2026 VILLANOVA INTERNATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCE

Responding to the Cries of the Earth and the Poor
October 12-15, 2026

The Patristicum, Rome, Italy

Conference Dates: October 12–15, 2026
Arrival & Departure: October 12 & 16, 2026 (October 16 is a travel day only; no conference sessions are scheduled.)


A global gathering advancing dialogue, research, and leadership in sustainability.

Logo for the Conference

Pope Leo XIV, in Dilexi Te, reminds us of our shared responsibility to care for the poor and marginalized. Today, over one billion people live in slum settlements worldwide, predominantly in the Global South, and almost 10 percent of the global population is undernourished. The 2025 State of the Climate Report states that 24 of 34 vital signs are at record levels. Global tree cover loss was 29.6 megahectares (Mha) in 2024, the second highest on record. Additionally, seven of the nine globally quantified safe and just planetary boundaries have been transgressed, highlighting both overshoot and deepening justice concerns.

As climate change advances, the burdens and benefits of our planet’s ecological commons remain profoundly unequal, with those least responsible for emissions suffering the greatest impacts. This transdisciplinary conference seeks to convene scholars, researchers, leaders and practitioners dedicated to exploring the intersections of sustainability, poverty and environmental health.

We welcome abstracts from a broad array of disciplines, including science, theology, philosophy, nursing, law, business, engineering and the humanities.

About the Conference

Pope Francis warned in Laudate Deum (LD 2) that global responses to the climate crisis “have not been adequate,” while the world “may be nearing the breaking point.” The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – Rio de Janeiro, 1992 mandates parties to the convention to “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” This gathering seeks rigorous, creative and hopeful responses.
 
The 2026 Sustainability Conference also seeks to:
  • Foster transdisciplinary engagement to expand collective knowledge;
  • Promote research and dialogue that empower communities to pursue safe, just and sustainable futures;
  • Encourage innovative thinking rooted in ethics, science and lived experience;
  • Create a global alliance that builds sustainability competencies and solves pressing challenges. 

 

  1. Arts and Humanities: The role of arts and humanities in promoting community engagement; resilient communities; safe and just communities; how the arts promote flourishing amid adversity.
  2. Biology: The biological basis for community engagement.
  3. Business and Economics: Creating a dynamic economy to expand opportunities for flourishing communities; Economies of the future: circular economy; sharing economy; the limits of growth: thriving economies; thriving lives.
  4. Communication: Climate communication: prospects and problems for community engagement.
  5. Culture: The role of communities, cooperation and diverse societies in collective global flourishing: depolarization and pluralism for community flourishing
  6. Ecology/Environmental: The promotion of planetary flourishing; nature connectedness and well-being; cosmic and other non-human forms of flourishing; Mitigating how conflict and climate affect communities.
  7. Education: Teaching and learning that promote human flourishing and community engagement; online education and access to quality education; Effective Sustainability and carbon literacy pedagogy for community engagement; Quality education.
  8. Engineering: Resilient infrastructure systems in communities; Addressing product planned obsolescence through the lens of life cycle Assessment; Resilient food systems; Green Transition in times of Geopolitical pressures. Affordable and clean  water and energy.
  9. Health: The role of physical health, mental health and health systems in promoting community health and wellbeing, climate anxiety, Air/water/noise pollution and community health.
  10. International Development: SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and communities; life on land.
  11. Philosophy: The conceptual and philosophical basis of our understanding of community flourishing.
  12. Migration: Human mobility, migration and displacement amid climate change, conflict and inequality, and their implications for community flourishing.
  13. Policy: Effective promotion of flourishing across the globe within the public sector, housing sector, regional level, legal systems and community, governance structure and community flourishing.
  14. Psychology: The role of character traits and virtues in promoting community flourishing; Addressing climate denialism; the rise of technological dependence and the decline of independent thought; the science of loneliness and how to foster social connectedness in our communities.
  15. Religion and Spirituality: Religious and spiritual practices that promote community; Religion as a source of personal, communal and social flourishing. Spiritual but not Religious: Addressing the growing number of nones in Western society, Eco-spirituality, stewardship.
  16. Technology and AI: Technology and the future of human flourishing (including artificial intelligence and collective intelligence.)

Transdisciplinary approaches are strongly encouraged, and submissions may cut across the conference’s thematic boundaries.

Connect with Us

Be part of a global conversation committed to shaping a sustainable and just world - one grounded in rigorous scholarship, moral imagination and transformative action.

Stay tuned for further conference details by following us on LinkedIn. For any questions email us directly.

Past Conferences