Symposium on economics and sustainability designed to inspire changes

The Dialogues on Economic Growth and Sustainability is an interdepartmental symposium at Utah State University meant to discuss and brainstorm ideas on the relationship between economics and sustainability.  

Located in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall, the event will take place across three different dates: Feb. 2, 9 and 16. Each session will begin at 1:00 p.m. and will last about two hours. 

The symposium is organized by watershed sciences department head Patrick Belmont, Jon M. Huntsman School of Business senior associate dean and professor of economics and finance Frank Caliendo and economics and finance department head Ben Blau.  

“I had been noticing that there are a lot of different issues that we’re all grappling with right now, coming out of the interface between economics and sustainability,” Belmont said. “I think it weighs pretty heavily on people because these things like Great Salt Lake and climate change — those are all direct conflicts between economics and sustainability.” 

Belmont said the symposium is focused on these topics specifically because they are two big drivers of conflict. Efforts like looking for cheaper energy and cutting down forests are driven by economic goals with impacts to climate and the environment.  

“How do we turn that around?” Belmont said. “How do we get the economics working for us rather than against us?” 

Each session of the symposium will have a different focus and goal. The first will be focused on creating a shared foundation of knowledge and understanding about the relationship between economics and sustainability.  

“We’ll have a couple of different talks there,” Belmont said. “Two of them are diabolically opposed — I appreciate that both those speakers are willing to kind of throw it out there and make it a little bit provocative.” 

One of the keynotes for the first session is titled “Economic Growth Must Continue, or We Can’t,” and the other is titled “Economic Growth Will End. Soon. Done Well, This Will Be a Good Thing.” 

Week two will be a reflection of the first week’s presentions, where attendees and speakers will revisit disconnects and differences in perspective.  

This will include a panel for discussions and a few short case studies that will be looked into further. The case studies presented at this session will be chosen based on the discussions that happen during the first week.  

The last week will be all forward looking, with speakers including Jeff Reece, a social entrepreneur, and Darren Parry, the former chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. 

At the end of the last session, there will be a panel discussion addressing questions about how to move forward. 

“I expect this will lead to other events, whether it’s a follow up directly on this or whether there are some spinoffs, maybe looking locally at Logan and Cache Valley and focusing more on these problems that are very soluble here,” Belmont said.  

Other people who will be presenting and participating at the symposium are Caitlin McLennan, USU’s sustainability coordinator, and David Zook, Cache County executive.  

The organization of the event included those at Utah State but also experts from outside the university and different members of the community.  

While the events will cover broad subjects, there will also be discussions about more specific issues such as the Great Salt Lake and local changes that can be made within Cache Valley.  

Belmont encouraged students to attend the symposium, even if they don’t know anything about economics and sustainability. He said the event gives people the opportunity to learn about these issues in a thorough way over just a small amount of time.  

“We’re at a point in human history where we can do incredible things,” Belmont said. “But we’re also at a point in human history where we can get rid of entire mountains. We’re eliminating entire forests. We have such capacity to do damage as well, and so we’re at a place where it’s really important that students understand the capacity that we have and the major transformations that are happening in our economy and in our natural resources.”