Michail Fragkias, associate professor and internship coordinator for economics, presented his work at the inaugural National Sustainability Society Conference, held at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Fragkias participated in a session titled “Sustainability Transformations: Theory and Transdisciplinarity.” He explored the role of complexity science in sustainability decision-making, and highlighted the importance of appropriate framings in the study of sustainability, the identification and use of scaling laws, the establishment of more rule-based rather than expediency-based policies and the promotion of adaptive management approaches that are aligned with sustainability governance principles. The session was chaired by William Clark, research professor at the Harvard University Kennedy School, and included two other speakers: Ed Sarath, professor of music at the University of Michigan, and Rosalind Yunibandhu, business consultant and PhD student in sustainable leadership at Mahidol University in Thailand.
The National Sustainability Society Conference brought together researchers, policy-makers and practitioners as a unified community for sustainability. The conference created a space for dialogue aimed at building consensus on key principles, competencies, capacities and frameworks for sustainability. The conference attracted more than 600 participants who are actively working on advancing sustainability solutions across sectors and themes.