Diary

Citation

(2002), "Diary", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 3 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe.2002.24903dac.001

Diary

Conference on Ecolabels and the Greening of the Food Market

Boston, Massachusetts, USA7-9 November 2002

Papers are invited for a conference on all aspects of ecolabels or foods and other agricultural products. The term "ecolabel" will be interpreted broadly, meaning labels such as "certified organic" or any others intended to convey that a product is preferable regarding either environmental protection, biodiversity and wildlife, farm animal welfare, social justice, local origin, or any other aspect of ecological and social sustainability.

This conference is a response to the rapidly growing use of ecolabels, which has raised several questions: How credible are they? How can labels motivated by bona fide environmental concern be distinguished from those that are just a marketing ploy? How well do consumers understand what they mean, and how much confidence do they have in them? How much of a marketing advantage do they give, both domestically and in world trade? What are the appropriate roles of government and private organizations in setting standards and enforcing compliance?

The conference will provide an opportunity for a broad range of participants to review this important development in the food market, including standard-setting, certifying, and accreditation bodies; environmental and consumer interest groups; farmer organizations; the food processing and marketing industry; agricultural commodity groups; and agencies concerned with food labeling and world trade. Further information is available from: Willie Lockeretz, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. E-mail: willie.lockeretz@tufts.edu

The Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Environmental and Engineering Problems (SAGEEP) 2003 Call for Papers

San Antonio, Texas6-10 April 2003

SAGEEP will be held in San Antonio, Texas, at the Omni Hotel. For a full list of session topics and information on how to submit abstracts for review, access the EEGS Web site (www.eegs.org) and click on the SAGEEP 2003 logo or click on the following link: www.eegs.org/PDFfiles/Call%20for%20papers.pdf

First World Congress on Information Technology in Environmental Engineering

ITEE 2003, Technical University of Gdansk, PolandJune 24-27 2003.www.icsc-naiso.org/conferences/itee2003/index

The acquisition, storage and processing of environmental information are becoming vital to preserving the quality of human life. Potentially dangerous changes are happening in the atmosphere, oceans, animal habitats and places where hazardous materials are used, or have been discarded without adequate environmental protections.

In recent years, information technology has become significant to all scientific groups and fields involved in environment engineering. Knowledge-based systems which enable the study of environmental changes have been developed, are being extended to manage those environments. New paradigms for designing objects to enable easy disassembly and recovery of components contribute to reuse. Developments in exploiting alternative energy sources are reducing dependence on non-renewable resources. Surveillance techniques enable tracking of persons likely to threaten the lives of persons or their environment.

The ITEE 2003 conference will provide a forum for exchanging information among pollution engineers, knowledge engineers and scientists. Some of the objectives include discussion of projects for long-term storage of data, data update and validation, and the consistency of data. Research topics and funding opportunities discussed at the conference will be of interest to all researchers. Another objective is to discuss means of assessing the potential of individual teams in implementation and modelling of large-scale systems.

Several workshops/tutorials are planned for ITEE 2003. Each workshop will focus on a particular topic, and consist of several presentations and open discussions. The proposal for a workshop should include the title, topics covered, proposed speakers, targeted audiences, and estimated length (hours) of the workshop. The proposal should be submitted to the general chair and respective area co-chair by 30 September 2002, and the NAISO Planning department: planning@icsc.ab.ca

Submission of papers can be done through the Web site: www.icsc-naiso.org/conferences/itee2003/indexsub.html