ICEM 2023

About the conference

First edition, Rome 2023

The 1st International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness (ICEM) provided the opportunity for researchers and contemplatives to meet and share ideas on the intersection of mindfulness and sustainable behaviors.

ICEM brought together the community of environmental psychologists, mindfulness experts, and neuropsychological scientists to draw a shared research agenda for the years ahead — not only defining the state of the art, but creating a community of passionate scientists and environmentally conscious people.

Keynote lectures from leading scientists were paired in the same sessions with talks from contemplative practitioners — a distinctive format that has since become central to the ICEM identity.

Establish & Promote a New Dialogue

Contemplative science and environmental psychology have much to tell each other. ICEM was designed as a channel between research fields and persons who had long worked in parallel.

Daily Meditations & Practices

Each conference day began and closed with a guided meditation on human–nature connectedness. Meditations were led by contemplative masters and qualified mindfulness teachers.

Present in Rome · Follow Anywhere

Presentations were delivered in person at the Aula Marconi of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Rome, while online participation was made accessible to attendees from around the world.

Invited Speakers

Dialogues

One of the defining features of ICEM is its dialogue format: each session pairs a keynote lecture from a leading scientist with a contribution from a researcher or practitioner from a different tradition. The aim is not debate, but genuine exchange — allowing different ways of knowing to inform each other in the same room.

The first edition opened with Jon Kabat-Zinn, whose reflection on attention and awareness set the tone for the days that followed. The dialogue sessions then brought together Christian A. Klöckner and Marieke van Vugt on the relationship between environmental behaviour and contemplative science; Florian G. Kaiser and William Van Gordon on attitude, practice and ecological action; and Liane Stephan and James Bristow on the inner dimensions of sustainability and systemic change.