Friday, May 6, 1:30 PM

Connecting Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice: Implications for Action

Kyle D. Brown is Director of the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, California. He is the author of two books, numerous articles and conference papers, and a collaborator on two professional reference CD-ROMs for environmental designers. His work has been recognized with awards from the Association of American Publishers and the American Society of Landscape Architects. The focus of his recent research has been on professional responses to social justice, and strategies for effectively integrating social consciousness into the design and planning process.

In his role as Director of the Lyle Center, Dr. Brown has become increasingly interested in the relationship between social justice and environmental sustainability. He has actively sought opportunities for the Center to promote a just world through research, education, demonstration and outreach related to regenerative systems that provide for long-term functioning of communities and ecosystems. In 2004 he helped establish Habitat 21: The Lyle Center Project for Sustainable Settlements, an interdisciplinary effort which seeks to develop, implement, and evaluate sustainable settlement strategies for disenfranchised communities around the world, where people live in dangerous and unhealthy conditions. Habitat 21 is currently focusing its efforts on three colonias in Tijuana, Mexico.