Stony Brook Southampton Continues Its Sustainability Speaker Series
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y., March 10, 2009 – Stony Brook Southampton continues its Sustainability Speaker Series with East End environmental advocate Robert S. DeLuca.
He will discuss “Sustainability Starts with You,” addressing the growing interest in all things sustainable and the importance of public advocacy and personal conviction in bringing about lasting change, starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, in Duke Lecture Hall. DeLuca will also outline some of the most effective and ineffective methods for starting and sustaining community-driven conservation campaigns.
“We are on the verge of a revolution in our environmental thinking, but lasting change requires more than green slogans, clever marketing and advancements in technology,” DeLuca said. “Lasting change requires a fundamental shift in the values that permanently shape the ethical behaviors of our culture.”
Environmental and societal challenges will be discussed, and attendees will learn how to be part of the solution as committed environmental advocates. “An environmentally literate public must be mobilized to sustain the vigilant reinforcement that will be needed to achieve our environmental aspirations,” he added. “The greatest risk of failure lies in the complacency of believing that somebody else will take care of the details.”
DeLuca brings over 20 years of professional advocacy experience to this lecture, and has served as President and CEO of Group for the East End since 1992. Group for the East End is Eastern Long Island's largest professionally staffed conservation advocacy and education organization. The Group strives to create a conservation ethic that improves the health of the region's fragile environment and supports its tourist, second-home and agricultural economy.
He holds a B.S. from Fordham University, where he created the University's first interdisciplinary degree in Environmental Science, and ran the University's student environmental organization for several years. He also holds and M.S. in Environmental Science from the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Prior to joining the Group, DeLuca worked as both a Biologist and Senior Environmental Analyst with the Suffolk County Office of Ecology and taught environmental advocacy and policy as an adjunct professor at Southampton College from1988 until 2005, when the school closed. DeLuca is currently the co-host of WLIU's (88.3 FM) monthly environmental roundtable, which addresses the many environmental challenges and opportunities facing Long Island.
DeLuca's work in field of conservation advocacy has been recognized by many organizations, including the USEPA, the Long Island Progressive Coalition, the Peconic Baykeeper, the Garden Clubs of America and the Student Government Association of Long Island University.
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For Further Information, Contact Darren Johnson at 631-632-5088 or 631-316-1873