Sustainability Symposium
The fifth annual UW–Madison Sustainability Symposium will take place 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.
Questions? Please email Will Erikson.
Call for Presentations
UW–Madison faculty, staff, and students are invited to submit lightning talk and poster proposals. Proposals are due Oct. 11 at 11:55 p.m. CT.
About the program
Additional program details are coming soon. To stay informed, subscribe to UW–Madison’s monthly sustainability newsletter
What to expect
The Sustainability Symposium provides a chance to see what others across UW–Madison are working on, find connections to your own work, and put your ideas into conversation with people you may not otherwise meet. Explore the abstracts and biographies of last year’s lightning talk and poster presenters to see the range of work that has taken the stage.
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.”