The third annual Art Center Summit, Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility, has come to a close. Attendees from 16 different countries came to Pasadena to share in the dialogue about the future of sustainable mobility. Nearly 200 attendees at the Leadership Summit, 450 at the Education Summit and 20 press organizations gathered to hear 55 speakers discuss a range of topics that included energy, the future of flight, mobility habits, visions for dynamic cities, policy-changing strategies and sustainability advances in other industries such as health care.
At the Summit, we learned that the challenges are many and the stakes are high, but that design can provide a light at the end of the tunnel. A few highlights included:
- An enthusiastic welcome from Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey, who heads the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, who urged designers to get involved in developing a new strategy for mobility in the United States.
- R. James Woolsey, former director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, whose keynote address argued that breaking free from oil is not just an environmental issue, but a question of national security.
- Also at the keynote, Andy Karsner, former lead authority on transportation within the Department of Energy, pointed to the current air of optimism in Washington D.C. as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for design to make a difference. D.C.’s arms are wide open to new ideas and innovation, said Karsner, emphasizing that designers and policy makers can work together to create a new vision for the transportation industry.
- To address the question of how design can enable the transition to carbon-free sources of energy, Tuesday’s Education Summit presented an overview of energy and how renewable energy will be fueling economic and lifestyle change. The day included valuable insight from experts in relevant energy topics, from source and supply, to implementation strategies and policy.
Stay tuned as we will be updating this site frequently with more information, images and videos from the Summit.
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