People who attended the Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability conference over the past weekend probably weren’t there for the whole thing, considering it lasted four days and included dozens of events.
For the event organizers, the goal was to present a new perspective to those attendees on the imperative of action versus simple discussion to sustain and protect the planet. The HOPES Conference is hosted every year by the Ecological Design Center, a student-run organization composed of students in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts.
“The thing about HOPES is that its intent is to inspire students, in particular, to work towards sustainable futures,” said Tamara Andreas, the event’s director and a 23-year-old architecture student who will graduate in June. ” The more that we can do to make it that way the better.”
The underlying goal of the conference, which has been held every year since 1995, is to promote sustainable design principles. HOPES is the only ecological design conference managed and developed exclusively by students. Building on a theme, “Drawing on Difference,” HOPES conference planners brought together experts from a variety of different disciplines to discuss and devise sustainable solutions to today’s environmental challenges.
Starting on Thursday and running through Sunday, Andreas and her team of approximately 20 student coordinators managed a conference packed full of workshops, panel discussions and talks from prominent speakers, including artist Natalie Jeremijenko; University of California, Berkeley landscape architecture professor Randolph Hester; builder John Abrams; architect Eric Corey Freed; and landscape architect Nate Cormier. Although the speakers came from different backgrounds, all advocated a similar theme: encouraging people to take active steps to promote sustainability and environmental awareness.
“The crisis that has been revealed is one of urgency and what to do individually and collectively,” said Jeremijenko, delivering a speech Thursday night. “Words are no longer enough. Slogans no longer have the standard of evidence required to rally or organize or enforce the substantial environmental action that we need to take.”
Echoing this emphasis on action, the conference included a series of hands-on workshops with an explicit focus on sustainability. On Saturday morning, about 15 students braved the unseasonably cold April weather to participate in a habitat workshop in front of Lawrence Hall. Students combined a mix of plants and habitat elements to create a functioning ecosystem for a variety of wildlife.
Erin Duffy, a landscape architecture graduate student, coordinated the event. She was in the middle of all the dirt and plant debris, issuing orders while sleet and rain swirled around them.
“We’re just trying to teach people how to make better habitats for wildlife in your own backyard,” she said.
On Thursday, organizers held a 24-hour design workshop that encouraged participants to come up with their own ways to create sustainable solutions for rebuilding Eugene’s downtown.
Also part of the conference was a green business expo, which was coordinated by students in the Sustainable Business Group, a student-run club in the Lundquist College of Business. Booths showcased organizations that promote environmentally and socially responsible business and community practices.
Saturday featured two lectures that focused on different aspects of sustainability. Two panels discussed sustainable architecture in both local communities and on a global scale. Also, a new workshop taught how to recycle and reuse products locally. Using donated plywood, “Found, Formed and Functional” participants broke down the unusable pallets to create desks for a local nonprofit human services agency.
One of the critical concepts of the conference was that “sustainability is not a trend; it is the social movement of our time.” Andreas, the conference director, said the next step is for students to get involved and sustain the planet.
“It’s imperative that we learn to not have too much of an impact,” she said. “The evidence is overwhelming and calls for us to take action.”