Sustainability Research and Innovation Congress 2024 (SRI2024)

Logistics

Date: 10-14 June 2024
Format Hybrid: on campuses in Helsinki and Espoo and online

Description

Since 2021, the Sustainability Research & Innovation Congress (SRI) has united global leaders in research, government, civil society, and business to meaningfully advance progress towards sustainability. The SRI Congress offers an exceptionally inclusive and inspiring global platform for co-creating state-of-the-art solutions and innovations and building a coalition of the willing to achieve a sustainability transformation. SRI is co-convened by Future Earth and the Belmont Forum with local co-organizers.

SRI has been held in Oceania, Africa, and Latin America, and is now heading to Europe. In 2024, SRI will be organized in collaboration with Sustainability Science Days (SSD), which for over six years has been the largest sustainability science conference in Finland. SSD is a joint collaborative effort between Finland’s two largest universities, the University of Helsinki, and Aalto University.

SRI2024 will bring together 2000+ participants from more than 100 countries online and in-person with events on both campuses in Helsinki and Espoo. 

SRI 2024 Themes

1. Green Transitions

The world is trending towards being greener – whether it is the increase in the amount of plant life, the number of green spaces being cultivated in cities, or the changing behavior of humans towards more sustainable practices, “green” is becoming a synonym for all things good on the planet. Yet, not all green transitions are positive. Concerns about biodiversity loss, shifts in growing seasons and declining plant nutrition, lack of equitable access to green urban landscapes, and greenwashing present just a few of the challenges facing this green transition. This theme provides an opportunity to explore the changing landscape and attitudes towards living in harmony with nature, including but not limited to such topics as:

• The migration of plants and humans into new areas of the planet and potential environmental, economic, and health impacts   
• The balance between agroforestry and biodiversity conservation in land management
• Predicting the future of agricultural food and biofuel systems
• Integrating Indigenous stewardship principles into the management of land and water
• Environmental justice efforts to increase the equitable distribution and sustain the presence of urban blue and green spaces
• Innovative methods for changing behaviors and institutions towards more sustainable practices
• Increasing transparency and corporate social responsibility to counteract greenwashing

2. Transforming Technologies and the Future of Work

Technological innovation is an important driver of sustainable transformation, contributing to growth, access, and efficiency of multiple systems, including digital, renewable energy, financial, materials, biotech, health, and decision support solutions. The path from ideation to integration, however, is not always smooth and can raise concerns about carbon footprint, ethical application, unintended uses, reliance on limited resources for operation, inciting a socio-economic or north-south divide, or lack of regulatory oversight. Automation and AI have spurred greater efficiencies but may also result in job loss or other disruptions in careers, while creating new needs for skills and labor. This theme highlights both the technological advances that hope to improve our world and the systems that foster, support, and consume the realization of those technological applications.

• Developing and scaling new smart technologies that support sustainable societies and their wellbeing while keeping within planetary boundaries 
• Transforming the financing of technological innovation
• Reimagining the educational training of a workforce in an increasingly machine-enabled future
• Exploring tradeoffs between high and low tech options and the development of hybridized approaches that merge traditional and computer-enabled pathways
• Mitigating the carbon footprint of 4IR and simplifying carbon reporting
• New regulatory frameworks to enable implementation of transformative and data-driven technologies (including machine learning, AI, Internet of Things, cloud computing, blockchain, and fintech)
• Guidelines for and examples of ethical application of data-driven technologies
• Addressing the pressures and influence of digitalization, including globalization and impact on youth

3. Living on the Frontlines of Change – The Arctic and Beyond

Communities around the world are adapting to change brought on by a combination of extreme weather events, environmental degradation and pollution, competition for natural resources, cultural shifts, economic opportunities and losses, geopolitical pressures, and other means. For some this confluence of challenges threatens not only their livelihoods and lifeways, but their existence in their current location. This theme invites contributions about the polycrises facing many communities, the considerations and challenges to adapting in place, and pathways forward for minimizing conflict, increasing community and personal resilience, and ensuring safe, healthy, productive, and fulfilling living conditions for future generations. Topics include a breadth of possibility, including:

• Innovative community and collaborative approaches to adaptation and resilience in locations experiencing extreme pressures, including pressures to relocate or migrate
• Navigating complex relationships with external assistance, private sector investors, coordination, and expert groups supporting adaptation
• Coping mechanisms and health systems for addressing uncertainty, climate anxiety, and repeated disaster and disease scenarios
• Diplomacy, peacebuilding activities and communities of support that can reduce tensions
• Equitable access to information, technologies, and resources for decision-making and planning
• Preservation of culture, including both tangible and intangible heritage

4. Powering the World

Meeting the growing needs for equitable access to clean and reliable energy worldwide requires a multi-pronged approach. Phasing out fuels that contribute to climate change and mitigating their effects on atmospheric warming is only part of the strategy. Transitions to renewable and clean energy sources offer only a near-term option to reduce dependency on hydrocarbon and coal-based fuels until transformative alternatives would potentially become available. These transitions may also have secondary effects such as improved health and economic benefits that could incentivize individual to community-wide adoption, if it is both efficient and affordable. This shift, whether in the form of wind, solar, geothermal, wave, or other energy sources, presents several systemic opportunities but also challenges beyond just progressive technological advancements. This theme welcomes contributions that will address:

• Incentives, policies and innovations aimed at changing cultural mindsets with the goal of making green energy affordable and accessible to all
• Environmental tradeoffs of green energy transition and initiatives to harmonize and streamline transparent regulatory processes 
• Equitable strategies for managing unsustainable global energy consumption, including improving energy efficiency
• Inconsistent, seasonal, and transboundary access to one or more renewable energy sources, including distribution infrastructure and storage
• Geopolitics of the green energy transition and impacts of the transition on international trade and supply chains, including sourcing and processing of critical minerals

Call for contributions

The deadline for submissions is 30 November 2023
https://sricongress.org/sri2024-call-for-contributions-now-open/

Further Information

For further information, please visit the SRI website: https://sricongress.org/about-sri2024/

Early bird rates available until 30 March 2024