University of North Carolina - Chancellor Holden Thorp

Welcome to the Research Triangle, a home of innovative, breakthrough ideas for some 50 years.  The conference theme of Working Together is a foundation principle at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Our faculty, staff, students, local businesses, and community leaders must all bring their best ideas to the table if we are to effectively tackle climate change, health threats, economic challenges, and providing equitable access to lives of quality. Turning the greatest challenges of our era into the work plans for our campus, our community, and other higher education institutions can only happen when we work together.

Recognizing that sustainability is no longer an elective, at Carolina we are integrating sustainability into our curriculum, our capital projects, our master planning, our day-to-day operations, and our workforce.  Yet we still have a long way to go before the entire campus community and beyond internalizes sustainability as a core value.

As a host institution, we hope that you will become familiar with our efforts to introduce sustainability by reading our 2007 Campus Sustainability Report, taking the conference tour of our energy and water infrastructure, taking the self-guided sustainability tour of our campus, attending our presentations, and visiting our booth in the exhibit hall.

Most importantly, we hope you will all learn from and be inspired by each other.  Even though the challenges ahead loom large, I have confidence in the talent, the creativity, and the commitment of each one of you attending this conference.  Working Together we can define and achieve a more sustainable future.  Our planned research campus at Carolina North and the nascent sustainability policy for the 17-campus UNC system are a microcosm of the new thinking required.  We are proud of our efforts to date and honored to work together with all of you to lead us toward a more sustainable future.