Introducing Sustainability at NASSM
By NASSM Sustainability Committee
Walker Ross (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Jessica Murfree (Texas A&M University, USA)
Michael Mignano (Olivet College, USA)
Lance Warwick (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA)
View of Montréal from Mount Royal.
Source: https://www.exploretravel.com.au/story/8011776/why-you-should-visit-this-canadian-city-in-2023/
We wanted to introduce ourselves to you all as the new Sustainability Committee within NASSM. Our charge is to support the delivery of NASSM’s initiatives and programming in an environmentally responsible manner. As part of this introduction, we wanted to draw your attention to two major items: 1) our sustainability guide for the 2023 Conference in Montréal, and 2) our mission and objectives for the future.
Sustainability at NASSM 2023 in Montréal
NASSM’s largest environmental impact likely comes from the hosting of our annual conference. In recognition, we wanted to provide some guidance on environmentally sustainable practices and options for Montréal. These tips may be found at this link: NASSM 2023 Sustainability Guide
In this document, we have detailed public transit options for getting from the airport to the Sheraton Le Centre Montréal Hotel, public transit directions to major sights and activities, details of some eco-friendly activities in Montréal, local and eco-friendly dining options, as well as some general tips for your hotel stay and conference enjoyment. As part of this guide, we have tried to limit the information and options to those that are within a 15-minute travel radius of the conference as well as those items that we figured would be most relevant to everyone.
Certainly, some sport scholars will be interested in seeing live sports, oui? The Montréal Alouettes (CFL) play a home preseason game during the conference, and you can travel there on public transit quite easily from the hotel. Prefer a walk in the park? Visit Mount Royal for a hike. Would you rather rent a bike and go for a ride? Check out BIXI Bikes. Want some local, sustainable coffee? You’ve got multiple options. We’ve laid it all out for you!
We hope you find this information useful and that you use it to help limit the environmental impact of your activities. We do recognize that the largest environmental impact of the conference comes from everyone flying in from all over the world. It is likely too late for this, but we would encourage the future use of services like Skyscanner and Google Flights that can filter flight options by carbon dioxide emissions.
Biosphere in Parc Jean-Drapeau.
Source: https://www.investmentmonitor.ai/sponsored/why-montreal-is-a-hub-for-sustainability-related-international-organisations/
NASSM Sustainability in the Future
This guide is our first public effort as a committee and is one that we hope to continue in the future for Minneapolis and where NASSM takes us in the future. Beyond this effort, we have many initiatives we are hoping to pursue going forward:
We are looking forward to exploring and measuring the environmental impact of the conference so that we can establish a better picture of our footprint and mitigation strategies.
Promoting the inclusion of environmental sustainability in NASSM governance.
Supporting teaching and scholarship within NASSM on the topic of environmental sustainability.
We are just getting our feet under us as a committee, but are excited to make a large impact on NASSM (or a small impact on the planet if you think about it). Have thoughts on additions to the sustainability guide or environmental sustainability within NASSM? We are open to your suggestions. Please, reach out to our Chair, Walker Ross: walker.ross@ed.ac.uk.
As of writing this blog post, the current global CO2 concentration is 420 ppm (NASA, 2023) and the current average global temperature rise compared to pre-industrial levels is approximately 1.1 °C (IPCC, 2023). We hope that NASSM will not be a contributor to the rise of these numbers.