Inspirational thoughts about the environment and a positive view of the future will be delivered from high profile U.N. orator, author and entrepreneur Gunter Pauli at City College on Friday.

Pauli travels the world speaking in cities like Tokyo, Rome, New York and Seoul. Now he will take the time to meet the students and people of Santa Barbara.

“Usually he speaks for 15 minutes, but we got him for two hours, plus a workshop the next day,” said Adam Green, the program director for the SBCC Center for Sustainability and a biological sciences professor. “It’s also in such an intimate location, so people will be able to ask questions and get answers, too.”

Green believes students, business representatives and the community in whole could benefit from the events of this weekend.

“You will get a lot out of it if you come,” he said.

Pauli, a Belgian entrepreneur who has established ten companies, has recently published the book “The Blue Economy – 10 Years, 100 Innovations, 100 Million Jobs.” He has also started the project “100 Innovations” that he says can generate 100 million jobs in the next decade.

Pauli will release and launch each green innovation one by one for the next two years. The purpose of each innovation is to stimulate green economy and enable harmony between business and what he calls “The Blue Planet.”

This includes a lot of different things, like building materials and how to save water in factories.

In 1994, the Belgian entrepreneur established the network, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives at the U.N. University in Tokyo. The goal of these networks is to come up with solutions for how business can go hand-in-hand with green thinking.

Pauli works to spread the eco-friendly word without the Armageddon-like fears given from other environmentalists and scientists.

“He’s always positive and doesn’t talk about the sky falling down and that we are all doomed,” Green said.

The events at City College will deal with both these and other environmental topics. But the debate on climate change is not important, Green said.

“With these innovations you can get like eight benefits at once, such as more efficient factories, new markets, more jobs and less carbon emission,” Green said. “Here are possibilities for great solutions.”

This weekend is the peak of the year for the department. The lecture with Gunter Pauli will be just one of a series of events during all three days. After his speech he will have a book signing, and Saturday is dedicated to a green workshop, with a retreat summing up the weekend on Sunday.

“We’ll be celebrating global awareness,” Green said. “We have one planet, and we must learn how to survive as a species.”