IIM Shillong’s signature event, SUSCON, is more than just a conference or an academic endeavour; it is a movement that has established a forum for discussions and debates on sustainability at local, national, and international scales.

The theme for this year’s conference was Collaboration, Compassion, and Co-Creation; and distinguished speakers shared their knowledge, experiences, and insights presenting their thoughts on this theme over three days. Approximately 150 papers were received, out of which 41 papers were chosen. 48 participants attended the conference and presented papers on the following sub-themes:

• Collaborative Alliances and Partnerships for Sustainability
• Leadership and Governance for Sustainable Development
• Building Trust and Empathy for Co-creating Humane Organizations
• Blending Traditional Wisdom with Modern Knowledge Systems
• Circular Economy and Socio-economic Balance
• Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Equity
• Sustainable Agri-Food Production
• Energy Efficiency and Resource Mobilization for Sustainability
• Sustainable Supply Chain and Life-Cycle Management
• Sustainable Finance and Cooperative Financial Institutions
• Sustainable Value Co-creation in a Post-COVID World
• Transforming Work and Life for a Sustainable Future

Prof. DP Goyal, Director, IIM Shillong in his welcome address at the inaugural ceremony mentioned that the conference would provide a platform for deliberations on sustainability. Padma Bhushan Dr. Mrityunjay Athreya spoke on the topic ‘Our Shared Global Sustainability Dharma’ and stressed the need to combat the global crisis of climate change and suggested two feasible solutions, namely Climate Compensatory Funding and Green Technology while Dasho Karma Ura, President of the Centre for Bhutan Studies and Gross National Happiness Research (Thimphu, Bhutan) provided a different perspective on sustainability by combining it with Buddhism and spoke in detail about this relationship while referring to happiness in general. Dr. Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, an Indian conservation biologist on the other hand stressed the need to plan developmental activities in an environment-friendly manner.

Chairpersons of Suscon IX Prof. Sanjoy Mukherjee mentioned that SUSCON is a movement and a commitment to the cause and spirit of sustainability while Prof. Sanjeeb Kakoty expressed his concerns on the growing exploitation of resources and inequality of its distribution and mentioned that SUSCON is a platform where people from different specializations come to find solutions to various environmental problems.

The conference was supported by major Indian PSU GAIL (India) Limited and State Bank of India (SBI) as conference partners while the Centre for Bhutan Studies and the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Research, the Council of Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), and the European Spirituality in Economics and Society (SPES) Institute supported as knowledge partners and Springer Nature as the publication partner.

The Conference encompassed a series of plenary sessions which witnessed some stimulating ideas being brought to the forum by dignitaries such as Dr. Tan Sri Dzulfikli Abdul Razak, Rector, International Islamic University, Malaysia; Dr. Ove Daniel Jacobsen, Professor of Ecological Economics Business School Nord University, Bodo, Norway; Dr. Laszlo Zsolnai, President, European SPES Institute Professor and Head, Business Ethics Center, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary; Dr. Arunabha Ghosh, Climate Expert, and CEO, CEEW; Prayank Jain and Team from CEEW, New Delhi; Nupoor Singh, Editor, Springer Nature, India; and Soumik Biswas, General Manager, Corporate Strategy Planning and Advocacy, GAIL (India) Limited, New Delhi.

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