The Center for a Sustainable Coast will host their 20th-anniversary conference on Saturday, June 17, to celebrate their continued efforts in protecting Georgia’s coast. The program will include a retrospective of Georgia’s coastal issues and a discussion about the profound challenges that lie ahead.

The 20th-anniversary event will take place at 5 p.m. at the DeSoto Hilton of Savannah, 15 E. Liberty St. General admission is $20 and includes a buffet dinner. The Center for a Sustainable Coast encourages guests to RSVP in advance by phone at 912-506-5088 or email at [email protected].

Since its opening in 1997, the Center for a Sustainable Coast’s board and staff have defended the public’s interest on a variety of topics including protecting water quality, tidal marshes, wildlife, and ocean shorelines. The Center for a Sustainable Coast was also an active member of the “Push Back the Pipeline” collaboration in coastal Georgia.

The Center was awarded the Sapelo Foundation’s “Smith Bagley Advocacy Grant Award” in 2016 and was the 2007 recipient of the Common Cause Freedom Award for leadership in coastal marsh protection. The organization also co-founded the Coal Ash Legal Fund to campaign against high-risk landfill disposal of millions of tons of cancer-causing coal ash near the Altamaha River.

“The Center is proud of our record but difficult challenges remain," said Steve Willis, board president. "We’re continually striving to accomplish more by keeping the public informed and involved in pivotal coastal issues.”

Professor Geoffrey Heal of Columbia University will be featured as the keynote speaker. He will discuss how neglecting nature threatens our prosperity. An open discussion will follow his address. Heal believes the only way to achieve long-term economic prosperity is to protect the environment.

“If we want to survive and move forward as a nation and as a world, we have to recognize how the environment and the economy interact and how they can work in harmony,” Heal said. “I like to start out with a simple picture of our reliance on the planet, help my listeners visualize the larger problem at hand and give my audience an outline of solutions that will lead us in the right direction.”