The half-day Summit, sponsored by the School of Business, featured a series of presentations about ways in which Connecticut is shaping the future of clean energy and sustainability. It drew students, faculty, alumni and industry professionals with a shared interest in addressing some of the world\u2019s biggest challenges.<\/p>\n
Arminda Kamphausen<\/strong>, Director of Global & Sustainability Initiatives at the School of Business and the event organizer, said the summit fostered new knowledge and a host of new connections for its participants. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not easy to make changes, but it was inspiring to see the bright minds at a professional- and student-level all pulling together to make progress,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cOne of the presenters on the Clean Energy panel said she\u2019d be happy to attend the event every year to interact with our students because she was so impressed by their knowledge, determination, and aspirations.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n The event started with a fireside chat between UConn President Radenka Maric<\/strong> and alumnus Brian Paganini \u201903<\/strong>, Vice President and Managing Director of Quantum Biopower, a food-waste-to-energy plant in Southington. Moderated by School of Business Dean John A. Elliott<\/strong>, he first asked Maric about her pledge to make UConn carbon neutral by 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a big vision and you\u2019re not bold, you\u2019re not going to get anywhere,\u2019\u2019 Maric said. By the 1990s, researchers understood what was happening with climate change and the magnitude of the problem the world was facing, she said. \u201cWe have to stay focused because we don\u2019t have another planet!\u2019\u2019 said Maric who is a research expert on fuel cells and batteries, and hydrogen generation<\/p>\n \u201cTemperature change, sea level change, methane in the ocean, are all factors that are not visual to most of us. But the extreme fires and flooding are evidence to all of us of the human-induced pain to our planet,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cAs a leader, if I can do one thing it is to build awareness and take actions because no one can this alone.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n UConn has been named the second most sustainable university in the U.S. by GreenMetric in December 2023. The new dormitory being constructed on South Campus will be off the grid, Maric said, thanks to geothermal technology, fuel cells and solar panels. <\/p>\n Paganini also detailed the lengthy process to build Quantum Biopower, which receives 40,000 tons of food waste a year, which is repurposed as energy and compost.<\/p>\n His research required months inspecting and analyzing design technology abroad, followed by 2.5 years to the permits for the facility before shovels could go in the ground. He and his team worked with the state legislature to get a law passed so that restaurants and grocery stores would be required to divert their food waste from landfills. It took more effort to get permission, as a non-utility company, to sell power back to the town of Southington, which uses it to power municipal buildings.<\/p>\n Both Maric and Paganini spoke of how important infrastructure and policy are for advancement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to educate the public because without it\u2019s acceptance, you will fail,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cNot only is tech readiness vital, but the political landscape is also very important.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Paganini agreed, saying the biggest challenge he encounters is the lack of a consistent national policy about recycling and green energy.<\/p>\n The Summit also featured a panel on clean energy moderated by OPIM professor Jennifer Eigo<\/strong>. Speakers included alumnus Bryan Dougherty \u201917 MBA<\/strong>, Operations Preparation Project Manager at Orsted; Dan Boyd, \u201912 MBA<\/strong>, founder of Current Trucking; Larry Seiler<\/strong>, Head of Development at Ozone Renewables; and Lauren Burm<\/strong>, Senior Director at Vestas.<\/p>\n Seiler said many people take the U.S. energy grid for granted, but it is very archaic in some ways and evolving at breakneck speed in others. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is ripe for innovation from solar panels and energy storage,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cSo many great people are doing great things to innovate.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n But he and the other panelists also spoke of the complexity of every project, from ideas to permits to financing, equipment maintenance and community response.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere do you put a large wind field? People love renewable energy til it comes to their neighborhood,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n Burm displayed a slide show photos of the enormous blades and turbines used in the South Fork project, that will eventually power 70,000 Long Island homes, and discussed the challenge of transporting and assembling them.<\/p>\n Dougherty said that the wind farm is soon to be commissioned after a \u201ctightrope walk\u2019\u2019 of approvals. Now Orsted must focus on maintenance. With seawater and erosion, maintenance is critical and requires heli-hoisting technicians to the top of the turbine or transferring the crew by vessel. Both options are expensive, he said. Every state has different regulations, so while 75 percent of the application and implementation process can be re-deployed, there is always 25 percent that\u2019s brand new, he added.<\/p>\n Boyd said there is an employee shortage in the clean-energy industry. \u201cThere is a shortage of talent because there\u2019s so much competition,\u2019\u2019 he said to the students in the audience. \u201cTell your friends why sustainability is important to you and future generations.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n During a panel on ESG, the three speakers were asked what consumers can do to make the world more habitable.<\/p>\n Heather Burns<\/strong>, CEO of the Connecticut Sustainable Business Council, urged those in the audience to buy fewer things. John Mandyck<\/strong>, CEO of Urban Green Council of New York City and an adjunct faculty member, said consumers should waste less food. And Karen Jarmoc, Senior Sustainability Consultant at the National ESG Council, said her hope would be to engage the younger generation in thinking about sustainability in hopes of building new leaders for tomorrow. <\/p>\n The event also featured panels of young alumni and current students, who enthusiastically shared their experiences in their early quest for change. <\/p>\n Sophomore Aminieli Hopson<\/strong> is majoring in real estate and urban economic studies, serves as the President of the Business Connections Living Learning Community, and is the first business student to intern at the UConn Office of Sustainability. He described how living in Tanzania, as well as four states in the U.S., made him realize that sustainable change must be addressed differently depending on the region\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n After the event, he said he thought the presentations were phenomenal, and that he was excited to expand his knowledge and to add some key people to his professional network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The half-day Summit, sponsored by the School of Business, featured a series of presentations about ways in which Connecticut is shaping the future of clean energy and sustainability. It drew students, faculty, alumni and industry professionals with a shared interest in addressing some of the world\u2019s biggest challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":210615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1862],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2105],"class_list":["post-210611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-busn"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 05:41:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210611"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210619,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210611\/revisions\/210619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/210615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210611"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=210611"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=210611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Big Vision, Bold Initiatives<\/h3>\n
Clean Energy, Offshore Wind Advances<\/h3>\n
![\"Business](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/gblss-2-1500x1000-1.jpg\")
Advice for a Better Tomorrow<\/h3>\n