Sustainability Salons
Welcome to the 2026 season of Sustainability Salons at the University of Glasgow.
With the publication of Scotland’s Climate Change Plan and its UK equivalent, we can see where the country’s leaders expect us to focus our efforts. As leaders of change, we must support, inform, and challenge these plans with new technology, information, data-driven solutions, and projects that deliver benefits for everyone.
The University is a place where experts, decision makers, stakeholder representatives, and budget holders can meet on neutral ground to discuss issues, sharing forthright views and perspectives so that the whole of an issue can be understood. That’s why the Sustainability Salons were created – to bring all these perspectives together for frank, constructive conversations and to build connections that don’t usually happen.
The Sustainability Salons are not designed with predetermined outcomes. There is no lead speaker, expert panel, or detailed agenda. Discussion and outcomes emerge from the attendees, ensuring everyone can contribute their perspective without any single viewpoint dominating.
If discussions inspire projects that will address sustainability issues, we have EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) funding available to support these initiatives.
The Sustainability Salons are organised by David Hughes, Knowledge Exchange Associate.
Email David if you would like to get involved in future Salons.
An initiative of the EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA)
Upcoming Sustainability Salons
Environmental sensing
Wednesday, 25 February 2026, 2-5pm
Share your views on what's needed and possible in measuring the environmental impact of our actions to achieve Scotland's climate goals.
Water
Wednesday, 29 April 2026, 2-5pm
Help shape the future of Scotland's water supply and management for the benefit of people and nature.
Why attend?
Academics
Have you ever wondered how to get to talk to those in power? To get the knowledge gained from your research disseminated and acted upon? Whether it’s regulators, industry leaders, community advisors, policy makers, or influencers – the Sustainability Salons offer a seat in the same room and a chance to have your voice, your influence felt, and to make sure that your science-based, data-driven solutions are considered properly.
Industry reps
Making yourselves aware of what’s coming over the horizon both in terms of tech and policy shifts just makes sense. Influencing the direction that tech goes in to address pain points and issues in your industry is wise, and informing policy makers of what will and won’t work for your industry is essential. These events put the people taking these actions across the table from you. Join us and make sure they hear what you are saying.
Policymakers
Having an overview of the state of play, and the expected next steps, making sure your decisions are well informed, data driven, and implementable, will ensure your legacy is a positive, lasting improvement on society. Finding trusted experts and representatives from industry and communities will give you this. These events will let you meet, vet, engage with, and observe individuals who are working every day, just as you are, to push things forwards, just in a different part of the machine. Knowing how that machine works will give you the confidence to make the right decisions.
Regulators
Strong communication between stakeholders and regulators is essential to ensure that rules adapt to changes in the environment, technology, and even public opinion. When this dialogue works well, regulators can be seen for what they truly are: guardians of both industry and the public.
In an ideal world, these conversations would be open, ongoing, and accessible, making regulatory enforcement straightforward and productive. Our hope is that these events help move us a little closer to that ideal.
Community reps
Everyone working to make improvements needs to hear directly from end users - the people on the front line who rely on technologies and who are most affected by the decisions being made. Community representatives are essential in this process; your voices must be heard, and your understanding of the wider context is vital to effectively advocate for those you represent.
By attending these events, you’ll have the opportunity to raise concerns and engage with ideas while they are still in their early stages, helping shape plans before they become fixed.
Past Sustainability Salons
Water Management and Treatment
Ensuring the Sustainability of Next Gen Comms
How can we optimise the use of 5G and design 6G to strengthen the push to Net Zero?
About the Sustainability Salons
Historical salons
In the 1600s, those in unique positions in society in Italy and France who were friends with the rich, the influential, the philosophers, artists, personalities, aristocracy, governments, and scientists realised that the intelligentsia in their world needed the opportunity to mix, influence, and share ideas with each other. The best way they could do this was as hosts, tailoring guest lists to include those with challenging opinions and ideas and inspiring a great exchange of knowledge and creating a relaxed atmosphere of openness and learning. This tradition lasted hundreds of years throughout Europe and helped create the Age of Enlightenment and modern thinking.
The hosts of salons were women like Sophie de Condorcet, a salonnière who hosted our own Adam Smith in the late 1700s. With the mostly male equivalent being cercles and cafes which were more exclusively for certain social levels and excluded women generally, salons grew into places where social hierarchy, gender, and origin were not barriers to learning and expressing views and ideas.
Salons at the University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow in the modern world holds a unique position too, being a hub of research and original ideas, and can host other thinkers in industry, government, social enterprise and community leaders. We strive to be inclusive and bring together relevant, knowledgeable people, with diverse backgrounds, professions, and opinions in order to generate open conversation on topics we feel need to be addressed. We intend to build conversations into relationships and actions to help address the issues facing society today.
These are our Sustainability Salons, themed on pertinent topics and peopled by invited academics, industrial, third sector, and government representatives. Kept relatively small and informal, the purpose is to have attendees exchange ideas, viewpoints, and experience and begin partnerships which could lead to positive change.