Topics Related to Environmentally Speaking

Aaron Sebens, a teacher at Central Park School for Children in Durham, just completed his state Environmental Education Certification, a professional development program provided through the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

Sebens is the school’s media specialist and technology director and also assists other teachers with environmental education projects. His favorite part about the program was learning outside and being exposed to many environmental science topics, including  landfills, raptors, watersheds and evensolar power.  

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced last week that 122,405 acres offshore of Kitty Hawk, N.C. will be offered in a commercial wind lease sale on March 16, 2017. The Kitty Hawk lease area begins about 24 nautical miles from shore and extends 25.7 nautical miles in a general southeast direction.

Chandler Holland, a Teens & 20s writer for the Burlington Times-News, is in her senior year of homeschooling and plans to complete the N.C. Environmental Education Certification during her gap year before attending Warren Wilson College with a merit-based scholarship.

Governor Roy Cooper on Tuesday named Michael Regan, a leader in environmental advocacy with ample experience working with energy and businesses, to lead the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

Regan served as Southeast Regional Director of the Environmental Defense Fund and National Director of the Energy Efficiency Southeast Climate & Energy Policy from 2008-2016. He also worked with the EPA on air quality for the Clinton and Bush administrations from 1998-2008. 

DEQ was recently recognized nationally as a 2016 Best Workplaces for Commuters Race to Excellence Award Winner for Best Employer! Best Workplaces for Commuters, a program designed to encourage sustainable transportation innovation, recognized 17 employers nationwide earlier this month during the annual “Race to Excellence” Virtual Awards Ceremony. The awards recognize organizations who have taken exemplary steps to offer transportation options such as vanpool and transit benefits or telework and compressed workweek for their employees.

A state environmental program that has helped create thousands of jobs and spurred more than $14 billion in economic growth has celebrated a big milestone. 

Educators from all regions of North Carolina gathered at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences’ Nature Research Center last week for the 6th annual meeting for nonformal educators. The meeting reached its highest attendance to date with more than 90 nonformal educators representing a wide variety of nonprofit and city, county, state and federal agencies and facilities, including nature centers, science museums, gardens, arboretums, aquariums, state parks, the N.C. Forest Service, the Wildlife Resources Commission, 4-H, Soil and Water Conservation Districts and others.