Defining Sustainable Development:  Separating Fact from Fiction

Date:  Thursday, November 6, 2008
When: 4:30-6:30 with reception to follow in the Regents Lounge in the Statler Hotel
Where:  Beck 198
Attire:  Business


The Cornell Program in Real Estate in conjunction with the Environmental Law Society and the Development Related Outreach Program for Sustainability (DROPS) have put together a panel of today’s leading sustainability educators and practitioners to separate fact from fiction about what it means to be sustainable in the real estate industry.  Please join us for a lively discussion and Q & A session with three sustainability pioneers.

Panelists

  • Michael Deane, Vice President, Chief Sustainability Officer, Turner Construction, New York, New York
  • Paul Morris, Vice President, Sustainable Planning and Development, Cherokee Fund, Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Norman R. Scott, Professor, Department of Biological & Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Biographies

MICHAEL DEANE

Michael Deane is Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Turner Construction Company and a LEED Accredited Professional. His responsibilities at Turner include developing and implementing sustainable policy and training, green project setup, operational oversight, sales and acting as liaison to the US Green Building Council.

Michael has over 20 years of construction project management experience.  He has managed a wide range of projects in both the public and private sectors with both for-profit and non-profit institutions. Michael has an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and has considerable experience in the renovation of landmarked structures.  His experience also includes K-12 schools, libraries, various cultural institutions and hospitality. 

Michael is a founding Board Member of the New York Chapter of the US Green Building Council, and served as Board Chair from November 2003 until January 2006. In December 2005, Michael was elected to the USGBC National Board of Directors.  He continues to serve as an advisor to the New York Chapter.

Since 2000 Turner Construction has completed over 75 LEED certified projects, has over 120 LEED Registered projects underway and has over 500 LEED Accredited Professionals on staff. 

PAUL MORRIS

Paul Morris is vice president of Cherokee, a private equity real estate investment firm that partners with communities across North America, Western Europe and Asia to return contaminated properties to clean, safe and productive use. 

Mr. Morris oversees planning and design activities across Cherokee’s portfolio of projects.  He serves as Cherokee’s expert on land use and transportation, TOD, urban design and low impact development.  He provides vision and oversight as leader of Cherokee’s sustainability initiatives. 

Mr. Morris joined Cherokee in 2007 after spending 7 years at Parsons Brinckerhoff where he formed PB PlaceMaking – a sustainable community planning practice.  Prior to PB, he spent twenty years in Portland, Oregon, where he served as managing partner of McKeever/Morris, Inc., responsible for strategic planning, business operations and administration on projects located throughout the United States, Canada and Japan. 

Registered as landscape architect and public policy mediator, he specializes in facilitating agreement around complex and controversial challenges.  He has been involved in over 350 projects over his 28-year career, ranging from inner-city regeneration in Detroit and Washington, D.C.; to rebuilding of New York City’s World Trade Center and Kobe, Japan’s earthquake hobbled center city; to economic revitalization of rural timber communities in the Pacific Northwest. 

He has earned the distinction of being inducted into Who’s Who in America and as Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.  He has received 34 citations, honors and awards including the Commanding General’s Medal of Excellence from the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Mr. Morris is a graduate of the University of Oregon and Harvard University. He has taught at the University level and lectured at over 90 conferences and symposia throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East – including before the Congressional Black Caucus, National Design Forum of Israel and the Royal Institute of British Architects.  He has written, contributed to or been featured in over 150 publications on topics ranging from urban regeneration, transit & land use, sustainability, smart growth and civic design. 

He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association, Congress for The New Urbanism and the American Society of Landscape Architects, where in 2003 he served as national president.

NORMAN R. SCOTT

Norman R. Scott has been involved in bioengineering research and teaching for over 20 years prior to spending 14 years as a Cornell administrator.  His early research was focused on thermoregulation in poultry, biomechanics of machine milking of dairy cows and electronic applications in agriculture, with particular attention to automatic identification and estrus detection of livestock, as well as the effects of transient current on dairy cows. Since returning to the faculty in 1998, he has focused on research in sustainable development. This research is directed to development of sustainable communities with emphasis on biologically derived fuels, renewable energy, recycling, managed ecosystems and industrial ecology. Grant support has been obtained from New York State Energy Research & Development Authority and USDA and proposals, of which he is a member of the team, has been and are being submitted to the DOE, USDA and NSF.

Primary Interests:  Agricultural engineering; biological and environmental engineering; biophysics; community development; energy, environment, and sustainable development; environmental sciences; international agriculture; international development; nanotechnology; sustainable agriculture; sustainable development

Research Focus:  Directed to development of sustainable communities with emphasis on biologically derived fuels, renewable and sustainable energy systems, recycling, managed ecosystems and agr-eco-industrial systems.