Design Expert Orr Speaks at JMU on 'Making a Green Campus'

From: Public Affairs

November 7, 2007

HARRISONBURG — David Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College and James Marsh Professor-At-Large at the University of Vermont, will present "Design on the Edge: The Making of a Green Campus" at James Madison University. His lecture, part of the Visiting Scholars Program, is free and open to the public.

DATE: Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Highlands Room, Festival Conference and Student Center

Well known for his pioneering work on environmental literacy in higher education and his recent work in ecological design, Orr is the author of five books: "Design on the Edge: The Making of a High Performance Building" (2006), "The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment" (2004), "The Nature of Design" (2002), "Earth in Mind" (1994) and "Ecological Literacy" (1992). He is the co-editor of "The Campus and Environmental Responsibility" (1992) and "The Global Predicament" (1979), and has published more than 150 articles in scientific journals, social science publications and popular magazines.

Orr holds a B.A. from Westminster College, an M.A. from Michigan State and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Center for Ecoliteracy and the Center for Respect of Life and the Environment. He is adviser and consultant to the Trust for Public Land and the National Parks Advisory Council.

"My passion is ideas, particularly those having to do with how humans can live well on this lovely planet without destroying it," Orr said. "The thing I most enjoy is moving ideas from abstractions to some tangible form in the world. For example, I helped to initiate, organize and fund the effort to design and build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center, a "zero discharge" building substantially powered by sunlight (in cloudy Ohio), which was identified as one of 30 milestone buildings in the 20th century — mostly because it aimed to redefine academic architecture as a kind of pedagogy, not just a place where education happens."

JMU Public Affairs contact: Janet Smith, 540-568-8008 or smithjl@jmu.edu.

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