Program 2008 - Environment

Thursday, January 10, 2008
Stonyfield Farm
1050 Perimeter Road, Manchester, NH
Directions and General Info  
Use the link above, or visit Mapquest for directions from your own home.

Action Assignment

AGENDA
This Program Day is proudly sponsored by National Grid and Stonyfield Farm

7:30 Coffee Available

8:00 Check-in

8:45    The Science - Climate Change: Causes and Consequences

Barry Rock, Professor, Complex Systems Research, UNH

 

9:45   BREAK / Organize and leave for plant tour

 

10:00   Tour of Plant

 

11:30   Lunch

 

12:15    LNH 2008 Mid year Check-in

 

1:15 Cows, Carbon, and Commerce

Gary Hirshberg President & CEO, Stonyfield Farm

 

1:45   The State of NH Policy implications - Reducing New Hampshire 's Carbon Emissions: The Regional  Greenhouse Gas Initiative and "25 by 25"

Commissioner Tom Burack and Joanne Morin, Climate and Energy Programs, Air Resources Division, NH Department of Environmental Services

 

2:45    The Economic Implications - Electricity in a Carbon-Constrained World   

Gary Long, CEO, Public Service of NH and Joseph Kwasnik, Group Head of Climate Change, National Grid

 

3:45 BREAK

 

4:00 Action Planning

 

5:00   Wrap-up, announcements, evaluations, assignment for next session

HOW TO DRESS
Business Casual

BIOS

TOM BURACK

Thomas Burack was confirmed by Governor Lynch as the Commissioner of Environmental Services in September of 2006 . Burack is a partner at Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green in Manchester , where he specializes in environmental, real estate and corporate law. From 1988 to 1989, Burack served as a law clerk for then-Associate New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice David Souter. From 1982 to 1984, he served as legislative assistant for environmental matters for U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey.

Since 1990, Burack has served as chair of the Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire's WasteCap Program Steering committee, which works to help New Hampshire businesses save money by reducing solid waste, conserving energy and water, and preventing pollution. As a member of the BIA's Environmental Affairs Committee, Burack assisted in the drafting of the state's Brownfields Program, a law enacted in 1996 that helps promote the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated properties.

Burack is chair of the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Authority, and served as a member and chairman of the commission that recommended the creation of LCHIP. He is a former member of the board of trustees for the Audubon Society of New Hampshire and now serves as an honorary trustee.  He also served from 1992 to 1996 as the vice chairman of the New Hampshire Superfund Task Force established by former Congressman Bill Zeliff and as a member of the New Hampshire Recycling Markets Development Steering Committee.

Burack is a member of the Board of Advisers for the George C. Marshall Foundation; a former president and chair of the board of trustees of the Truman Scholars Association; a former chairman of the New Hampshire Bar Association's section on environmental and natural resources law; and a former legal counsel to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee.

In 2001, Business NH Magazine named Burack one of the 10 state leaders on environmental matters. Burack graduated from Dartmouth College in 1982 and received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1988. He is also a 1997 graduate of LNH. Burack was raised in Jackson , where his parents still live. His wife, Emilie Christie, is a Lancaster native. They live with their two children in Hopkinton.

 

GARY HIRSCHBERG

A true force for change, Gary Hirshberg has been at the forefront of movements working for environmental and social transformation for 30 years.  From his early days as an educator and activist to his current position as President and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, the world's largest organic yogurt company, Hirshberg's positive outlook has inspired thousands of people to recognize their ability to make the world a better place. 

A popular, entertaining speaker, Gary has taken his uplifting message to consumer and business organizations across America as well as worldwide.  His topics range from the organic industry and farming to corporate social responsibility and the environment. 

The husband of writer Meg Hirshberg, and the father of three teenage yogurt-eaters, Hirshberg, 53, has overseen the growth of Stonyfield from its infancy as a seven-cow organic farming school in 1983 to its current $300 million annual sales. This growth has been built with innovative marketing techniques that often combine the social, environmental, and financial missions of the company. One of the company's five missions is "to serve as a model that environmentally and socially responsible businesses can also be profitable" and Gary has realized this vision in every aspect of the company.

In the early days of Stonyfield, Gary wore many hats - from yogurt-maker to bookkeeper. He served as director of the Rural Education Center , the small organic farming school from which Stonyfield was spawned. Before that, he was executive director of The New Alchemy Institute, an ecological institute devoted to organic agriculture, aquaculture and renewable energy systems. He was also the Founding President of the Cape Cod Environmental Coalition which sued the US Air Force over a large radar facility that has recently returned to the news. And he was the Founding Chairman of the Cape and Islands Self-Reliance Corporation. Earlier in his career, he was a water-pumping windmill specialist, an author, an environmental education specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and a manager of environmental tours to the People's Republic of China
Gary is a New Hampshire native and was one of the first graduates of Hampshire College in Amherst , Massachusetts . He has received six honorary doctorates. He serves on several corporate and non- profit boards including  Honest Tea, Sambazon, Inc., Peak Organic Brewing and as the Chairman/Cofounder of O ' Naturals, a chain of organic and natural fast food restaurants.  He co-chaired The Social Venture Network for 5 years and is the Founder of the Social Venture Institute, a "boot camp" for community-minded entrepreneurs. He also coaches three youth soccer teams and is president of the Express Soccer Club.

