A conversation on campus sustainability
(September 2007)
Sustainability is one of the hottest trends on college campuses today. A sustainable campus or community is one that uses integrated, coordinated practices that can meet present needs while, at the same time, enhance the environment and the ability of future generations to thrive.
Those practices involve everything from water conservation and energy efficiency to purchasing innovative supplies, adding bike routes and pedestrian walks, and designing buildings in a more environmentally friendly manner.
Ann Savageau is an associate professor of design at UC Davis involved in integrating a sustainable philosophy into UC Davis academics. The recipient of a UC Davis Campus Sustainability Award, she teaches an introductory class in sustainable design and a class in "Environmental Consciousness and Sustainability."
Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor for campus planning, looks at the “big picture” for achieving sustainability at UC Davis. Segar has directed planning for 17 years for UC Davis’ 5,300 acres – the largest campus in the UC system.
Related news
- “Focus on climate change: Campus energized for historic, ‘largest ever’ teach-in,” Dateline, 2.8.08
- “Green ideas: UC Davis students think locally for Focus the Nation,” Spotlight (includes video), 2.12.08
- “Progress made in UC sustainability efforts,” Dateline, 2.1.08
- “How green are we? Sustainability Day celebrates many aspects of campus effort,” Spotlight (includes video) 10.29.07
Web sites
Profiles
Ann Savageau, associate professor of design
Ann Savageau is an associate professor of design at UC Davis and, before that, lectured in the campus Nature and Culture Program and in the art department. The recipient of a UC Davis Campus Sustainability Award, she teaches an introductory class in sustainable design and a class in "Environmental Consciousness and Sustainability."
Her creative work involves mixed-media sculpture and installations dealing with two themes. One is super-affluence, the obsolescence of consumer goods, and artistic transformations of waste; the other is environmental destruction and global warming.
Savageau’s most recent major creative work was At the Crossroads, a mixed-media installation about the toll caused by environmental destruction and global warming, and resulting decimation of plant and animal populations.
In regard to her classroom work, Savageau says her major curricular focus since joining the Design Program in 2006 has been environmentally sustainable design practices as they relate to visual communication, interior architecture and textiles.
Contact: Ann Savageau, Design Program, (530) 754-4871,
Bob Segar, assistant vice chancellor for campus planning
Bob Segar has directed campus planning at UC Davis since 1989. His office is responsible for long-range land use planning, master planning for campus physical growth and development, plans for neighborhood districts, site planning for open space, circulation and buildings.
In addition to his master planning responsibilities, in fall 2006, Segar was named to lead the team in charge of planning and managing the campus’s centennial celebration in 2008-09.
He also served as the chancellor’s coordinator for the Center for the Arts initiative, culminating in the opening of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in October of 2002.
Before coming to UC Davis, Segar worked in the campus planning office at Stanford University. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Michigan.
Contact: Bob Segar, UC Davis Centennial, (530) 754-2008,