Last week, Notre Dame hosted the second annual National Sustainability Society Conference from Oct. 20 to 22 in Jenkins Nanovic Halls.
According to the society’s website, the NSS is a a nonprofit member organization that aims to “foster a thriving cross-sectoral, transdisciplinary, and intersectional society that advances a just, resilient, and sustainable world.”
The NSS held its first meeting in 2022 and hosted their inaugural conference in 2024 at the University of Washington.
The Pulte Institute for Global Development sponsored this year’s conference in partnership with the Frontiers Research Foundation. In addition to the Pulte Institute, the NSS directly partnered with the University of Washington, Arizona State University and the University of Michigan.
Dani Fielding, a junior who interns with Notre Dame’s Office of Sustainability, shared the University’s role in assisting with planning the conference.
“Many of Notre Dame’s faculty and staff were involved with planning, including three of my colleagues on Notre Dame’s sustainability team: Geory Kurtzhals, Olivia Farrington and Arun Agrawal,” they said.
For Fielding, the conference was a “great opportunity to share both Notre Dame’s progress and perspective with partners across the country and to learn about how other universities are operationalizing sustainability.”
Beyond students and representatives from the organization’s university partners, a variety of South Bend residents, career professionals and global researchers attended the conference. According to panelist Dan Brown from the University of Washington, approximately 400 individuals participated.
Day one of the conference commenced with a series of workshops hosted by various speakers, including local educators, visiting professors from Stanford University and career professionals from the Sustainability Education Accreditation Commission.
The workshops also included site visits such as a campus green tour and an excursion to Rum Village Park, which, according to their website, includes “a wildlife oasis offering hiking trails, biking trails, picnic areas, and a chance to escape to the quiet calm of one of the nicest woodlands in the area.”
Mara Morales, a junior studying environmental engineering, enjoyed the campus green tour, especially “visiting the sculpture garden area and witnessing things I have never seen before, like the scattering of native pollinators across campus.”
Morales appreciated meeting students and attendees from other universities.
“I feel like I made new friends throughout the tour. It is so fun meeting a lot of new people not directly connected to Notre Dame,” she said.
Following the workshops and site visits, the first day of the conference concluded with several small-group sessions and panels, along with a keynote presentation.
“I enjoyed discussing the intersection of poverty studies with forest regeneration. The topics discussed were fascinating,” Morales said.
The second day of the conference began with a yoga session, coffee social and poster session featuring doctoral candidates, graduate and undergraduate students highlighting their respective areas of interest and research.
Similar to day one, the agenda included a variety of small-group sessions and panel discussion, featuring a conversation with deans from Notre Dame, Stanford University, the University of Southern California and the University of Alabama.
Madeline Stewart, a master’s student in the University of Ohio’s Science and Environment, Natural Resources and Public Administration program, was one of the presenters. She spoke about how rain gardens affect property values and resident perceptions.
“Dr. Jeremy Brooks, my advisor, attended the first annual NSS conference, and thought it would be a good experience for me, as I was interested in presenting and receiving feedback from the broader community,” Stewart said.
In addition to her presentation, Steward enjoyed the “experience of touring the power plant at Notre Dame.” For Stewart, the “most interesting takeaway was just how intense power still is in its manufacturing stage.”
The final day of the conference included informational sessions and discussions, following another morning of student research presentations. Laura Vang Rasmussen hosted the final keynote presentation, representing the University of Copenhagen.
The conference concluded with a presentation by Ohio State’s Sustainability Institute director Elena Irwin and Brown and conference awards hosted by the NSS board.
Next year’s conference will be hosted by Colorado State University at their SPUR campus from Aug. 17-20.
“NSS holds a lot of potential, consisting of great people who are already here and involved with the national society. I’m interested in seeing how the conference evolves,” Stewart said.
Fielding hopes that this year’s conference will inspire similar future events.
“I would love to see more highly attended, student-led, interdisciplinary, sustainability conferences here on campus,” Fielding said.
