Larry Edward Penley, president of Colorado State, was the only academic keynote speaker at the Sun Microsystems Worldwide Education and Research Conference in San Francisco on Feb. 26.
February 27, 2008
Environmental commitment
When it comes to an environmental commitment, universities must do more than change the light bulbs on campus, Penley said in his speech. They need to develop the clean-energy technologies to safeguard human health and the planet as well as offer the programs to educate the new energy workforce.
“Our universities are society’s greatest sources of ideas and innovation and they have the capacity to go beyond generating awareness to generate fundamental solutions to the global challenge of environmental sustainability and climate change,” Penley said.
What sets Colorado State University apart
-Research and spinoffs have made CSU a global leader in clean and renewable energy solutions. Stanford has recognized one of the university’s spinoffs, Envirofit International, as one of its top 10 most innovative technology companies that are creating global social change. Envirofit has also captured the attention of The Shell Foundation, which has invested $25 million in the company to design and disseminate 10 million cookstoves across the developing world in the next five years.
-CSU is redefining the technology-transfer operations which tend to be slow and process-burdened at universities, adding unnecessary years to get ideas to the marketplace. To tackle this issue, CSU recently developed a new model to expedite the process of commercializing cutting-edge research.
-Campus efforts include building one of the first university-owned wind farms to provide enough power for the campus and surrounding areas plus converting university fleets to biofuels to planting xeriscape. The university has 100 faculty teaching and conducting research in new energy fields with more than 30 courses focused on the environment, population and sustainability – a number that is expected to grow.
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Sun Microsystems Inc. is a longtime contributor to Colorado State University. Most recently, the company donated Sun Thin Client computers and servers to the Engineering Building in the new Academic Village, allowing for a workstation for each student in the building, and provided equipment to enhance the computing environment in the electronic classroom.
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Contact: Brad Bohlander
Email: Brad.Bohlander@colostate.edu
Phone Number: (970) 491-6621
