Guest Speaker

Kevin Fitzwilliam Training and Workforce Development Specialist with the New Orleans Energy Smart program

Title: Sustainability in New Orleans and Louisiana

Louisiana has stood at the forefront of climate change for decades.  The facts are well-known – coastal land loss, rising seas, flooding, sprawling development, etc. Now the state of Louisiana has emissions reduction goals and has ways to provide cleaner sources of energy, as well as ways to help homes and business reduce current electricity consumption. This talk will cover some of those state goals and ways to address them:

• ·Potential for a burgeoning Gulf wind industry
• ·Solar energy
• ·Energy efficiency
• ·Electric vehicle infrastructure

There are millions of careers in clean energy in the United States, whether in renewable energy or energy efficiency. I will cover ways to enter the clean energy workforce, the various types of careers under the clean-energy umbrella, and projections for future employment opportunities and technology advances in our region.  Attendees will have the opportunity to give their own ideas on what changes need to take place to help our region gain a competitive edge as clean energy careers evolve and increase in number.

Additionally, our region faces numerous other environmental concerns, such as plastic waste during Mardi Gras.  I will discuss these and other environmental topics.

Kevin Fitzwilliam works as the Training and Workforce Development Specialist with the Energy Smart program in New Orleans, assisting electrical contractors and small businesses to take advantage of energy-efficiency incentives. He has worked at the forefront of numerous environmental issues in the Gulf South, having taught environmental science, worked in solar-energy consulting prior, and co-founded Hollygrove Market & Farm to working with Energy Smart.  He has also been centrally involved for the last five years in efforts to reduce plastic waste during Mardi Gras. Kevin is from New Orleans and earned a graduate degree in Environmental Planning & Management from LSU.