Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education

We are pleased to announce that for the first time ever, all CU Boulder faculty, staff and students will have full access to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE’s) virtual Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education. The conference is the largest stage to exchange effective models, policies, research, collaborations and transformative actions that advance sustainability in higher education and surrounding communities. Please use CU Boulder’s web form to let us know that you are interested in participating and to receive registration instructions.

Mobilizing for a Just Transition

Humanity faces a series of intensifying and interrelated social and ecological crises. Solving these crises requires a holistic transformation, a shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. With a theme of “Mobilizing for a Just Transition,” this year’s Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education will focus on centering justice within this transformation and ensuring that it leaves no one behind. We seek to encourage higher education sustainability leaders to reflect and act on the Just Transition Principles articulated by the Climate Justice Alliance and to spotlight inspirational examples of institutions championing this work.

Participation is flexible

The complete live and on-demand schedules for the Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education are also now available. Explore these schedules by track, topic or intended audience, and remember that attendees can view sessions through Nov. 22. Participation is flexible, and attendees can choose individual sessions or full days of content depending on interest and availability. Live content is available October 20, 21 and 22. On-demand content is available through November 22. Keynote recordings will again be available two days after the initial live airing and through November 22. CU Boulder registration access request form will be open until November 22.  

CU Boulder attendees will be provided access free-of-charge. CU Boulder attendees must be current students, faculty or staff with a valid @colorado.edu account.  This opportunity is made possible by Vice Chancellor for Infrastructure and Sustainability and the CUSG Environmental Center.

Keynote presentations

In addition to over fifty educational sessions, this year’s Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education features 13 keynote presenters, including:

• Professor Ibram X. Kendi, Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and author of How To Be An Antiracist, will give us a new frame for understanding racism and provide guidance on how to be an antiracist. Live presentation: Wednesday, October 21, 11:30am MT.

• Robin Wall Kimmerer, Distinguished Teaching Professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Director for the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, will offer reflections and an indigenous perspective on the meanings of a just transition.  Live presentation: Thursday, October 22, 7:00am MT. 

• The Emerging Leaders panel encompasses some of the brightest, young minds in sustainability.  Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru, environmental justice advocate and rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford, Joshua Dedmond, youth organizer at the Labor Network for Sustainability and Suparna Kudesia, choreographer of collective change and director at CoFED, come together to discuss the importance of racial justice, education and more during the keynote panel on Thursday, October 22, 2:00pm MT. 

• Mateo Nube, co-director, Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project, is excited to share Movement Generation’s pioneering work to develop and deepen the concept of a just transition.  Live presentation: Wednesday, October 21, 5:00pm MT. 

• The Truth and Reconciliation Panel of experts will discuss how, to effectively support a just transition, higher education will need to acknowledge and atone for the historical and ongoing ways in which it perpetuates racial injustice.  Join panelists Tia Brown McNair, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Student Success at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College, and Megan Red Shirt-Shaw (Oglala Lakota), Ph.D. Student at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday, October 20 at 11:30am MT.