Staton said this gathering would focus specifically on environmental sustainability topics, including energy conservation, waste recycling, preserving urban forests and reducing hard-surface areas.

Dave Smith, East Lansing’s environmental specialist, said representatives from eight Big Ten communities and their university counterparts would be giving presentations on ways their cities were implementing environmental sustainability practices.

Smith said he would be giving a presentation on East Lansing’s recent efforts to incorporate environmental sustainability into city projects, including changing streetlights from iridescent to more environmentally friendly LED, green building policy initiatives, local research on the emerald ash borer and the city’s Pack Up, Pitch In recycling program designed to help MSU students move out in a greener manner.

Lauren Olson, project coordinator of MSU’s Office of Campus Sustainability, also will be in attendance at the conference to present MSU’s recent sustainability efforts, Smith said. Olson was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Smith said the topic of sustainability especially was timely for East Lansing and said hearing staff perspectives from similar communities could help the city find ways to be a greener community in a way that would better fit the city budget.

“Maybe there will be some things we learn that are low cost and or no cost that could help both the economic and environmental sustainability (in East Lansing),” he said.

East Lansing resident Jessica Miller said many East Lansing residents are interested in doing what they can to promote environmental sustainability but are limited in what they can do because of a lack of opportunities readily available.

“I feel like the residents around here are more than eager to help out with the environment, but our resources are really limited,” Miller said.

Miller said community members might be more willing to help out and make city and university sustainability efforts more successful if they knew more about what sustainability is.

“If people were more educated about what they could do, it would make it a lot easier,” she said.

Staton said the conference likely would generate many ideas among the Big Ten communities in attendance and hopefully offer an opportunity for everyone to learn more about making environmental sustainability a priority.

“I think we can’t help but learn things when we exchange ideas and experiences with other communities with similar problems,” Staton said.