Wrap up of the Pathways to Sustainability Conference 2023 ‘See the future’

We look back on a great conference and hope to inspire you a bit more! Take a look at the after-movie, highlighted talks and pictures. You can also find the video of the morning plenary below.

Plenary morning programme

Nynke Laverman

Nynke Laverman is rapidly rising in popularity as a singer, songwriter, spoken word artist and explorer. Together with musician Sytze Pruiksma, she opened the 2023 conference with a performance of Songs Tree and Ancestor from her latest album Plant.

Dr Lewis Akenji

Keynote by Dr Lewis Akenji, managing director of the Hot or Cool Institute, a Berlin based public interest think tank that explores the intersection between society and sustainability.

Dr Fatima Denton

Keynote by Dr Fatima Denton, director of the Institute for Natural Resources in Africa of the United Nations University in Accra, Ghana and holder of the Prince Claus Chair in Equity and Development of Utrecht University since 2022.

Q&A with Lewis Akenji and Fatima Denton

Q&A with Lewis Akenji and Fatima Denton with moderator Vanessa Timmer.

Cassandra & Sabearelân and Nynke Laverman

Performance of songs Cassandra & Sabearelân (Alles komt goed) and spoken word by Nynke Laverman.

Panel reflections

Panel reflections on the pathways to 2060 with Harriet Bulkeley, Eline Hutter, Beatrice de Graaf and moderated by Vanessa Timmer.

Reflecting on the ‘2060’ experiment

Back in 2023: Q&A with invited panel experts, Maarten Hajer, Nynke Laverman and Sytze Pruiksma and moderated by Vanessa Timmer.

(Click for larger image)

Lunch Activities and Breakout sessions

Lunch Activities

Over lunch, there was a variety of initiatives and art and science installations to visit. Participants were invited to mingle and interact with a variety of projects. A complete list of the activities are listed below.

Climate Casino
Sustainable futures video games - UU and HKU
The Living Lab Game - UU Labs
Urban nature book corner
Foyer Future-proofing Education and Engagement - UU Sustainability Education and Engagement
Foyer Time Troublers – a traveling roundtable - Marloes & Wikke and Urban Futures Studio
Match making for lifelong learning within sustainability
Climate Confessionel - Ekaterina Volkova and Julien Thomas, Jan van Eyck Academie

Breakout sessions

In the afternoon of the conference day, a wide range of breakout sessions took place, which are listed below. They explored how we can become more impactful in the university and in society at large. Attendees actively participated in one of the breakout sessions. The full descriptions of what each breakout session entailed can be found here and a complete overview of the day's programme can be viewed here.