Sustainability Awareness Week
October 4–8, 2021 • fitnyc.edu/saw • #FITsustainability
Join us online for 2021 Sustainability Awareness Week! Below you will find the schedule of events.
Some events are for FIT students and community only. To access this events, you will need to enter your FIT credentials: (firstname_lastname) and your FIT password.
Missed A Session or Event? YouTube Premiere public events will be available on-demand to watch immediately after they air.
Schedule of Events
To join an event, click on the dropdown to access the link.
Monday, October 4
Followed by Land Acknowledgment:
Land Acknowledgment: Karisma Hishikawa, Student, Fashion Design BFA, FIT
Followed by Student Government Association Welcome
Student Government Association Welcome: Caroline Levine, Secretary of Sustainability, FIT
Individual video will be available on-demand after it airs.
Panelists: FIT Students, Caroline Levine, Noah Tager, Allison Ko, Virginia Topete
Description: Students from FIT’s Sustainability Council will be discussing their internship experience at companies including Fabscrap, Under Armour, and the Vintage Twin. In addition, they will be sharing tips on how to incorporate sustainable initiatives into internships that don’t necessarily have them built in. For students who are looking to be more engaged with sustainability on campus, they will also be sharing additional resources and leadership opportunities to begin building your sustainability experience.
Panelists: Joanna Hall, US Coalition on Sustainability
Description: Join us as Joanna Hall, executive director of the US Coalition on Sustainability shares her vision and mission for SustainChain™; the world's first public utility platform to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals. Hear first hand what it's like to be tapped by the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations for such an ambitious mission. We'll explore how FIT can leverage the platform to advance our own Sustainability efforts and connect it to the SDG's and the broader SDG ecosystem in the process. Join Public Event
Tuesday, October 5
Panelists: Ebru Debbag, Soorty Enterprises
Description: In today`s world it is a necessity to understand how the nature, humans and business systems interconnect to construct a resilient, joyous future where economics and social and environmental challenges transform to solutions so that we can co-exist in a diverse and abundant future.
The Climate Crisis in my Wardrobe program aims to give a bird`s eye view of fashion integrated into our lives and underlining the problems so that we can see that is where also the solutions reside.
Soorty denim and garment manufacturing presents a best practice example in taking the right steps forward to build a co-existing community. FIT-only - Join Session
Panelists: Five current FIT students and recent graduates will join Daniel Benkendorf and climate anxiety scholar, Dr. Susan Clayton
Description: In this session, Daniel Benkendorf (Associate Professor of Psychology) will discuss the issue of climate anxiety with Dr. Susan Clayton, a psychologist who is both an internationally-recognized scholar on this topic and who is also a lead author on the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A panel of current FIT students and recent graduates will join Benkendorf and Clayton as they define and explore the features and peculiarities of climate anxiety and consider ways to ameliorate it. Public Event - Join Session
Presenter: Suzanne McGillicuddy, FIT
Description: Calling all student innovators interested in social impact: turn your ideas into action with FIT's Think Big Challenge and participate in the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U). Make a commitment to address global challenges in Education, Environment/Climate Change, Peace & Human Rights, Poverty Alleviation, or Public Health, and you might be selected to join a global community of changemakers and qualify for seed funding for your project.
This session will give an overview of CGI U and go over FIT's internal selection process. Come learn how you can join the program
that helped launch Spotlight FIT (a.k.a. POCreatives), Waste x Change, FIT Hives, the Natural Dye Garden, and others. We’ll share info on applications, funding, and more. FIT-only - Join Session
Wednesday, October 6
Presenter: Joe Massa, FIT
Description: While a true paperless office might never be possible, using a few tools that are available to all FIT employees, it is possible to greatly reduce our paper consumption while also increasing efficiency and productivity. Join Joe Massa, Department Coordinator for Communication Design Pathways, and learn some simple and efficient ways to reduce the amount of paper we consume.
The live portion will run from 12-2 pm on Wednesday and will feature a live demonstration of taking a paper form into an electronic workflow. There will be Q&A opportunities throughout the presentation.
It is strongly recommended that you watch the recorded presentation prior to the live event.
Panelists: Karen Pearson, FIT and Jehovani Lopez, Genspace
Description: Have you ever wondered what you could design with nature as your collaborator? Biodesign
has opened up new possibilities in everything from bioplastics to microbial pigments
to
mushroom based consumer goods. See how biology can pave the way to a more sustainable
future with the FIT Genspace Scholars program.
In this session, you will hear from Jehovani Lopez about how FIT scholars can use
Genspace’s
biology lab, equipment, and subject matter experts to innovate at the intersection
of
sustainability, design, and biotechnology. Previous projects include using food waste
to develop
new biomaterial growth processes, developing bioplastics as petroleum-based alternative
materials, and bioengineering performance fibers with structural color. Genspace will
support
your work from project development to experiment design to data analysis and presentation.
Also, earn FIT internship credits and get hands-on biology training to incorporate
into your
practice. Stay afterwards for a brief Q&A with the FIT Genspace Scholars Program Manager,
Jehovani Lopez.
About Genspace:
Genspace is the world’s first community biology lab — a place where people of all
backgrounds
and identities can learn, create, and grow with the life sciences. Since 2009, we
have served the
greater New York area by providing hands-on STEAM education programs for youth and
adults,
cultural and outreach events for the public, and a membership program to support New
York’s
community of creatives, researchers, and entrepreneurs. What will you make with us?
Panelists: Author, Eric Dean Wilson; Moderated by Amy Lemmon, FIT
Description: Timely in a way that may challenge more than comfort, Eric Dean Wilson’s compelling first book looks at the costs of keeping ourselves cool, and the heating that alone engenders in After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort (Simon & Schuster). He appears in conversation with Amy Lemmon, Professor and Chairperson of English and Communication Studies, and select FIT students and recent alumni.
“After Cooling is a deeply discomforting book – and that's the point. Eric Dean Wilson's message, which could not be more timely, is that we need to rethink how we live and what we want.”— Elizabeth Kolbert.
“Meticulously researched and engagingly written, After Cooling is essential reading for the planetary crisis.”— Amitav Ghosh
The speakers will be participating in a live chat during the premier of this prerecorded presentation.