Sacramento Sustainability Forum is a monthly venue for connecting businesses, non-profits, government and interested citizens in the Sacramento region in order to promote sustainability, share insights and resources, and support movement towards a more sustainable future.

March Topic Speakers:

"Nature and Consciousness"

"The Environmental Humanities: Sustainability from the Inside Out"

Michael Ziser

Associate Professor of English; Director, Environmental Humanities Supercluster; Director of Undergraduate Studies (English); Reviews Editor, Eighteenth-Century Studies

Mike Ziser joined the UC Davis English Department in 2003.  Rooted in literary and cultural history before the Civil War, Professor Ziser's research addresses questions about the image and agency of nonhuman nature in North American writing and visual arts, engaging along the way with ecocriticism, agrarianism, eco-phenomenology, food studies, science studies, media studies, religious studies, and bioregionalist thought and practice. 

His book manuscript, Continent Ajar: Environmental Practice and Early American Writing, proposes a new theoretical and methodological approach to producing more-than-human literary histories. 

As inaugural director of the UC Davis Environmental Humanities Research supercluster, Professor Ziser has worked to bring faculty and graduate students from different disciplines together to discuss environment-related work of common interest.  In May 2009, the cluster hosted a conference on California, the University, and the Environment, which examined the various roles that California colleges and universities have played in shaping the physical and ideological contours of the state.  As an Art of Regional Change faculty fellow, Mike has also begun to try to use the university's intellectual, technical, and social capital to forge links with communities in the Blue Mountain district of Calaveras county and, closer to home, the Bryte and Broderick neighborhoods of West Sacramento. 

He serves as the Reviews Editor for Eighteenth-Century Studies.  His current household animal census includes two kids, two dogs, two fish, four chickens, fifty silk moths, and approximately 100,000 honey bees.

About our Host:

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is a publicly owned electric utility governed by a seven-member Board of Directors. Serving 592,000 customers and a total population of about 1.1 million, SMUD is the sixth-largest public utility in the country. SMUD’s 900-square-mile service territory encompasses Sacramento County and a small portion of Placer County.

SMUD has been providing public power to the Sacramento region since 1946. The SMUD Board’s vision is to empower its customers with solutions and options that increase energy efficiency, protect the environment, reduce global warming, and lower the cost to serve its region. SMUD’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs are recognized nationally for their leadership and innovation.

For each of the last eight years, SMUD has received the highest customer satisfaction ratings of any utility in the state in the J.D. Power and Associations survey. SMUD received the second-highest score in the nation for commercial customer satisfaction in 2010.

An Important Word from Our Sponsor:

SMUD’s Home Performance Program is a new way of looking at energy-efficiency where you focus on the whole house. If your house is too hot in the summer, or too cold in the winter … or if your electricity bill is higher than you’d like, you may want to look into this program to see if it’s right for you.

Because of a limited time Federal Grant, SMUD is able to help homeowners just like you to:

SSF Sponsors

To discuss becoming a sponsor of Sacramento Sustainability Forum,

please contact us.

Emerald Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

(Supporters)