Nerd Nite Philly

Posts Tagged ‘trash’

Hey Nerds! September Nerd Nite is a little later this month, but no less awesome. We have a *jam-packed* evening ready for you and we’re doing it with the help of our friends at the Green Philly Blog and Clean Air Council. Our line up includes a little sustainability, some folksy music, and the inside scoop on the new beer that Yards Brewing Company has cooked up. So are you folks ready to welcome in the school year with some Nerd Nite?

“Recycle-full-cycle in Philadelphia” by Phil Bresee

Recycling has come a long way in Philadelphia during the past few years. The City’s new-ish recycling chief and self-proclaimed ‘garbage geek’ will chart progress, future challenges, and share some of his perspectives on managing solid waste in the City of Neighborhoods.

About Phil: As the recycling director for the City of Philadelphia, Phil Bresee guides and supports a number of solid waste and recycling program and planning initiatives, including the update to the city’s solid waste management plan, public outreach efforts, the recyclables processing contract, and the Philly Recycling Rewards incentives program. Bresee is also spearheading improvements to the City’s commercial recycling efforts. He came to Philadelphia in July 2012 from Broward County Florida, where he guided the county’s recycling programs including the county’s innovative project that studied the feasibility of using pulverized recycled glass for beach erosion control.

“A year behind bars and 5 more in the public sector” by Kristin Sullivan

Ostensibly “boring” information about how the City manages its use of electricity, natural gas, and steam will be presented. To Kristin, however it is anything but boring. The City uses over 3.5 Million MMBtus a year in just about 800 facilities. Kristin will dazzle you with dizzying facts and made up units of measure. We’ll bore into figures about the City’s work and our plan to manage that usage down and thus reduce its costs to taxpayers. Maybe you couldn’t care less about the difference between a kilowatt and a kilowatt-hour. Perhaps you think an MMBtu is just an extreme bra size. No matter. Kristin will pepper in some details about a 14,000 mile bicycle trip she took from Alaska to Argentina over the course of a year to get people to think a little bit more about their impact on the earth.

About Kristin: Kristin Sullivan is the Energy Manager for the City of Philadelphia. Her work in utility conservation and distributed energy generation straddles both the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Mayor’s Office of Transportation and Utilities. Kristin began her career as an energy analyst with an international energy consulting firm and then as a development manager for Iberdrola Renewables, a large scale wind energy company. In 2004, she created EarthCycle.org, an environmental education and toured and lectured throughout North and South America on a bicycle trip from Fairbanks, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. The 14,055 mile trip was supported by individual, environmental non-profit, and corporate sponsors, and took 355 days to complete. Kristin Sullivan graduated from Gettysburg College, Majoring in Environmental Studies and Biology, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Natural Resources sector in Honduras from 1998 to 2000.

“The Art & Science of Landscape Architecture” by Eric Wahl

Long before the profession was named, Landscape Architecture played a significant role in our everyday lives. From agrarian and rural landscapes to private gardens, towns, and neighborhoods, people lived in, borrowed from, and captured views of their surroundings. The threads of Art and Science of these special places are woven through our history, which we should learn from, and indeed improve upon for a sustainable and healthy future. In this presentation, we’ll go from historical contributions to the landscape, to contemporary design patterns that evolved over time that all help to create the Landscape of Man.

About Eric: Eric holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Temple University, and is a registered Landscape Architect in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and was recently appointed President of the Delaware Board of Landscape Architecture. Eric is also the current Vice-President of the Delaware Native Plant Society, and an adjunct professor on Sustainable Sites and Landscaping at Delaware Technical & Community College in Georgetown, Delaware. Eric strives for a balance between the built and the natural environments. With an eye towards ecological awareness, his designs lean toward sustainability and foster an ecological stewardship.

Between lectures and to entertain you wonderful nerds is Midwestern Exposure. A Philadelphia based roots rock trio consisting of Cam Clark, Jeff Goldman and Forrest Wright, Midwestern Exposure combines Blues, Folk and Rock into a great original sound.

But, wait! There’s more! As a prelude to this special evening, we will have Franklin Winslow, former research microbiologist and current Director of Quality Assurance at Yards Brewing Company, talk about a new German Pale Ale recently brewed up, applying the Reinheitsgebot to Burton-on-Trent.