Fall 2019 – IISE SDD Newsletter

Fall 2019 Newsletter

In the newsletter below, we discuss the following topics:

  • President’s Welcome Message
  • Congratulations and Welcome to our 2019 – 2020 Board
  • Rise Against Hunger Awarded Inaugural IISE Excellence in Sustainable Development
  • SDD Volunteers Support Two Nonprofits On Same Day
  • Student Member Updates
  • Upcoming Division Webinars
  • UN Sustainable Development Goal of the Month
  • Sustainable Development Related Articles

President’s Welcome Message

Joel Brock

Dear members and future members,

Its been nearly six years since I became involved in the Sustainable Development Division. A co-worker of mine at the time invited me to give a joint presentation with her at the annual IISE Conference, and also nudged me to attend the conference volunteering event that was sponsored by the Sustainable Development Division. I was already personally vested in the topic, having been part of many non-profit sustainable projects, both personally, and through my day to day job role. From there, my involvement and engagement with the division grew each year from member, to track chair, to division president this year! It has been rewarding for me to work with all the educators, industry professionals, and students that are interested in the topic of Sustainable Development. The division has a great leadership team, and many longer term members that have lead the division in the past, that remain involved and help guide and mentor the current board.

It seems as though the 2019 IISE Annual Conference just ended, but the new board has met three times since the town hall meeting in May, and already we are focused strongly on the May 2020 conference in New Orleans. We have worked to keep our guiding principles and goals for the years very focused and attainable. Our goals roll up into two main focus areas, operations and the annual conference. 

On the operations side, we are working hard to provide great thought leadership content, webinars, and newsletters to our membership base, as well as integrating more students into our board meetings, and seeking to involve our student membership base more deeply in the coming year. 

For the conference in 2020 in New Orleans, we intend to continue sponsoring a community service event to allow conference attendees an opportunity to give back to the community and leverage our engineering skill sets to help. We are also already hard at work trying to recruit compelling papers and topics for the SDD track to provide attendees an opportunity to see and experience current research and work taking place in Sustainable Development.

To learn more about our research and application framework, based on the UN Sustainable Development goals, please visit: www.sustainableengineer.org 

Please contact us if you would like to learn more or contribute to our team’s efforts. 

Joel

Congratulations and Welcome to our 2019 – 2020 Board


Read the bios for our board members


Rise Against Hunger Awarded Inaugural IISE Excellence in Sustainable Development

Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger relief nonprofit organization founded in 1998 that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable, mobilizing the necessary resources to end hunger by 2030. To date, they have packaged 450 million meals in 74 countries. Related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, RAH’s effort help impact Goal #2, Zero Hunger.

Based on their implementation of lean, Six Sigma, systems thinking and engineering principles, they have been named the inaugural winner of the IISE Excellence in Sustainable Development Award for 2019.

Read the full article about the award

SDD Volunteers Support Two Nonprofits On Same Day

Our division holds an annual service volunteer project with a nonprofit prior to each annual conference. For year 7, they decided to take on two nonprofits on the same day in Orlando, Rise Against Hunger and Habitat for Humanity. 

Read the full article about the service projects

Student Member Updates

We have lots of great initiatives and leadership starting in 2019 for engaging more students in Sustainable Development on campus and at the annual conference.

We are working on ways to:

  • Encourage student chapter members to volunteer with local nonprofits
  • Increase networking opportunities at the Annual Conference
  • Increase sharing of success stories through our social media

We will post new updates in future newsletters, so make sure you stay tuned, or contact Dustin Diep if you’d like to get more involved.

Upcoming Division Webinars

Rise Against Hunger Shares Improvement Journey to Help Achieve Zero Hunger
October 8, 2019, 2pm EST (12pm MST)

Rise Against Hunger was the inaugural award winner of the IISE Excellence in Sustainable Development. Courtney Hudson will share the journey of the nonprofit Rise Against Hunger as they improved their logistics operations to increase meals to those in hunger, and better organized their warehouses using 5S to increase efficiencies.

Fort Collins Lean Program Increases Income Assistance

October 22, 2019, 2pm EST (12pm MST)

The City of Fort Collins will discuss how they leveraged their FC Lean improvement program to increase participation of families in the Solar Affordability Program (SAP). The goal was an improved customer engagement process, while reducing administrative requirements and rework, and maintaining a high level of customer service. This would allow them to launch a more successful full-scale effort for their larger Income-Qualified Assistance Program.

Set a placeholder on your calendar, and look for an announcement with the official registration (coming soon!)


UN Sustainable Development Goal of the Month

In support of our recent award winner, Rise Against Hunger, we spotlight Goal #2 – Zero Hunger
It is time to rethink how we grow, share and consume our food.

If done right, agriculture, forestry and fisheries can provide nutritious food for all and generate decent incomes, while supporting people-centered rural development and protecting the environment.

Right now, our soils, freshwater, oceans, forests and biodiversity are being rapidly degraded. Climate change is putting even more pressure on the resources we depend on, increasing risks associated with disasters such as droughts and floods. Many rural women and men can no longer make ends meet on their land, forcing them to migrate to cities in search of opportunities.

A profound change of the global food and agriculture system is needed if we are to nourish today’s 795 million hungry and the additional 2 billion people expected by 2050.

The food and agriculture sector offers key solutions for development, and is central for hunger and poverty eradication.

Learn more at: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger/

Sustainable Development Related Articles

To connect with our growing IISE division, check out the links below…Sustainable Development Division |  SustainableEngineer.org | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin