5:15 pm | Gold Mass for Scientists and Engineers Basilica of the Sacred Heart 6:15 pm | Reception (light refreshments) and book signingJordan Hall of Science Galleria 7:15 pm | Lecture: Sr. Damien Marie Savino, FSE, Ph.D.105 Jordan Hall of Science What does it mean to “learn the language of creation,” and why is this especially important in an increasingly technological age? How can science and theology be of service to this pursuit? In this Gold Mass lecture, Sister Damien Marie Savino, FSE, Ph.D., explores these questions in light of her recently published book, Learning the Language of Creation: Catholic Social Teaching and Integral Ecology, in conversation with themes in the papal encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. She aims to show how science and theology can help illuminate the language of creation in complementary ways and together enrich our humanity, as well as our understanding of, and care for, the created world. Sister Damien Marie Savino, FSE, Ph.D. is a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist currently serving as the Melchor Visiting Professor of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, with a concurrent appointment at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Previously, she served as Dean of Science and Sustainability at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds a Master's degree in Soil Science from The University of Connecticut and Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Theology and Engineering from The Catholic University of America. She received the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award in 2022 from The Catholic University of America in recognition of her interdisciplinary work. She is a Board Member of the Society of Catholic Scientists, as well as a member of the Academy of Catholic Theology and the American Ecological Engineering Society. Originally published at science.nd.edu.

Join Notre Dame Sustainability for a walk around campus to experience the beauty of Notre Dame. Participants will learn about some of the sustainability initiatives and investments happening at the University that may otherwise go unseen! Only 20 spots are available, so don't wait to sign up! This event is open to the public and will be weather permitting. Please be prepared to wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather. Register today

Explore how Catholic social tradition and Integral Ecology come to life across Notre Dame’s campus and daily operations. Along the way, discover highlights from Notre Dame’s ongoing sustainability journey, including strategic initiatives happening behind the scenes, and learn practical ways each of us can contribute to caring for our common home. This inaugural Mission Tour will be co-led by Fr. Terrence Ehrman, C.S.C., and Geory Kurtzhals, executive director of Notre Dame Sustainability. Light reception to follow. Register here  This event is hosted by the Office of Mission Engagement and Church Affairs

To celebrate Saint Francis of Assisi's 800th anniversary and Jubilee year, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art invites you to gather in the new temporary exhibition Mimmo Paladino: Present into Past to view art related to the patron saint of animals and the environment. We will then move outside to the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park and learn about how this natural landscape on campus is reclaiming nature, both through the curated art and carefully selected plant life. After an up-close look at these specially selected works, Museum staff will guide us in a discussion to share our perspectives, questions, and ideas. Register today **This event is currently at registration capacity. You may continue to sign up, but a spot is not guaranteed. Confirmation of attendance will come via a Google Calendar invitation.**

Join the Notre Dame Sustainability team for a walk around Saint Mary's Lake to pick up trash and help keep our campus ecosystem litter-free! In previous litter pick-ups, we've found interesting items like TVs and bowling balls! Trash grabbers, gloves, bags, and snacks will be provided. Together, we can care for our common home! There is no limit on the number of participants. The more folks in attendance, the better! Registration is not required, but encouraged, so that we may prepare materials.  Register today

Join Notre Dame Sustainability for a walk around campus to experience the beauty of Notre Dame. Participants will learn about some of the sustainability initiatives and investments happening at the University that may otherwise go unseen! Only 20 spots are available, so don't wait to sign up! This event is open to the public and will be weather permitting. Please be prepared to wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather. Register today

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative as we celebrate the first cohort of the Sustainability in Action Fellowship Program with a dynamic Symposium celebrating undergraduate student leadership, innovation, and hands-on environmental stewardship. Through a series of lightning talks, each fellow will share key insights from their summer fieldwork/experiences to highlight how their work put JTS’s core mission and guiding principles into action. Whether you are an undergraduate student interested in applying for future fellowship cohorts, someone looking to learn more about the JTS Initiative, or simply eager to support Notre Dame's student leaders in sustainability, we invite you to join us for this Symposium. We also invite all attendees to join JTS afterwards for a reception to celebrate the Fellows and as an opportunity to meet others interested in sustainability research and practice on campus. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.

Campus Safety’s Zombie Preparedness Festival returns to Notre Dame Thursday, October 1, once again transforming the area outside Notre Dame Stadium into a lively mix of safety education and Halloween fun. Now in its fourth year, the event welcomes faculty, staff, students, and community partners eager to learn practical preparedness skills. The Zombie Preparedness Festival blends fun with an important purpose: helping our campus community build the skills and knowledge needed to stay safe, even in the case of zombies. Attendees will be able to explore hands-on demonstrations ranging from CPR and first aid basics to fire extinguisher training and AED use. Campus departments and local agencies will also host interactive booths, covering everything from cybersecurity and travel safety to sustainability and emergency response. Adding to the energy of the day, a few familiar faces will be transformed into ghoulish versions of themselves, reminding everyone that even in the most unexpected circumstances, preparedness is key. Guests will enjoy food, giveaways, and a chance to win prizes. The event will take place on Thursday, October 1, from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., outside Gate E at Notre Dame Stadium. Originally published at police.nd.edu.

