The latest meeting of Envirotech was held during a lunch at the 2008 SHOT Lisbon conference. Twenty-five attendees enjoyed the company of fellow Envirotechies and a tasty bacalhau (Portuguese-style cod fish) lunch at Orizon restaurant in Parque das Nações near the conference hotel.

The first agenda item was the announcement of the Envirotech Article Prize recipient, Paul Sutter (see the  complete write-up on his article here). Because the prize is handed out every 18 months, the next prize will be awarded at ASEH in Portland in 2010. We are in need of a volunteer to join the prize committee, so if you are interested in being on this worthwhile committee, please contact Hugh Gorman at hsgorman@mtu.edu.

Finn Arne also spoke about the website http://envirotechhistory.org which is Envirotech’s forum for sharing information. There is a section where Syllabi from relevant classes can be posted. If you have a syllabus (undergraduate or graduate course) that in some way touches on both environmental history and history of technology, please email the syllabus to Finn Arne at news@envirotechhistory.org so that it can be posted for all to share. Finn Arne is also moving the email listserv over to envirotech.web so that it can be more easily maintained in the future.

Several attendees contributed new book / series announcements. Ralf Brand, who was unable to attend, asked that we announce the recent publication a special issue of the journal Built Environment (vol 34, no 2, 2008) focused on sustainable mobility. Jacob Hamblin mentioned a recent special issue of Diplomatic History (vol 32, no 4, 2008) that focused on environmental politics.

As a group, we also congratulated Joel Tarr on his Leonardo da Vinci award.

There was a brief discussion about Envirotech’s funds. We had a little over $1,600 in our account after the article prize money was given out. In addition, we received contributions of $138 at the lunch. We currently subsidize the meal graduate students who attend the envirotech meeting at both SHOT and ASEH and give out the article prize every 18 months. Tom Zeller suggested that we pursue an idea brought forward at a prior meeting about a graduate student conference travel grant – perhaps something small like $200 at each SHOT and ASEH for a student presenting an envirotech-relevant paper. If you would like to serve as a member of a committee to discuss such a proposal, please email Hugh Gorman at hsgorman@mtu.edu.