By Lookout Staff

March 31, 2014 -- Zero net energy homes, improving food systems and climate change will be the focus of the remaining presentations during Santa Monica College’s Spring 2014 Environmental Issues Lecture Series.

On Tuesday, April 8, renewable energy expert Stuart Cooley will discuss residential home designs that produce as much energy as they consume in a talk titled “Zero Net Energy Homes – What Will They Look Like?”

An energy efficiency engineer for the City of Santa Monica, Cooley analyzes building energy use to ensure city facilities are efficient and explores ways to incorporate solar photovoltaic panels in new developments.

As a professor at SMC, Cooley teaches young adults who want to enter the growing green energy field as solar installers or as energy efficiency auditors.

On Tuesday, May 6, anthropologist Gillian Greblerand a panel of SMC and community food activists will discuss the “quest for food that’s good, clean, fair—and available to everyone,” in a discussion titled“How to Improve the Food System.”

Grebler leads SMC’s Food Justice Project, which was organized to inspire change in the food system to give everyone access to good, healthy food.

The project works with Club Grow, EcoAction, Associated Students, the Environmental Action Committee, the Center for Environmental and Urban Studies and other interested groups on campus to “educate, raise awareness and inspire action for a sustainable and just food system.”

The spring series concludes on Tuesday, May 27, with “Climate Change 101 Night,” which will address howwe know what is happening to our climate, what can we expect in the future and what we can do about it.

All lectures in the series are free and are held at 6:30 p.m. in Room 263 of the Humanities & Social Science Building on SMC’s main campus, 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. Seating is on a first-arrival basis.

The series – which has informed the community for more than 12 years – is sponsored by SMC’s Center for Environmental and Urban Studies (CEUS).
The center is open to the public and features displays, a library and information center, video collection, native garden, and other services and activities related to environmental and urban studies. SMC has been offering courses in environmental and urban studies since fall 2001.

For more information, please visit www.smc.edu/ceus or call (310) 434-4743.