The purpose of the Congress is to exchange emerging ideas about ways and means of protecting the environment and its resources so that humans can achieve sustainable development and societal benefits throughout generations. The Congress will provide a common platform for researchers and practitioners of various physical and ecological sciences, engineering fields, economics, and social sciences.

ICOSSE '15 Key Themes

ICOSSE ’15 will be organized on these key themes in sustainability:

1. Sustainable Water Management: Focus will be on optimization and use of limited water resources for agricultural, industrial and domestic use. Technologies and best practices for industrial water use and reuse, along with their associated social and economic impacts, will be explored on a global basis. 
2. Sustainable Manufacturing: Topics will include products, processes and systems that would demonstrate reduced negative environmental impact, offer improved energy and resource efficiency, generate minimum quantity of waste, provide operational safety, and offer improved personnel health. 
3. Energy Sustainability: The challenge of assuring a sustained supply of energy and optimizing energy efficiency in industrial applications in the context of overall environmental, societal and economic impacts will be explored in this theme. 
4. Sustainability Issues in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: This theme will address the technological, environmental, social and economic challenges of mastering life in "limited infinity." Reliance on renewable resources is a hallmark of sustainable development, and the utilization of bio-resources will be of particular interest since they are contested by the food, energy and the chemical sector, while in turn relying on limited basic natural resources of land and water. 
5. Sustainability Education and Societal Issues:
   This theme will study educational needs, progress and gaps in the field of sustainability across disciplines in academic, industrial, corporate, governmental and public settings. Focus will also be placed on societal issues that arise and must be addressed as part of the sustainability and sustainable development initiatives, and the kinds of collaboration that are most critical and beneficial for solving these problems.