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative in welcoming Dr. Anthony Bebbington for the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series. We invite all attendees to stay afterward for lunch, conversation, and fellowship in 125 DeBartolo Hall as we work together to grow this vital network on campus. Anthony Bebbington is the International Program Director for Natural Resources and Climate Justice at the Ford Foundation. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has held Professorships at the Universities of Melbourne, Manchester and Clark, and Guggenheim, ARC Laureate and ESRC Professorial Chairs. He has been Board Chair of the Climate and Land Use Alliance and the TAI Collaborative. Tony has done most of his own work in Latin America, with a focus on environmental governance, extractive industries, smallholder agriculture, rural livelihoods, social movements and non-governmental organizations. More details to be announced soon. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.

Join Notre Dame Sustainability for a walk around campus to experience the beauty of Notre Dame. Participants will learn about some of the sustainability initiatives and investments happening at the University that may otherwise go unseen! Only 20 spots are available, so don't wait to sign up! This event is open to the public and will be weather permitting. Please be prepared to wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather. Register today

In honor of the Feast Day of Saint Francis, the Word of Life Mural will be illuminated green. 

Join us to celebrate the Franciscan Jubilee Year with a Votive Mass of Saint Francis. Gather together at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to honor caring for creation and the 800th anniversary of the passing of Saint Francis of Assisi. Rev. Greg Haake, C.S.C., will preside. Following Mass, we will gather at the Main Building Rotunda for fellowship with food and beverages.

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative in welcoming Professor Janet Franklin for the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series. We invite all attendees to stay afterward for lunch, conversation, and fellowship in 125 DeBartolo Hall as we work together to grow this vital network on campus. Janet Franklin is the Endowed Campanile Foundation Professor in the Department of Geography, San Diego State University. Her research expertise is in Landscape Ecology, Global Change Biology, Conservation Biogeography, and Geospatial Science. She is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Ecological Society of America.  More details to be announced soon. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.

Join Notre Dame Sustainability for a walk around campus to experience the beauty of Notre Dame. Participants will learn about some of the sustainability initiatives and investments happening at the University that may otherwise go unseen! Only 20 spots are available, so don't wait to sign up! This event is open to the public and will be weather permitting. Please be prepared to wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather. Register today

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative in welcoming Professor Spencer Banzhaf for the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series. We invite all attendees to stay afterward for lunch, conversation, and fellowship in 125 DeBartolo Hall as we work together to grow this vital network on campus. Spencer Banzhaf is a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics Policy (CEnREP) at North Carolina State University.  More details to be announced soon. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative in welcoming Professor Justin Farrell for the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series. We invite all attendees to stay afterward for lunch, conversation, and fellowship in 125 DeBartolo Hall as we work together to grow this vital network on campus. Justin Farrell is Professor of Sociology at the Yale School of the Environment. He studies how values, history, and environment shape communities. His books have been published by Princeton University Press, with a new book forthcoming from Norton, and his research articles have appeared in Science, PNAS, and the American Sociological Review, among others. His research has been supported by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. He is an elected member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, and a proud Notre Dame graduate. More details to be announced soon. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative in welcoming Professor Benjamin Sovacool for the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series. We invite all attendees to stay afterward for lunch, conversation, and fellowship in 125 DeBartolo Hall as we work together to grow this vital network on campus. Benjamin K. Sovacool is Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University in the United States, where he is the Founding Director of the Institute for Global Sustainability. He is also Professor of Energy Policy at the Bennett Institute for Innovation & Policy Acceleration at the University of Sussex Business School. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow in the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea).  This presentation explores how concepts from justice and ethics can inform energy decision-making and highlight the futurity, fairness, and equity dimensions of energy production and use. It defines "energy justice" as a global energy system that fairly distributes both the benefits and costs of energy services, and one that contributes to more representative and inclusive energy decision-making. Such an assessment brings together core understandings of distributional and procedural justice alongside cosmopolitan interpretations of equity and recognitional notions of fairness. The presentation then focuses on six new frontiers or fruitful areas of future research. First is making the case for the involvement of non-Western justice theorists. Second is expanding beyond humans to look at the Rights of Nature or non-anthropocentric notions of justice. Third is focusing on cross-scalar issues of justice such as embodied emissions. Fourth is identifying business models and the co-benefits of justice. Fifth is better understanding the tradeoffs within energy justice principles. Sixth is confronting utopian or falsely constructed justice discourses. In doing so, the presentation argues in favor of "justice-aware" energy planning and policymaking, and it hopes that its (reconsidered) energy justice conceptual framework offers a critical tool to inform decision-making. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative in welcoming Professor Elena Bennett for the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series. We invite all attendees to stay afterward for lunch, conversation, and fellowship in 125 DeBartolo Hall as we work together to grow this vital network on campus. Elena Bennett is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Sustainability Science at McGill University. Her work focuses on the interactions among ecosystem services and how we can manage these interactions for multifunctional working landscapes, using a landscape ecology and systems ecology perspective. She is the Director of ResNet, a 100+ person NSERC Strategic Network that works with communities in six working landscapes across Canada to address questions about managing ecosystem service provision. More details to be announced soon. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.

Join the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative in welcoming Professor Maximilian Auffhammer for the Notre Dame Seminars on Sustainability Series. We invite all attendees to stay afterward for lunch, conversation, and fellowship in 125 DeBartolo Hall as we work together to grow this vital network on campus. Maximilian Auffhammer is the George Pardee Jr. Professor of International Sustainable Development and Chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate. More details to be announced soon. Originally published at sustainabilityinitiative.nd.edu.