The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Office of Sustainability will host a virtual Sustainability Summit Sept. 1 through Sept. 3 via Zoom.
This is the fourth year the office has hosted a Sustainability Summit for campus. The goal of the event is to educate students and the wider Lincoln community about current sustainability practices at the university and how individuals can get involved.
The schedule for the summit is as follows:
Sept. 1, 2 p.m. — Sustainability and Resilience Master Plan Discussion
This event will feature the executive council and co-chairs of the Chancellor’s Commission on Environment, Sustainability and Resilience discussing the draft of Nebraska’s first ever Sustainability and Resilience Master Plan. The panelists will share the history of sustainability at the university, highlights of the plan, the process of designing the plan and lessons learned from the process. This candid conversation is designed to answer possible questions from the university community.
Sept. 2, 7 p.m. — E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues: Mary Pipher
This year’s E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is centered around environmental concerns, history, grass roots activism and polar exploration. To kick off this year’s forum, Mary Pipher will present “Trauma and Recovery: A New Story of Interconnection and Action.” Pipher is an author, activist and clinical psychologist. She has written 10 books, including the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”. In 2013, she published “The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture,” a novel on environmental activism in Nebraska.
Sept. 3, 6 p.m. — The Intersections of Climate Change
The last event of the summit will educate the Husker community on the intersections between environmental sustainability and the racial justice movement. The Office of Sustainability is partnering with the Black Student Union, the Mexican American Student Association, Sustain UNL, ASUN, acClimate, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Women’s Center and the LBTQA+ Resource Center to form a discussion panel. The panelists will feature university student leaders who have firsthand experience living with and organizing around these issues. They will discuss how intersectional advocacy and solutions can create positive change on campus and in the community.
To sign up for these events or learn more, visit the Office of Sustainability website.
