indigenous woman's hand reaching into freshly tilled ground
Monday, Mar 23, 2026 Tuesday, Mar 24, 2026

Preferred Futures: Climate and Environmental Justice Across Borders

The 2026 Climate & Environmental Justice Across Borders Conference forms part of the inaugural year of programming for the Stanford Center for Just Environmental Futures, a new interdisciplinary hub dedicated to advancing community-rooted approaches to climate and environmental justice.
Open to
Stanford Community
Public
indigenous woman's hand reaching into freshly tilled ground

Location

On Campus

Bringing together scholars, frontline leaders, legal experts, scientists, policymakers, and cultural practitioners, the conference explores how preferred futures—futures grounded in equity, dignity, and ecological integrity—can be actively shaped across local, transborder, and international contexts. Building on critical scholarship and lived experience, discussions will examine the historical and political-economic forces that have produced environmental harm and inequality, while centering pathways for repair, protection, and transformation emerging from Indigenous peoples and frontline communities.

About the Sustainability Research Conference Series

The Stanford Initiative on Business and Environmental Sustainability Research Conference Series is hosted by Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

Across two days, the conference engages questions of climate reparations, environmental governance, Indigenous jurisprudence, climate mobility and the right to stay, and the responsibilities of institutions in advancing just futures. In addition to advancing shared understanding, the convening serves as a collaborative space to consider how universities can meaningfully support justice-centered climate action and how the Stanford Center for Just Environmental Futures can operate as a long-term partner to communities, civil society, and decision-makers working in service of the most vulnerable—and the living world.

Conference Organizers

Maxine Burkett
Emerson Collective Professor of Climate, Environment, and Society
Stanford University
Rwaida Gharib
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability