What sustainably really means, ABC57 attends National Sustainability Society Conference

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- What comes to mind when you hear sustainability? Meteorologist Oliver Moster takes a look at what sustainability means to people from around the globe.

The 2nd Annual National Sustainability Society Conference was held at Notre Dame’s campus this week, bringing researchers from around the world to South Bend.

I spoke to some local leaders on how they plan on applying what they learned at the conference to help Michiana residents.

“There’s doom and gloom in the world and there’s climate change and there’s biodiversity loss and there’s poverty. We think of sustainability as a way to balance social and economic and environmental goals…We think of sustainability as a way to think and hope for a better future, and to hope not just in a passive way, but to work. But to do, act, and to bring about the changes that we want to see that improve lives for people and the planet”

Arun Agrawal is a professor and the director of the sustainability initiative at Notre Dame.

He says that the conference has shown him that people are willing to step out when it means bringing a better world for all of us.

Jim Hess, from the soil and water district of Elkhart County echoes Agrawal’s feelings.

“It’s reassuring that we’re doing the right thing, we’re moving towards a common goal. It’s using the information, it’s using the data and we’re putting it in a streamline piece that now works together, and I see as I rub shoulders with different people around the country from all sorts of places around the world here in South Bend we’re all in the same page we’re all thinking in kind of the same way.”

Hess spoke at a seminar about projects happening in the St. Joseph River Basin, experiments being implemented across Michiana, that could affect nutrient flow into Lake Michigan.

These projects, if successful, can be applied to the entire great lakes, bringing healthier water to our region.

But, as Agrawal says, it’s bringing the information and people together, that is the hardest part.

“All of this information can be used to highlight and to understand where it is that we can have the greatest return for the interventions that we pursue with sustainability. This is to my mind the best way in which we can use our strengths in academia to carry out research to carry out analysis to find where we can have the best possibilities for making a difference.”

But how does a sustainability conference, well, stay sustainable?

I got to speak to Dan Brown, President of the National Sustainability Society about how this Conference has tried to leave no trace

“The work of sustainability requires people getting together, sharing ideas, generating new ideas, generating connections, generating community, it means we have to bring people together, and we recognize there’s a footprint associated with that.”

Brown states the Society laid out some initiatives to assure a small footprint, with carbon offset programs for those traveling from out of town, or something as small as meatless food and local composting services through GoZERO, which partners with Lee’s Edible Acres to keep food waste out of a landfill. As Ryan Lee, from GoZERO states:

“You're looking at 400 gallons of waste diverted from the landfill, which is a pretty small scale. But when you start talking about the businesses that do it weekly…Every two weeks they’re filling up two bins that are about three hundred pounds a piece that adds up quickly and you get that going over multiple businesses across South Bend we can divert a lot of food a lot of waste from the landfill”

Starting small, to make a larger impact. Brown says:

“We recognize that so much of the work in sustainability is local and so we’re partnering with the University of Notre Dame and the city of South Bend and drawing on the resources of the city and the university to be sure that the work that we do is as sustainable as possible in the operation of the conference as well.”

For more information on the National Sustainability Society and their goals, you can find more on their website.