Daily Business Report-April 10, 2017
Scripps scientist Sasha Gershunov’s son Anton spins artist Oscar Romo’s mixed media sculpture, ‘Atmospheric Rivers.’ The art installation is made of recycled and repurposed materials, including sawn-off pieces of glass bottles and bicycle sprockets foraged from the Tijuana River. (Photo: Sasha Gershunov)
Weather on Steroids:
Exhibit Merges Scripps Climate Science with Art
By Brittany Hook
Creativity meets climate change and its impacts in a compelling new exhibition at the La Jolla Historical Society.
“Weather on Steroids: the Art of Climate Change Science” is the result of a collaboration between climate scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and eleven renowned artists, mostly based in San Diego.
The exhibition, which opened in February and runs through May 21, showcases a wide array of artistic styles ranging from sculpture and photography to mosaic and sound. Science and empirical data served as inspiration for the artists, who in turn created a visual dialogue about the vexing problem of climate change.
According to Heath Fox, executive director of the La Jolla Historical Society, this project seemed like a perfect opportunity to pair artists with scientists from Scripps Oceanography, a world leader in climate change research.
“The La Jolla Historical Society’s mission is to connect this community’s very diverse history in a way that makes it relevant and meaningful for today’s society—interpreting the past in a way that informs the present, which will then help shape the future,” said Fox. “Scripps has been in the La Jolla community for over a century as a prominent global environmental research center, so we were interested in connecting to that history.”
The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, provides an opportunity for climate scientists to inform non-scientists about climate change—which has become a highly politicized topic, especially in recent months.
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10 Balboa Park Buildings
Achieve LEED Certification
The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership will announce on April 19 its achievement of LEED certification of 10 park buildings, setting it well on the way to becoming one of the nation’s most sustainable parks.
The LEED certifications are the result of the Partnership’s Environmental Sustainability Program, a collaborative effort by the city of San Diego, San Diego Gas & Electric, San Diego Green Building Council and the Partnership’s 30 member institutions.
These efforts include energy-saving projects, water efficiency upgrades in restrooms and kitchens, waste reduction strategies, green cleaning initiatives, among others. The program resulted in an annual savings of more than $1.6 million in energy use at Balboa Park.
Here are the 10 LEED-certified buildings:
- San Diego Natural History Museum
- Fleet Science Center
- WorldBeat Cultural Center
- Case de Balboa
- Casa del Prado
- House of Charm
- The Old Globe Theatre
- San Diego Hall of Champions
- Inamori Pavilion at the Japanese Friendship Garden
- San Diego Museum of Man
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Water Authority Applauds Gov. Brown
for Declaring End to Drought Emergency
The San Diego County Water Authority applauded Gov. Jerry Brown for formally declaring an end to California’s drought emergency.
“It’s critical for water agencies and regulators to maintain credibility with the public by acknowledging the dramatic improvement in water supplies, which is why the Water Authority’s Board of Directors passed a resolution declaring the end of the drought conditions for the county in January,” said Mark Muir, chair of the Water Authority board in a statement.
“It’s also important to remember that San Diego County ratepayers spent more than $3.5 billion over the past three decades to improve the region’s drought resilience,” Muir added.
Muir said San Diego County residents, beat the state’s emergency water-use reduction mandates during 2015 and 2016, and continue to use less water than they did in 2013 even though drought conditions have ended. “This balanced approach — water-use efficiency combined with supply investments – served our region well and should be part of any statewide drought-management efforts in the future,” he said.
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Kaiser Permanente San Diego
Medical Center is Officially Open
The Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center cut the ribbon on it’s new hospital in Kearny Mesa Friday, but the first patients won’t be accepted until April 25.
The 617,000-square-foot hospital will feature a 24-hour emergency department, capacity for 321 interactive single-patient rooms and several state- of-the art technologies, according to Kaiser.
“Providing an unparalleled patient care experience has been our top priority and guided every design and decision made since breaking ground three years ago,” said Jane Finley, senior vice president and area manager for Kaiser Permanente San Diego. “All patients will benefit from a combination of our cutting-edge care that includes innovative medical technologies, our integrated model of care, and most importantly, personal service.”
The hospital will include virtual guard rails to aid in fall prevention, pain level monitoring and caregiver alerts to put the patient at the center of round-the-clock care.
In addition, the Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center is energy efficient, earning a LEED Platinum Healthcare certification.
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A New National Ranking
for San Diego State University
San Diego State University is among the 100 best public universities in the nation according to a ranking released by Business First.
Business First ranked 499 public universities based on 22 indicators of academic excellence, affordability, diversity and economic strength. SDSU ranked No. 79 in the nation and No. 8 on a list of 29 California institutions included in the rankings.
The top scores went to schools with highly selective admissions processes, strong retention and graduation rates, impressive earnings by alumni, generous resources, affordable tuition and housing costs, diverse faculties and student bodies, and economically robust communities.
The University of Michigan came in No. 1 in the rankings; the University of California, Berkeley was the top-ranked California institution.
Business First is owned by American City Business Journals Inc., the nation’s largest publisher of local business news and information. The publication’s study is based on an array of the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
