University Of Kentucky Community Invited To Virtual Global Conference On Sustainability

From the University of Kentucky:

October 16, 2020

By Shane Tedder and Meg Mills

The University of Kentucky will be a host institution sponsor for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s (AASHE) 2020 Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education (GCSHE). The theme for this year’s conference is "Mobilizing for a Just Transition."

UK joins a group of more than 30 universities and colleges from around the world that have signed up as host institutions for this year’s conference. Virtual this year, the conference is scheduled for Oct. 20-22 and will deliver inspiring content, engaging networking opportunities and thought-provoking keynote speakers. The virtual format for the event creates the potential for an even larger global audience of innovative professionals committed to a more sustainable future.

As members of a host institution, every person with an @uky.edu email will be able to attend the conference for free (a $300 value for faculty and staff and $125 for students). All attendees will also have access to the sessions for 30 days after the conference concludes, allowing for expanded and flexible access to conference content. UK’s sustainability officer, Shane Tedder, sees great benefit to this aspect of the format. He noted, “It allows for unprecedented access to these resources for our community, and we will be encouraging faculty, staff and students to take advantage of this opportunity.”

UK’s host institution status was made possible by financial support from UK Facilities Management and the Student Sustainability Council. The SSC’s director of operations, Claire Hilbrecht, was “eager to support this project because of the high student impact.” The SSC has supported the AASHE Conference in the past, allowing for a unique partnership to form between the organization, students and the Office of Sustainability.

To register for the conference for free:

• Click HERE to go to the registration page.
• Fill out all the relevant fields.
• Use your institutional email address only. The discount code is linked to your institution’s email domain (@uky.edu, @g.uky.edu). Other email addresses (such as Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo) will not work with the discount code.
• On the submit payment page, enter the following discount code: UKYEDU100220.
• Complete your registration.

After attending or viewing conference keynotes and sessions, the Office of Sustainability is encouraging UK participants to fill out this form with feedback and ideas. The office is also planning to host a virtual forum for members of the UK community who attended the conference.

“We’re hoping to engage the campus in meaningful discussion about what they learned from the conference and to explore opportunities to use our collective experience with #GCSHE to boost and expand sustainability efforts on our campus," Tedder said.

To see the full conference schedule, visit online here.

This press release was produced by the University of Kentucky. The views expressed here are the author’s own.