Lang Students Host International Sustainability Conference in Support of a Greener Future

Poised to graduate in a few weeks, Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics marketing management student Jacob Lohrenz says that joining the organizing team for the Lang Sustainability Conference not only added sustainability to the list of qualities he’d value for in a future employer, but changed his life more generally.

“To be honest with you, I think I'm a completely different person because of it. I think I was able to completely transform myself as a colleague, as a teammate, as a leader. The planning of this conference pushed me to my limits: I had to discover a lot of things about myself, about how I interact with the world and with people, and I have nobody but the team to thank,” says Lohrenz, who was co-chair of this year’s conference held from March 6-9, 2025.

Bringing Students and Industry Together

If that level of personal growth is impressive, so was the conference. Held at the Delta Hotel, the weekend featured keynote speakers from the Cooperators and Riverside Natural Food, each focused on how they brought sustainability into heir organizations. The programming also featured three streams of workshops on sustainable business, led by high-profile speakers including Chris Wilson-Smith from The Globe and Mail, Phil Winters from Goodlot Brewing and Johnathan Prestwich from Mackenzie Investments. Saturday’s main event was a sustainability case competition sponsored by Bruce Power, focused on nuclear energy and biodiversity.

Co-chair Megan White, who took on the chair role for the second time this year, says the conference has seen immense growth since it started with a team of 12. “We've since grown to a team of 25 and I'd say the conference this year has definitely been a progression since I first joined, going from having an attendance of roughly 100 people at the first conference that I saw to well over 200 people in attendance this year,” says Winters, adding that the community support as well has been “overwhelming” from the student body to the dean’s office to the sponsors.

White says that being involved in the conference since first year has similarly inspired her to embrace sustainability in her professional aspirations, to the point where she added a minor in sustainable business to her degree and has only work for B-corporations in her co-ops. “That was something I would have never done had I not joined the team in my first year,” she says, crediting conversations with then-conference president Lindsay O'Brien as a specific inspiration.

Winters adds that many of her coop opportunities came directly from the conference. “It's opened up so many doors for me that I never even knew existed, getting to attend events in Toronto with b-corporations, meeting people in the industry—my network is just littered with people who have such interesting backgrounds and who have been able to put it towards a passion of making an impact on the world.”

200 Students. 15 Institutions. Three Countries

Marketing management student Sana Ghouri, who handled social media for the conference, says she heard very positive reactions from a lot of delegates who attended, especially regarding the case competition. “I was talking to a lot of first and second-year students, and they definitely said,

‘this was one of the most scary and challenging things that they've done, but definitely one of the most rewarding things.’ Before the case competition, they were really nervous, but after they were really proud of themselves,” she says.

Besides growing as a leader, Lohrenz says that working on the conference has also improved his organizational and communications skills. “Being able to prioritize different stakeholders at any point, being able to understand what needs to happen and priorities and organize all of that,” he explains.

Leadership Skills Tested and Honed

White adds that the whole conference team became excellent problem solvers together. “Every single individual exemplified incredible problem-solving skills. We've got this event that we're running for 72 hours, and there are so many moving parts and we're all sharing responsibility and working together as a unit. So many problems arise, and every single member of the team takes on those problems with such grace and patience for one another.”

For students interested in getting involved with future conferences or even just attending, Lohrenz advises jumping in with both feet. “To students looking to get involved, not specifically with LSC, but with anything I would ask the question, ‘why not me? What's stopping me from doing everything I want to do in this world? What's stopping me from creating a club or creating an experience for others and myself?’ We set out at the beginning of this conference to have 200 students, and that sounded impossible. It took a lot of work, but we did it. That's what I hope the next team and the team after that continues to do, trying to create a culture of innovation.”