Willie Cade founded PCRR in 2000 to bridge the digital divide by reusing or recycling e-waste. Since then, PCRR has delivered more than 40,000 refurbished PCs to schools, nonprofits and the homes of at-risk children. Cade serves as chair of the Industry Advisory Council of the newly launched Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI), a program of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, part of INRS. SEI is a consortium dedicated to reforming the way electronic devices are designed, produced, refurbished, remanufactured and recycled.

Given the complexity, uncertainty and diversity of the e-waste problem, a rigorous, multidisciplinary academic approach is necessary to develop and implement systems that effectively utilize and recycle these products. The SEI consortium includes academia, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, manufacturers, designer, refurbishers, and recyclers. Work is underway recruiting members, developing the SEI website, and creating programs for research, education, data management, and technical assistance. SEI will conduct collaborative research, facilitate networking and information exchange among participants, promote technology diffusion via demonstration projects, and provide forums for the discussion of policy and legislation.

University of Illinois students are already involved in this initiative. During the spring semester, they were challenged to create appealing, useful products from e-waste through a School of Art and Design course. Students conducted an e-waste collection on campus and twenty teams each developed useful items from the collected e-waste. The projects were judged by a group of industry representatives. Six of the teams were awarded a total of fifteen thousand dollars in scholarships provided by industry sponsors Wal-Mart, Dell, Motorola and Microsoft.

For more information call 217-333-5111 or lecture@inrs.illinois.edu.

Free cell phone recycling will be offered to attendees of the event with proceeds going to local nonprofits.

www.inrs.illinois.edu

www.pcrr.com

www.sustainelectronics.illinois.edu

Time: 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC), 1 Hazelwood Dr, Champaign, IL 61820

Save money and improve your organization's environmental performance through green business practices. Specific topics include: greening the office, green purchasing, activity based cost accounting, greening the supply chain, recycling, and green cleaning/janitorial practices. Energy efficiency opportunities associated with common office functions, such as heating/air conditioning electronic devices, appliances, and lighting will also be covered.

Bio energy has always been an innovative industry among all renewable sectors. The importance of bio energy is also increasing rapidly in the current green focus worldwide. United States, as the leading country in bio energy development, has lead the deployment in 1st generation biofuels. Ever since, various of new feedstock and conversion technologies has pushed the industry further.

This high level executive conference will bring together regulatory officials, project developers, leading R&D experts, and investors to address the keys challenges in developing next generation biofuels as well as comparison of existing and next generation feedstock development.

• What are the impacts of growing different feedstocks on the environment?
• What are the greenhouse gas emissions from burning the finished fuel?
• What are the prices and market trends of the feedstocks?
• What are the potential yield of the biofuels?

Improve your industrial competitiveness through better materials use. Participants will learn how to identify process losses and potential efficiency improvements in packaging, industrial parts and facilities cleaning, fluids purification, water use minimization and purification, and construction activities. Specific topics include best practices and technologies to improve performance through waste minimization, pollution prevention, recycling, green process development, activity based cost accounting, and improving the value of by-products.

Who Should Attend? Designers; electrical engineers; chemists; materials scientists; electronics recyclers, refurbishers and remanufacturers; electronics manufacturers; government representatives and policy makers; pollution prevention technical assistance providers; relevant non-profit organizations; or others.

Check the conference web page for further details, including an agenda and registration, as they become available.

For updates to the conference visit the Web site.