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Business and environmental leaders and experts from around the country gathered Thursday morning at USC’s University Park campus to discuss how education, business practices and policy will shape the future of Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Business Council’s Sustainability Conference was held in the university’s Town and Gown Hall after two years of running. The 16th annual event focused on the city’s clean energy future, retrofitting buildings with carbon-free energy, water resources and drought recovery, and pioneering a new hybrid electric transportation sector.
USC students Montgomery Hughes, left, and Olivia Heffernan talk about Placement: The Earth during the Sustainability Summit. (USC Photo/Gus Ruelas)
“Creating a greener and more sustainable Los Angeles for all residents is an admirable goal, but to do that, people from all backgrounds need a seat at the table,” said USC President Carol L. Folt. As a biologist, Folt says her own thinking has shifted from thinking about sustainability to seeing it as a vehicle for preserving the beauty of the natural world and creating greater equity in society.
“Some sustainability solutions that are taken in the short term or taken from one perspective may seem like they’re leaving people out,” Folt said. “One of our biggest jobs is to help people learn differently and solve these thorny problems without immediate distraction.”
The Sustainability Summit features USC experts
Also representing the university throughout the conference, Alan Arkatov, founding director of the Center for Engagement-Driven Global Education at USC’s Rosser School, moderated a discussion on “Food Education.” and USC Chief Sustainability Officer Mick Dalrymple, who participated in a panel discussion on carbon-free energy in buildings.
Dalrymple emphasized USC’s Assignment: Earth Project, an action-oriented plan to guide the university’s commitment to sustainability and its commitment to addressing climate change and the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
“We are one of the many anchor institutions in LA and in the community, so we have a responsibility to lead, and we have a responsibility to lead by example,” he said.
City leadership Folt, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti were well represented on a panel discussing clean technology and the future of LA’s workforce. It was started by Manuel Pastore, USC Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. Pastor called the bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden last month, “a very important piece of federal legislation around environmental justice” and emphasized how it would benefit disadvantaged communities.
USC Professor Manuel Pastore will moderate a panel on creating the clean tech workforce of the future. (USC Photo/Gus Ruelas)
“I’ve always been, how do we ensure baking rather than sprinkling fairness?” The pastor said.
From there, the conversation led to a collaborative effort between USC, UCLA and other four-year and community colleges in LA to train the next workforce. Folt points out how having two leading research universities in a major and forward-thinking city makes for a perfect combination.
“You have two of the largest research universities in America in this city, both committed to climate neutrality by 2025,” Folt said. “This is a really big deal — and it’s about California, and it’s about the region, and it’s about helping the city lead it, so be really proud of that.”
Attendees listen to speakers during the Los Angeles Business Council’s 16th Annual Sustainability Summit. (USC Photo/Gus Ruelas)
Folt discussed USC’s sustainability efforts so far and the university’s future goals, including becoming carbon neutral, increasing access to electric vehicles and offering more courses on sustainability in various fields.
“We have 22 different vocational schools and we see that sustainability needs to be deeply embedded in each of them,” Folt said.
Sustainability Summit: LA in 2035
One of the final questions for Folt, Garcetti and Block asked what they saw when they looked at LA in 2035. “The real danger to the future is indifference,” Folt quoted world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall as saying.
“I think by 2035, apathy is gone,” Folt said. “I hope to wake up to a place where students are not limited to their futures based on where they grow up and what it costs them to reach, and we train people and lead them to have access to education at all levels. Great respect and a life that can be lived together.”
More stories about: Carol L. Folt, Faculty, Sustainability
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