Second annual Focus the Nation draws crowd

Hundreds of students attended the second annual Focus the Nation at Cal Poly, which emphasized the need to build a sustainable economy. The event is a nationwide teach-in that aims to educate attendants about the future of sustainability through guest speakers, panelists and other events.

Many of the panel guests were business professionals who spoke about their business’s sustainability.

“You have to find people who are knowledgeable on the topic and willing to speak to a large crowd,” said Megan Farrell, business senior and director of Focus the Nation. “The outreach was definitely the most work, which was getting everybody on board and into panels.”

Topics ranged from technology to the culture of sustainability. Climate justice, exploring sustainable business practices, green innovation at Cal Poly, green jobs and policies for a sustainable future were just some subjects presented by the panelists.

“The talks about government policy and how it can shape where this whole movement is going really interested me,” said Collin Sprenkle, architecture senior and attendant of the Policies for a Sustainable Future panel. “I feel like I got some pretty useful details and information about what exactly it’s going to take to move things along and sort of the time frames we’re looking at.”

Focus the Nation began on Tuesday with a Green Job Fair, which allowed more than 400 students to meet with 21 sustainable companies.

“I did hear back from a lot of the vendors and many of them said they were very pleased with the caliber of the students here and many of them will definitely be hiring students,” said Erica Janoff, industrial engineer senior and Green Job fair coordinator.

There was a sustainable project showcase that displayed campus projects Tuesday evening and student-led sustainability workshops Wednesday.

Empower Poly disc jockeys in the University Union Plaza entertained students from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. yesterday playing tracks powered by solar energy. Hip Hop Congress B-Boyz also performed break dancing.

Just outside Chumash Auditorium was a board that asked students what Cal Poly’s next step should be towards a sustainable future. Students could pin a tack on the board to ask the university to require a sustainability general elective course, prohibit the sale of plastic bottles, ban plastic bags in the campus market and El Corral or mandate campus-wide composting.

“These are issues that will be pushed by (the Empower Poly Coalition) and we want to inform the administration that this is what students want to see happen,” Farrell said.

Banning plastic bags in Campus Market and El Corral were among the most popular choices.

“The amount of petroleum products that we use on campus can be significantly reduced and with very little effort,” Janoff said. “With that in mind, you can imagine how much money Cal Poly probably spends on purchasing plastic bags and they can make money by selling reusable bags.”

Empower Poly Coalition seeks to expand the sustainability movement on campus. Focus the Nation has been a way to connect them with a nationwide movement.

Cal Poly will continue to participate in Focus the Nation, but may change styles depending on the movement of the event.

“My personal hope is that students think a little bit more about the impact that we have, the choices that we make, the things that we buy, and the places where we wind up working after school,” Janoff said. “We don’t have to settle.”