The Environmental Research Center and the office of sustainable energy and environmental engagement will present a St. Pat’s week talk by Kevin Palmer, director of the Center for Sustainable Solutions in Charlottesville, Va. The lecture, “‘Green’ Systems,” will be presented at 3 p.m. Monday, March 10, in Room 124 Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall.

Palmer says sustainability is often a difficult concept for an organization to embrace and that initially, organizations often consider sustainability to be about environmental concepts or requirements. “Upon examination and working with the topic, individuals realize that sustainability is all about systems and how to optimize their performance,” he says. In his lecture, he will explore how the U.S. Army has begun to understand the concept of sustainability and its utility in conducting its mission. He will describe how Fort Leonard Wood is “embracing the concept and moving out.”