Gary has won numerous awards for corporate and environmental leadership including: the 1999 Global Green USA's Green Cross Millennium Award (inspired by Mikhail S. Gorbachev) for Corporate Environmental Leadership. Gary was named "Business Leader of the Year" by Business NH Magazine and " New Hampshire ' s 1998 Small Business Person of the Year" by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

In January 2008, Hyperion Books (NY) will publish Hirshberg's “ Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the Word ,” which outlines how consumers and businesses can be forces for positive and tangible change.  Robert Redford's review: "Gary Hirshberg dared to dream new ways of doing business based on respect for customers, employees, and the earth.  And, it worked.  If you buy or sell anything, or simply want to feel hopeful about the future, this lively and legitimately optimistic book is worth every minute."   http://www.stonyfield.com/stirringitup

 

 

JOSEPH KWASNIK

Joe Kwasnik is Group Head of Climate Change for National Grid. Prior to this appointment, he was the Vice President of Environment for the US businesses of National Grid. In his current capacity, Mr. Kwasnik develops corporate policy, strategy and implementation of initiatives to achieve a low carbon and more energy efficient business. He has been employed at National Grid for over 27 years and has a Bachelors Degree in

Geology and a Masters Degree in Environmental Engineering.

 

GARY LONG

Gary A. Long is President and Chief Operating Officer for Public Service Company of New Hampshire (PSNH), a subsidiary of the Northeast Utilities System (NU).

A native of Albuquerque , New Mexico , Long holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University and a master of science degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University .

Long joined PSNH in 1976 as an assistant engineer, after serving as an officer in the United States Air Force. Since that time, he has held various positions at PSNH in the areas of marketing, customer service, regulatory affairs, governmental relations, economic development, and rates. Mr. Long was PSNH's principal representative in the development and implementation of electric utility restructuring in New Hampshire following the passage of the State's electric utility restructuring law in 1996 and various revisions thereafter.

He has been actively involved in working with the company's commercial, industrial, and wholesale customers and has testified numerous times before the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, the State Legislature and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In February 2000, Long assumed the position of Senior Vice President responsible for marketing, corporate communications, customer services, governmental affairs and economic development. He assumed his present position on July 1, 2000. In May, 2006, he was named " 2006 Business Leader of the Year " by Business NH Magazine.

Long is a member of the Advisory Council of Junior Achievement of New Hampshire, a board member of Amoskeag Industries, Inc., the New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts, the Business and Industry Association, The New Hampshire Forum on Higher Education, the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and the Manchester Development Corporation. He is a graduate of Leadership Greater Manchester and Leadership New Hampshire. He has been an Easter Seal VIP since 1993. He was PSNH's United Way Chairman and Northeast Utilities 1996 United Way Chairman. He is a past board member of the Manchester East Catholic Regional School System. For over 15 years, Long had coached youth soccer in various leagues in Manchester .

 

RICK MINARD

Richard A. Minard, Jr., of Bow, New Hampshire , has served as president and CEO of New Hampshire Audubon since September 2006.

Rick's prior work has included service as Executive Director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, Co-Director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies in Concord, Associate Director of the Center for the Economy and the Environment at the National Academy of Public Administration in Washington, D.C., founding Director of the Northeast Center for Comparative Risk at Vermont Law School, and Vermont State Planning Director.

His education includes a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University , and a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Harvard College . He was a Rotary International Fellow at the Centre for Journalism Studies, University College , Cardiff , Wales .

Rick has served on the Bow, N.H., Planning Board, the Program Committee of Leadership New Hampshire, and is a member of the Rotary Club of Bow. New Hampshire Magazine named him one of the state's “it people” for 2007.

 

JOANN MORIN

Joanne O. Morin is the manager of Climate and Energy Programs for the Air Division of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.  In this capacity, she is responsible for many initiatives to promote cleaner energy sources, energy efficiency, and energy conservation in the transportation, power generation, commercial, industrial and residential sectors.  She also directs the outreach and rulemaking efforts for the Air Division.  Recently, she facilitated a stakeholder process to develop a renewable portfolio standard for New Hampshire which was recently passed by the NH General Court.  For the past three years, she has served as the New Hampshire representative on the staff working group for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a proposed “cap and trade” program for limiting carbon dioxide emissions from major electric power plants in 10 eastern states.    Her previous experience includes twelve years as an environmental consultant and four years as a Corporate Environmental Manager for The Timberland Company.  Her previous environmental work ranged from Superfund litigation to monitoring overseas labor and environmental conditions. 

 

DR. BARRETT ROCK

Barry Rock is a faculty member in the Complex Systems Research Center at UNH.  He is also a member of the Natural Resources faculty and the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space and teaches in Natural Resources. His research focuses on the impact of air pollutants on forest species. Dr. Rock has developed a number of pre-college (K-12) science education outreach programs based on his own research activities. Today over 150 schools across New England are involved in Forest Watch.