Being “green” brought people from diverse disciplines together for a sustainability conference hosted by the University on Wednesday.

The BGSU Center for Environmental Programs hosted its second annual conference, “Perspectives on Sustainability: Collaboration in Higher Education in Northwest Ohio” in the Union.

The conference offered presentations by faculty, administration and students from the University and from University of Toledo, as well as professionals focused on sustainability operations.

The conference is part of a program to have every region in the state regularly hold sustainability conferences, said Nick Hennessy, Sustainability coordinator. The first conference in Northwest Ohio was organized and held by the University last year.

University President Carol Cartwright and UT President Lloyd Jacobs gave a welcome speech to begin this year’s conference.

“That really set the tone for the day,” Hennessy said. “It shows that the president of the University thinks it’s important for BGSU to be involved in sustainability.”

This year, the University of Toledo also got involved in coordinating the event. Hennessy said there is a possibility that UT will host the conference next year.

He said the conference has grown since last year.

“Both universities have gotten further in depth into sustainability,” Hennessy said. “The next one would probably be even bigger.”

Attendees chose among presentations related to research, outreach and operations or pedagogy.

The conference included sessions that discussed green residence halls, wind turbines, education, international sustainability and ways to market sustainability.

Time was also provided for each group to share and discuss their ideas.

At the end of the day, people at the conference were asked to return their name tags, so they could be recycled.

Barbara Miner, director of Foundations and associate professor of Art at UT, displayed “Art Students Inspired by Nature.”

“This is a really unique opportunity for artists to be connected to what’s considered a science domain,” she said.

She said she was impressed by the possibilities offered by the different groups involved with supporting sustainability.

“I’m so excited about the possibility of expanding this whole idea further,” she said.

She pointed out the different groups that sustainability can bring together, including engineers, scientists, artists, people interested in women’s and gender studies and food services practices.

“This forum allows for this dialogue in a way we hardly get to do,” she said. “It’s kind of magic. This has become such a good lightening rod.”

Junior Katrina McRae said people from different majors would be interested in attending the conference in the future, as well as environmental health majors like her.

She enjoyed a session presented by Engineers without Borders, that deals with sustainability in other countries, about clean water practices in Honduras using riverbank filtration.

She thought the idea of the conference was good, but was expecting to learn different information from the sessions she attended.

“I was wanting to see more on sustainable energy and sustainability practices. Instead there was a lot of highlighting projects,” she said. “I would like to see more on solar power and alternate forms of energy.”

Steven Johnson from the Northwest Ohio Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council presented information about earning Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for buildings and making them healthier in a “green” way.

“I am always amazed, when I go to these conferences, how much is going on with a very diverse group of people involved,” he said.