The Austin Water Utility and the Center for Environmental Research will sponsor a lunch discussion on the first monday of each month in 2009.  These are brown bag events (bring your own lunch) and open to the public. 

February 2: Climate Disruption: Potential change and the role of water utilities
 
President Obama’s new Science advisor John Holdren argues that the terms “Global warming” and “climate change” may be too timid for what we may see over the next few decades.  We’ll watch a 20-minute video of Holdren as he lays out the state of the science of the drivers and potential impacts. We’ll then review the water-energy connection and hear how water utilities in general are responding to these challenges. 

March 2: Measuring our Impact: Inventory, Footprint, and Strategies

Picking up where February left off, we will focus on climate-related activities at Austin Water – first reviewing Austin Water’s inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, then looking at the strategies that have emerged for reducing emissions.

April 6: The Carbon Utility: Techniques for Managing Carbon

Sludge treatment processes, watershed land management and bioenergy production all present opportunities for water and wastewater utilities to not simply reduce carbon emissions through more efficient water pumping and treatment, but to offset fossil fuel use, enhance biomass growth and actually sequester atmospheric carbon. We will explore Austin Water Utility’s activities on each of these fronts.

Location