On 24-25 August 2023, the University of Helsinki, Finland hosted the conference "Sustainable Linguistics: Theories and Methods". It gathered scientists from different parts of the world (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland , Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Australia, the USA, Chile, Costa Rica). The representative from Ukraine was Iryna Ushchapovska (the senior lecturer of the Department of Germanic Philology). To participate in this conference, she was invited by the University of Roskilde, Denmark.

The conference was devoted to the complex interaction between ecological, economic and socio-cultural factors that contribute to the sustainable development of society (or lack thereof). Language is a critical component in achieving a sustainable life and world. Yet, language and linguistics are largely absent from the sustainable development research agenda.

The aim of the conference was to add a linguistic perspective to discussions of sustainable development and, more generally, to incorporate linguistics and language studies into the study of sustainable development.

The participants of the conference discussed how the study of sustainability can influence the theories and methods of linguistic research. The report topics reflected various theoretical points of view: ecolinguistics, linguistic fieldwork, language documentation, language maintenance and revitalization, center-periphery relations, collaborative knowledge creation.

Mrs. Ushchapovska presented a report on the topic "From the Language That Sustains to the Language of Sustainable Development". It discussed the important role of language in preserving national identity and the difficulty of translating and localizing sustainable development terms. It was also noted that the sustainable linguistics course is taught at the Department of Germanic Philology of Sumy State University. It is covered by the Jean Monet Project "Fostering EU Practices of Education for Sustainable Development through the Brand Language: Interdisciplinary Studies" of the EU Erasmus+ program.