Co-sponsored by The Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law Section and UF Student Government, this year’s PIEC embraces the theme “Talk, Technology and Techniques: Game Plan for Green,” and addresses the movement toward sustainable “green” design, institutions, and infrastructure. The conference is free for UF students. Scholarships are available for students who attend school in Florida, and a discounted registration fee is available for out-of-state students. Registration for the conference is $85, and the banquet is an additional $35.

Panels on Friday and Saturday will cover topics such as sustainable architecture, rural stewardship, low-impact development, and green corporations, featuring speakers who are leaders in government, academics, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. Friday morning’s roster of speakers will feature five leading academics, each of whom will focus on a technique or technology that offers promise for moving us towards sustainability.Their presentations will focus on innovative approaches for engaging market competition as a tool to promote environmental protection, valuing ecosystem services, designing energy policy and promoting green building, and a perspective on the role of litigation in attaining sustainability.

The conference is designed to provide an opportunity for meaningful conversation among a group with a diversity of perspectives but a shared commitment to sustainability. On Saturday morning, conference attendees will have the opportunity to meet in a unique workshop format for conversation with corporate leaders who are committed to sustainability, to discuss how to communicate effectively with the private sector on this topic. The finale on Saturday will explore the ethical challenges and opportunities presented by working with non-traditional partners to achieve sustainability.

The conference kicks off with a reception March 1 featuring speaker Jil Zilligen, vice president, Sustainable Business Practices at Nau Inc., a technical and lifestyle outdoor apparel company that is a unique business model built around sustainable business practices, the innovative use of technology and philanthropic partnerships.

UF President Bernie Machen, whose tenure has been marked by environmental initiatives, is the reception’s closing speaker. In 2004, Machen created the UF Water Institute, which provides a focal point for water-related research, education and public outreach programs. And in 2005, he gave sustainability a higher profile when he announced a series of measures to reduce the university’s impact on the environment. UF held its first Sustainability Day in late 2005, and in February 2006 the university named its first director of sustainability.

A Friday evening banquet at the Florida Museum of Natural History is highlighted by a keynote speech by Ray Anderson, founder and chairman of Interface, Inc. Anderson has transformed Interface, Inc. into a leader in sustainable and successful industry by redesigning processes and products, pioneering new technologies, and increasing the use of renewable materials.

Continuing Legal Education credit (13 general CLE credits, including 1.5 ethics hours) will be available for lawyers attending the conference. For more information on the conference or to register online, go to http://www.law.ufl.edu/piec/.

These events also will serve as the launching point for discussion at a forum entitled “A Series of Unfortunate Events? A Look at Race,” from noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 26 at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. The event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR), the event will be held in Holland Hall room 355B on the law school campus.

Panelists include Milagros Peña, director of the Center For Women’s Studies and Gender Research and associate professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at UF; Faye Harrison, professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at UF and author of Resisting Racism and Xenophobia: Global Perspectives on Race, Gender, and Human Rights; Yuko Fujino, a doctoral student in the UF Department of Sociology whose teaching and research interests include U.S. racial and ethnic relations; and UF Law Professor Kenneth Nunn, whose teaching and research focuses on criminal law and African Americans and law.

Jabari Asim, a syndicated columnist, deputy editor of The Washington Post Book World, and author of the forthcoming The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t and Why, will give the keynote. Florida State Senator Anthony C. Hill, Sr. will make opening remarks.

The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations is an academic research and resource center committed to de-stigmatizing race in America. The center’s objective is to foster communities of dialogue while embracing historically and empirically based thinking, talking, teaching, and writing on race. The center creates and supports programs designed to enhance race-related curriculum development for faculty, staff and students in collegiate and professional schools.

A reception will immediately follow the event. For more information, contact the center at csrrrr@law.ufl.edu or 273-0614.