VECAN Conference 2018

VECAN Conference 2018 - Transforming Vermont's Energy Future From the Ground Up

Conference Description:

Over 300 people joined VECAN partners, town energy committee leaders from across Vermont, the state’s leading clean energy businesses, policy makers, and concerned Vermonters for another inspiring and action-oriented day geared towards doing far more to meet our 90 by 2050 total renewable energy goal. This year’s event offered some of the most timely, interesting workshops yet – from helping low income earners access clean energy solutions, to the latest in transportation innovation, and more. The day also included a framing panel, outlining where we stand on climate and clean energy in the state – and what the big and little leverage opportunities are to make needed progress.

Keynotes:

Bill McKibben - A Global Crisis: A State and Local Fight

Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who, in 2014, was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ In 1989, Bill wrote The End of Nature – regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change – and he is the author of over a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement – incubated in Vermont – which has organized 20,000 rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement. Bill, also a Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, was named by Foreign Policy to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe has said he is “probably America’s most important environmentalist.”

Michael Shank - From Apathy to Action: Motivating the Masses on Climate

Michael Shank, Ph.D., is the Communications Director for the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, a group of international cities committed to achieving aggressive long-term carbon reduction goals, and the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, a peer to-peer network of local government professionals from cities across the US and Canada dedicated to creating a healthier environment, economic prosperity, and increased social equity. His professional career includes leading press shops at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Climate Nexus and far beyond. Michael’s work to successfully engage some of the biggest cities across the nation to make clean energy and climate action a priority is a great example of what’s possible.