Sustainability Symposium
The fifth annual UW–Madison Sustainability Symposium will take place from 1:00–5:30 PM on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. The event will feature lightning talks, poster presentations, and a keynote on sustainability and entrepreneurship by Dr. Erica Plambeck ’94, professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Hosted by the Office of Sustainability with support from Facilities Planning & Management, the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, the UW Environmental Awareness Fund, the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub, the Wisconsin School of Business, and the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship, the Symposium brings together students, faculty, staff, and partners to share research, projects, and ideas advancing sustainability across UW–Madison.
About the program
Agenda
1:00 p.m. Welcoming Remarks
Dr. Andrea Hicks, Dean Paul Robbins, and Dean Vallabh Sambamurthy
1:15 p.m. Honoring Jim Weinert ’67, MBA ’69
In recognition of his generous support of sustainability at UW–Madison
1:30 p.m. Keynote Address: A Deadly Circular Economy
Dr. Erica Plambeck ’94, Stanford Graduate School of Business
2:30 p.m. Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UW–Madison
Lewis Sheats, executive director of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub
2:55 p.m. Lightning Talks
4:05 p.m. Closing Remarks
Dr. Andrea Hicks
4:10 p.m. Poster Presentations and Reception
A Deadly Circular Economy
Dr. Erica Plambeck
Bangladesh has widespread lead poisoning. Millions of 3-wheeled electric vehicles are powered by massive lead acid batteries of low durability. Trade barriers and weak regulation foster a domestic lead-acid battery circular economy with low quality and high lead emissions. I will present research on business model and government policy innovation to reduce lead pollution. Some of the insights are relevant not only for Bangladesh, but for India and other countries with lead pollution.
Erica Plambeck is the Charles A. Holloway Professor of Operations, Information & Technology at Stanford Graduate School of Business and senior fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment. She teaches the MBA core course in operations management and an elective, Environmental Entrepreneurship, that draws together MBAs and graduate students from across the Stanford campus. Erica received the Presidential Early Career Award for research in supply chain management, and was recognized as a faculty pioneer in social and environmental stewardship by WRI and the Aspen Institute. Erica grew up in the Midwest, received a BS in mathematics and industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, developed decision models for EU climate change policy as a Marshall scholar at Cambridge University, and received her PhD in engineering economic systems and operations research from Stanford University.
Getting to the event
The Sustainability Symposium will take place at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, located in the Discovery Building at 330 N. Orchard St., Madison, WI 53715. Please consider walking, bicycling, or taking the bus, as you are able. Find UW–Madison bicycling information and bus information.
“In the face of [climate change] you are not being resigned, or quiescent. You are finding ways to move forward and make a difference and to pull people together collaboratively to engage around these issues of sustainability. We need that, we need you, and we all need to figure out what we can do to help create a world that can sustain itself.”