students with a leadership opportunity that will help equip them to deal with the biggest issues of the 21st century: social justice and ecological health.
“This exciting collaboration between SORCE and the Environmental Center is long overdue and this weekend will give us the opportunity to analyze sustainability from a social justice and diversity lens,” said Hernandez. “Sustainability is an important factor when working with underrepresented communities and this opportunity gives us solutions to bridge that gap.”
This increased understanding of the congruence of social justice and sustainably has helped drive recent changes at the Environmental Center including broadening the Energy & Climate Program into the Energy & Climate Justice Program. The program’s new leader, Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish, is excited about her program’s more holistic focus.
“If you want to be a leader in the 21st century, any type of leader, you to need to understand sustainability,” said Gabrieloff-Parish. “And if you’re going to be a leader in sustainability, you must understand social justice.”
The Innovation Lab will be held Jan. 25-26 at the University Memorial Center and the Center for Multicultural Affairs at the Center for Community.
For more information about Markese Bryant visit http://grist.org/people/markese-bryant-from-corner-boy-to-green-jobs-evangelist/. For more information about the Innovation Lab contact the CU Assembly for Sustainability & Equity at cu.ase@colorado.edu or Michelle Gabrieloff-Parish at 303-492-3229.