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Former Shell Oil advisor to speak on sustainability at Northland College

March 16, 2012

Anita Burke, founder of The Catalyst Institute and former Shell Oil advisor, will speak about sustainability at Northland College on Tuesday, March 20, at 6:30 p.m. in the Sentry Room of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute. The event, another offering in the Northland College Community Connections series, is free and open to the public.

Burke, a Northland College alumna, will offer her presentation "The Edge of Sustainability-Everything Local." Burke worked for Shell International as the advisor to the Shell International Committee of Managing Directors to coordinate sustainable development. She worked for more than 17 years at Shell and its subsidiary companies. During that time, Burke advised the corporation on the implications for energy use as fossil fuels become more limited. In 2003, Burke founded The Catalyst Institute, an organization that provides strategic guidance and sustainability programs to businesses, governments and educational institutions.

"Burke has helped develop technologies and practices for a variety of organizations to help promote development that is sustainable and addresses the issue of climate change," says Stacy Craig, event coordinator and Northland College Coordinator of Applied Learning. "The oil industry is an area that needs to prepare for a future that manages environmental risks, as well as threats to health and safety, while developing new solutions for energy use."

Burke has been featured in articles on the 2010 British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. She has been working for more than 25 years to assist organizations with design, development and execution of sustainable business practices.