This August 17–19, Colorado State University’s Climate Hub and School for Sustainable Futures (formerly the School of Global Environmental Sustainability) will host the 3rd Annual National Sustainability Society Conference. Ahead of the event, we sat down with Dan Brown, President of the National Sustainability Society and Professor and Director of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington, to talk about the organization, this year’s conference, and where the sustainability field stands today.
For people who may not be familiar with the National Sustainability Society (NSS), can you help us understand what the organization does and who its audience is?
The NSS is a member-based organization. The primary activities of which are to offer program opportunities for the membership to come together in various formats and share research findings, learning, and experiences. We do that in person in the form of an annual conference and a number of webinars and town hall discussions for online deep dives throughout the year. A lot of the focus has been on convening cross-sectoral conversations in all of those programs so that we are providing opportunities for researchers to understand what the sticky challenges and questions are for practitioners and for practitioners in various sectors – private, government, and nonprofit – to interact with and learn about the tools and results from analyses that can support their work.
What was the gap in the field that made you and the founding members feel a new society like NSS was needed?
A 2020 National Academy report laid out some of the challenges that motivated our founding. That report particularly was focused on the education and workforce needs… that the needs for competencies that can support and lead sustainability transitions across communities and sectors was growing rapidly. The notion was that a professional society could do a number of things.
- It could galvanize the field of sustainability as an intellectual and professional endeavor and help to define it, help to shape it.
- It could bring together the practitioners who go out into the world and are trying to solve tricky problems together with the scientists who are grappling with them in research and trying to generate knowledge in general, and that which supports the practice.
- It could help with becoming a sounding board [or] clearing house for cross-sectoral conversations on research and on the structure and content of academic programs, even potentially supporting accreditation for educational programs, to support the pipeline of talent that organizations need to meet their sustainability goals.
We have the 3rd annual NSS conference coming up next month. This year’s theme is “Courage, Credibility, and Collective Action.” Why this framing right now, and what do each of these concepts mean in practice?
We recognize that we are in a moment in which support for sustainability goals and practices is in question in some places, and under attack in others, and recognizing that that this work doesn’t become less important just because it becomes harder. We think as an organization, it’s our responsibility to help support that work in whatever ways we can. We all will benefit from mustering as much courage as we can to continue on with the work in the face of those headwinds. The reasons we’re here is that we believe it’s important to make credible progress on sustainability. We want to be an organization that upholds and sustains knowledge – fact-based, science-based understanding of action and provide that credible base for that work and we need to come together to do it through collective action.
1 year ago, you wrote about rapid federal disinvestment from scientific research, sustainable technologies, and regulatory enforcement creating real uncertainty for the field. Where do you think the field stands today?
I think we’ve got a better sense of the challenges… And we’ve seen some success at pushing back on a lot of the challenges that have come our way.
There are some very real challenges – changes in regulatory frameworks that we’ve had in the past and a concerted effort to reengineer the entire federal-university enterprise that supports science. Science continues to have strong backing within Congress and lots of success in the courts in keeping that enterprise moving forward. To me, it feels like we’re at a moment where success looks like persisting in our work.
Why might someone want to join the organization’s membership?
Our key value proposition is the community we have developed and are developing. We’ve heard this from many of our members – “I found my people.” The “my people thing” is not necessarily somebody in my field or doing exactly what I’m doing or even in the same kind of profession, but it’s somebody who has a like-minded mission. That diversity provides tremendous opportunities for learning, and that’s what we are working to facilitate.
Why was Colorado State University selected as this year’s host?
Excellent institutional support from Colorado State University, mission alignment with the priorities of the university as well as the NSS and investment in sustainability. There’s a School of Sustainable Futures, a new CSU Climate Hub, and really excellent opportunities for us to support each other. Additionally, the leadership of Courtney Schultz (School of Sustainable Futures) and Veera Mitzner (Climate Hub) just stepping up and being wonderful partners. The personal connections, Veera being a board member and also having experience with conferences; Courtney’s leadership in the school and her network, in both networks in the region are really critical.
And the location. We came to visit the CSU Spur campus. And of course, Denver’s centrally located.
Could you share why someone should attend the NSS conference this year, and what attendees might get out of it?
We’ve put together a diverse program that facilities learning and connecting in a variety of formal and informal ways. We start with focused professional development and workshop sessions on everything from carbon finance and AI to sustainability communication and leadership. The rest of the program includes a variety of presentations and curated conversations. We’ve found that panel discussions are really great ways to develop cross-sectoral conversations and learning. Of course, there will be ample opportunities to meet and interact with a great group of professionals and build that networks that sustain us all in our work.
What gives you the most hope in the sustainability field right now?
We’re all continuing and committed to doing the work. It’s not going away. There’s a bunch of people who have a self-interest in not seeing some of the changes and transformations that need to happen. But the need is not going away. The commitment of the people in the field ultimately is the hope, and the persistence of those people in the face of these challenging times is what gives me hope.
Interested in joining the conversation? Registration is still open for the NSS Conference. Find out more details here: https://www.thenss.org/2026attend
