Dining With Sustainability

A dinner series convening regional sustainability experts to forge interdisciplinary and inter-organizational networks and provide opportunities for information sharing, innovation, and creativity that enable progress on regional and global sustainability challenges.

Participants are sustainability researchers and professionals from a wide variety of organizations, including Colorado State University faculty; federal and state experts; city and county managers; NGO, nonprofit, and business leaders; and others. They aim to:

  • Identify opportunities for collaboration and information-sharing
  • Improve your access to people, organizations, and new perspectives
  • Foster creative and innovative approaches to your work
  • Establish and strengthen networks of experts, linking producers and users of science
  • Inspire research, collaboration, enterprise, and collegiality
Dining with Sustainability participant

Evening Structure:​

Dinner is on us! Our goal is to provide the space and time to meet; we hope you will enjoy yourself during the evening and walk away with renewed inspiration, ideas, and contacts. Above all, this is an opportunity for some great feedback and networking on current sustainability work for all attendees.

We will send some ‘food for thought’ and a participant list in advance of each dinner. Participants are encouraged to discuss projects that are new or early in design, would benefit from interdisciplinary feedback or new collaborations, would benefit from new perspectives, and/or you are particularly excited about. Ample opportunity will be dedicated to open discussion and networking.

Come to many dinners, or just a few. We hold semi-regular dinners in fall and spring, accepting 20-25 participants for each. We will select a diverse group of participants for each dinner should there be more people interested than room. Dinners are fully hosted at a local Fort Collins restaurant.

Sign up for the dinner series here
"I heard a theme of needing to tell the story, the why, and deeply connect science with the social component."
Eriq Acosta
National Director, Trees, Water & People
"The few hours spent at the dinner was very worthwhile, and it achieved the goal of enabling meeting and catalyzing discussions with people of diverse interests and backgrounds."
Picture of A. R. Ravishankara
A.R. Ravishankara
University Distinguished Professor, Depts. of Chemistry and Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University
"I loved the collection of people and the blend of facilitation and open networking."
Kathryn Ernst
Program Manager, GSSE MBA Program, Colorado State University
"I like that I can hear, discuss, and share fresh ideas at these dinners. Everything seems new to me, and it’s refreshing to bounce different ideas off new people."
Picture of Lincoln Bramwell
Licoln Bramwell
Chief Historian, U.S. Forest Service
"Really fun conversations with people from many different disciplines. This evening brought together creative thinkers eager to talk about important ecological issues from a range of valuable perspectives.
Picture of Ruth Alexander
Ruth Alexander
Professor, Dept. of History, Colorado State University
"Dinner conversations were terrific! I really enjoyed hearing about the work of sustainability thought leaders in our community."
Honoré Depew
Environmental Planner, Waste Reduction & Recycling, City of Fort Collins
"These dinners are intellectually and socially stimulating. I was thrilled by the energy in the room and the potential for research collaborations."
Picture of Karen Scholthof
Karen-Beth Scholthof
Professor visiting from Dept. of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A&M University
"These dinners provide a wonderful forum for the exchange of enlightening and educational conversation; I discovered many new and interesting pieces of information relevant to my work and life. The series is also a great way to make connections and network with the Fort Collins sustainability community and beyond."
Adam Wilke
Research Social Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey
"The dinner brought together a terrific mix of people from the public and private sectors, and ranging from municipal power utility to the federal level, and of course CSU. Great conversations, imagining solutions, and budding partnerships happened last night."
Picture of Scot Allen
Scot Allen
International Research Strategist, Colorado State University

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Aleta Weller, Senior Research and Engagement Officer, at [email protected] or by calling (970) 491-3653.