My Journey From Waste Management to Urban Planning

Event Type

Lecture

Sponsor

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources

Date

Mar 4, 2021   5:05 pm  

Speaker

Shantanu Pai, assistant sustainability researcher, Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC)

Registration

Registration

Views

55

Originating Calendar

Illinois Sustainable Technology Center Events

What materials we use, keep, discard, and repurpose provides insight into various aspects of the human experience. In this presentation, ISTC's Shantanu Pai engages with how his experiences at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point have not only allowed him to explore society's evolving relationship with these materials but also interact with the complex systems that have arisen as part of this material use. He will also discuss how these experiences now informs his explorations in the role materials management practices play in the various current imaginations of sustainable futures.

Shantanu Pai is an assistant sustainability researcher at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) and the interim zero waste coordinator for the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. At ISTC, Shantanu has managed over 30 projects providing hands-on technical assistance to citizens, businesses, institutions, and governments across the state of Illinois. Projects range from identifying individualized solutions in material management to implementing sustainable transitions that increase resilience. At the University of Illinois, he manages their waste transfer station and material recovery facility that processes over 30 tons of material daily. Shantanu received his B.S. in soil science and waste resources from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and a master’s in urban planning at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Outside of his full-time job, he is currently a Ph.D. student at the College of Urban Planning and Policy where he studies the challenges of efficiency and equity in climate adaptation and mitigation planning.