“Without attending to these inner and important moral and spiritual dimensions, we will certainly struggle to achieve lasting change. This is precisely where hope becomes essential: Hope is not blind ambition or naivete but, rather, a commitment to seeing problems clearly and taking them seriously. It's about seeing the world as it is, not simply as we would like it to be."
- University of Notre Dame President, Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.
On March 12-14, the University of Notre Dame’s Just Transformations to Sustainability (JTS) Initiative held its inaugural Sustainability Summit, Sustainability of Hope: Envisioning a New Horizon for Planetary Flourishing. The Summit, held at Notre Dame Rome, brought together over 60 sustainability scholars and leaders from around the globe to forge new and deeper partnerships, help shape the JTS Initiative’s long-term vision, and generate new collaborations focused on achieving a world in which human dignity and ecological integrity flourish together.
In his opening address, University of Notre Dame President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. grounded the convening within the central tenets of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ and integral ecology, a holistic approach to planetary flourishing that unites care for people with care for the planet by embracing the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and economic well-being. The panel presentations, lightning talks, and small group discussions that followed surfaced numerous key themes and priorities for Notre Dame as it strives to operationalize the principles of integral ecology through research, education and practice.
Key Themes and Takeaways
Uniting science, faith, and stewardship
The inclusion of faith and spiritual traditions within sustainability efforts provides a broader framework for understanding and repairing humanity’s relationship with the natural world, repositioning humans as stewards who exist alongside and in relation to all life. During the “Faith and Sustainability” panel, Eduardo Brondizio, Distinguished Professor at Indiana University, echoed this sentiment: despite having robust evidence and science of global and environmental change, a purely secular approach to sustainability challenges is insufficient. The lens of faith helps to translate scientific understanding into shared human values that can unite people toward collective action in caring for our common home. As Sister Alessandra Smerelli, Secretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, shared, “[It] is not by fear, but by contemplating, being immersed in creation, recognizing the gifts we are immersed in that can give us the desire to do something different.”
Turning knowledge into action
Within sustainability efforts, a persistent gap remains between research and implementation, particularly within the institutions and communities most affected by global and environmental change. “At some point, it's not a question of how much more evidence or data we can produce. It's how we can translate these methods and this data into sustainable funding, policy support, or government action,” said Reem Hajjar, Associate Professor at Cornell University, during the “Mapping and Measuring Locally-Led Forest Stewardship” panel. Participants agreed that bridging this divide requires a shift towards transdisciplinary collaboration and equitable partnerships that prioritize not only the production of knowledge, but also its implementation into policy, practice, and locally oriented solutions.
Local roots, global reach
Rather than global “scale up” approaches, research supports that sustainable change is most effective when “scaled out” through the expansion and adaptation of successful community-led efforts across local contexts. These local initiatives become transformative when they are supported, connected, and amplified through long-term partnerships with academic institutions, practitioners, and global organizations. “Such transformations are fundamentally multi‑decade, bottom‑up exercises… built on countless local initiatives of local groups with different visions,” described William Clark, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, during the “Sustainability in Complex Environments” panel.
Inclusion of non-traditional actors
Meaningful transformation is not created in isolation, but rather through collaboration that is community-led, place-based, and locally tailored. These efforts require the inclusion of local and indigenous knowledge holders, practitioners, and land stewards to transform research, rooted in community values and needs, into long-term action. Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America urges us to ask, “Whose voices are we hearing, and why? Whose are we not hearing, and why?” These questions are instrumental in creating “an even playing field to bring a system that is fairer that will lead to a healthier planet and its people.”
Looking Ahead
In the months ahead, the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative will continue advancing collaborative research and partnerships that reflect the principles articulated throughout the inaugural Sustainability Summit. The Initiative team looks forward to further developing the emerging research priorities surfaced at the convening, particularly regarding resilient supply chains, urban futures, and community conservation. To keep up to date with ongoing JTS research projects, please visit our Integrated Responses to Biodiversity and Climate Change and Nurturing Excellence in Sustainability pages.
In the words of JTS Director Arun Agrawal, sustainability at its core is about “flourishing” and “the promise of making the world a different and a better place.” This belief remains at the heart of the work of the JTS Initiative and Sustainability Summit, echoing the call to action shared in Laudato si’ and offering a vision of hope that can guide both institutions and individuals.