Ethics and Sustainability: Conversations for global, regional and community impact 

The Ethics Institute, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, the Center for Ethical and Socially Responsible Leadership, the Frank J. Kelley Institute of Ethics and the Legal Profession and the Office of Sustainability hosted the Sustainability and Ethics Symposium on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. This event marks the fifth symposium hosted by the Ethics Institute and brought together people across the MSU community and beyond to discuss sustainability and its societal impact.

Past symposiums have covered a variety of topics, including creating an ethics institute, big data and artificial intelligence, water and professional ethics. This year’s theme of sustainability draws upon previous conversations, asking attendees to consider how sustainability impacts communities and the environment.

“We all are making ethical decisions every day, so the intent for the symposium is to come together and learn about a topic that impacts all our lives, like sustainability, so we can think about it differently,” said Beth Hammond, managing director of the Center for Ethical and Socially Responsible Leadership.

The symposium kicked off with remarks from David Souder, dean of the Broad College of Business, and Provost Laura Lee McIntyre, preceding keynote speaker Sarvesh Suri and two panels.

Keynote speaker Sarvesh Suri, World Bank Group Regional Industry Director for Infrastructure & National Resources in Africa, presented on Mission 300, a WBG project intended to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity. Resonating with the United Nations’ goal of connecting everyone across the world to reliable, affordable, and clean electricity by 2030, the project seeks to provide the means for sustainable solutions.

The first panel, The Elephant in the Room: What Aspects of Sustainability are Not Getting Enough Attention, discussed policies, systems, and the impact of sustainability on communities, investigating sustainability through an environmental and social justice lens. Panelists included Alessandra R. Carreon, chief climate officer, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy; Elliot Smith, CEO and co-founder of Motmot Inc.; Anjana Susarla, Omura-Saxena professor of responsible AI; and Keith D. Underkoffler, assistant attorney general, Michigan Department of Attorney General, Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Division.

The panel addressed hidden costs, wicked problems, and systemic designs that can make sustainability difficult to implement equitably, especially when efforts can disproportionately affect communities. When discussing sustainability costs and benefits in conjunction with public participation, panelists cited how and where decisions are made, sharing that decisions made locally have more influence from local communities. The panel also posed questions of practices ingrained in society.

“The pursuit of a truly sustainable society affords us the opportunity to confront our culture of consumption and account for costs we’ve long externalized, ensuring global efforts in movements like climate action are grounded in equity, justice, and meaningful public participation. Today’s symposium provided space for a diversity of voices and perspectives to reflect on these opportunities and consider our respective roles in how we might take collective action to achieve a common vision,” said Carreon.

The second panel, Scraps, Streams and Seeds: Sustainability at MSU, observed everyday campus operations. Led and moderated by Laura Young, assistant director of MSU’s Office of Sustainability, panelists Katie Deska Radigan, education and upcycle coordinator at MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center; Katie Fry, collections manager at Beal Botanical Gardens; and Carla Iansiti, Residential & Hospitality Services sustainability officer, discussed MSU sustainability efforts, learning processes, successes, and challenges.

The MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center brings together services that connect, support and sustain the campus community, ensuring items get new life. MSU Surplus Store provides the community with opportunities to thrift items across a variety of categories, including clothing, books and furniture. The recycling center collects all of campus’s recycling and exports it to sustainability-focused centers that ensure it is reused in new products. With collaborative events like Pack Up, Pitch In, the recycling center also helps cut down on waste during student move-in and move-out.

As Beal Botanical Gardens celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2023, Fry and her team saw it as a time to reflect on what it means to preserve the gardens and environment. The resulting conversations led to the replanting of native Michigan plants that support local wildlife and educating visitors on how plants can support or harm local ecology.

Residential and Hospitality Services’ sustainability efforts focus on food waste in campus residence halls. They study food waste and packaging to improve sustainability. They also collaborate with the recycling center to vermicompost food scraps.

Attendee Janice Siegford said, “Part of the reason I attended today was really to get a sense of the breadth and depth of what's going on in the ethics and sustainability space at MSU and to think of ideas for changing direction in my own path in animal science.”

Looking to the future of MSU’s sustainability commitments, the one thing panelists cited as essential to their work is collaboration. From MSU’s community of faculty, staff, and students to the surrounding local community, there are opportunities to represent our values, share our stories, and put our efforts toward action that drives positive change.

“The Ethics Symposium examined sustainability from global to local perspectives, highlighting the need for action across all scales. We look forward to building on these insights at the Fate of the Earth Sustainability Summit, March 26–27 at MSU, embracing the messy, collaborative work that sparks fresh thinking and practical solutions for a sustainable future,” said Young.

The final presentation, How Water Speaks: Freshwater Futures from the Mekong to Michigan, discussed the project Mekong Voices: Transnational River Justice in Mainland Southeast Asia, an exhibition currently on display at the Broad Art Museum. The exhibition features the work of Southeast Asian artists, focusing on environmentalism, Indigeneity, identity, community, knowledge and culture. The project draws on the idea that learning to listen to the world’s rivers will also teach how to better care for them, ourselves, and future generations.

“I work on the east side of Lansing as a garden educator, so I wanted to see different perspectives of people who might not work with agriculture or food access in mind, but maybe some other ventures that incorporate sustainability,” said attendee Kelsi Briana Smith. “I largely think that I resonated with the indigenous practices part of the learning in the discussions, and I think that's what I'd like to take home with me.”

Sustainability and ethics conversations and efforts extend far beyond the symposium. The Fate of the Earth Sustainability Summit will be hosted by the College of Social Science’s environmental science and policy program, March 26–27, 2026. The Ethics Institute will also be hosting Ethics Week Feb. 16-20, 2026.