Introduction to Sustainability

In recent years, the terms sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable living and other similar variations have been seen and heard increasingly the world over. The United Nations formulated 17 Sustainable Development Goals to form the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These goals are an urgent call for action to all countries to form a global partnership and take concrete steps to keep the planet and the people living on it alive and prospering for generations to come. However, despite the near all-encompassing nature of the SDGs, a clear and concise picture of what sustainability actually means is not always available, especially among the youth.

This collaboration between Talk Dharti To Me and Millennium Fellows of NMIMS, Mumbai therefore seeks to explore and understand lesser known facts about sustainable development and the SDG’s in general. It also explores how they are interconnected not just with each other, but also with climate change at large. 

Our speaker, Laura Bello Cartagena, whose expertise is in the field of agriculture and sustainability, will also explain the importance of responsible production and consumption as related to agriculture to an urban dwelling audience. Laura is a junior lecturer at Utrecht University at the Environmental Sciences department of the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. She pursued her MSc in Sustainable Development at Utrecht University with a specialisation in Earth System Governance and currently teaches courses such as 'Environmental Impact Assessment', 'Philosophy of Science and Ethics', 'Sustainability as a Worldview; on the role of science in social change' and 'Sustainable Food Systems'. In addition to teaching, her research focuses on the participatory and transdisciplinary science of agroecology. In her free time, she is a permaculture practitioner that loves to cook, dance, play music and go for walks in the woods with her dog.