The University of Arkansas' newly created Center for Applied Sustainability is bringing three nationally known environmental leaders to campus to talk about the idea of sustainability and ways to make that idea a reality.

The first in the center's planned UA Sustainability Speaker Series will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 14, 2007 in the Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development on Fairview Street, just east of the Walton College of Business. Admission is free, and the public is invited.

The three speakers are Adam Werbach, former president of the Sierra Club; Jib Ellison, a sustainability consultant; and Hunter Lovins, president of Natural Capital Solutions Inc. All three are recognized leaders in the sustainability movement.

Sustainabilty is defined on the Environmental Protection Agency Web site as "the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people."

"As stewards of our planet, we make choices every day," said Jon Johnson, director of the sustainability center. "We can make choices so we contribute to sustainability, or not. To make the best choices, we need information that is current, correct and constructive.

"The first thing I've asked our speakers to do is talk with students about ways they can change the world. These three can point to their own lives and their own experiences as examples of what young people can do." [...]