Collaboration for a Better World Speaker Series-: Embodied Energy Justice and the Global Solar Industry with Prof. Dustin Mulvaney, Associate Professor Environmental Studies, College of Social Sciences, San Jose State University, CA

The Department of Integrative and Global Studies will be hosting another speaker for our Collaboration for a Better World Speaker Series.

The talk is co-sponsored by the Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. The talk will be online, via a zoom link.https://wpi.zoom.us/j/96328141491

Summary: The solar energy industry has grown immensely over the past decade. But despite its deservedly green reputation, solar development and deployment may have social and environmental consequences, from poor factory labor standards to landscape impacts on wildlife. Much like the products we make and use have embodied energy, the also may have embodied injustice. Prof. Mulvaney will share case studies and examples that trace the life cycle of photovoltaics and state of the solar industry to explore conflicts among ecological concerns and climate mitigation strategies, current trade disputes, and the fate of toxics in solar waste products.