Kingsborough Community College is hosting its fifth annual Eco-Festival on April 27-30, 2010. The theme for this year is "Sustainable NYC".

New York is one of the largest cities in an increasingly urban world. By 2030, New York will add a million more residents. Since the launching of PlaNYC 2030, New York is poised to become a leader among sustainable cities. But it faces daunting challenges. Can New York become sustainable? What can we as New Yorkers and global citizens do to meet urban sustainability goals?

Eco-Festival is designed to provide a unique opportunity for students, faculty, and members of the New York community to gather together and engage in dialogue centered on our environmental problems and the challenges we face globally in the twenty-first century. Kingsborough Eco-Festival was the winner of the 2008 CUNY Sustainability Award for outstanding environmental education and advocacy.

Eco-Festival 2010 will be constituted of students and faculty from many disciplines, community leaders, environmental activists, writers, and artists. It will feature keynote speakers, films, lectures, workshops, faculty panels, a day of the arts, and outdoor activities.

The festival is free and open to the public. Eco-Festival is under the umbrella of the Kingsborough Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE) Initiative and is co-sponsored by the Student World Assembly. Partial funding for Eco-Festival 2010 has been provided by Con Edison and The New York Times.

Highlights of the Eco-Festival 2010 program include:

Speakers:

Anna Lappe, Small Planet Institute, author of Diet for a Hot Planet

Makale Faber Cullen, Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment (BCUE) and Slow Food USA

William Solecki, Director, CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities

Elizabeth Yeampierre, Director, UPROSE (United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park)

Holly Kallman, Sustainability Coordinator for CCNY

Films:

Lavender Lake, a film about the Gowanus Canal with producer/director Allison Prete

King Corn

Earth Slam! an afternoon of poetry and music

Outdoor events:

Camp PEERT, a model campsite

Christening of “Green Boat” on April 30, 2010. Developed by the Maritime Technology Program with a grant from NOAA, it will be the first boat fueled by recycled cooking oil on its inaugural trip to clean up floating trash in Sheepshead Bay.

Check back for updates, including a full program of events.