SUSANhub.com, launched three months ago, has quickly become one of the largest sustainability platforms in the world.
“It was my little side project,” said Juan Serpa, Associate Professor of Operations Management at the McGill Desautels Faculty of Management. “I certainly wasn’t expecting this kind of response.”
SUSANhub, the Sustainability Academic Network, is an online platform created to bring together sustainability researchers, institutions, students and organizations to combat climate change.
“I get 800 emails a day,” said Serpa, who co-founded the platform with a former student, Vibhu Bhardwaj. “Last week, we had 39,000 users in seven days. It is overwhelming.”
One-stop shopping
SUSANhub’s appeal lies in how comprehensive it is, both in terms of disciplines and the type of information offered, Serpa said.
“Universities are typically organized into silos – engineering, business, medicine – but sustainability requires collaboration across these fields,” he said. “For example, solar energy involves policy, engineering, business, etc. I wanted to create a global platform that unites sustainability researchers in a virtual space.”
By breaking down silos and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, SUSANhub bridges the gaps between diverse fields of study, making it easier for researchers to connect, share knowledge and accelerate the development of climate solutions.
And where researchers looking for collaborators, interns, data sets or funding opportunities once had to spend hours scouring one website after another, now they can find it all on SUSANhub.
Students can also use the platform to find jobs, events, datasets or professors to collaborate with.
“The goal is to allow people involved in climate change research to stop searching through fragmented resources,” said Serpa. “This is one-stop shopping.”
Membership on the rise
SUSANhub was created with a combination of artificial intelligence and old-fashioned networking.
Serpa and Bhardwaj began by creating a directory of sustainability institutes, scanning 1,000 universities with AI to summarize their efforts across 60 sustainability themes like renewable energy and climate change.
The platform not only includes these institutes, but also features researchers and their work, with some 400,000 papers categorized by sustainability topics.
Serpa integrated a social network aspect by emailing 57,000 professors, many of whom signed up, filled out profiles and engaged with the platform.
Additionally, the team developed an AI algorithm that scans global repositories like Kaggle, resulting in a directory of 4,000 sustainability-related datasets to help researchers find relevant data for their projects.
This comprehensive approach has clearly struck a chord with researchers, resulting in rapid membership growth.
“It’s growing fast, and people are adding resources and engaging more than I ever expected,” said Serpa. “Professors are now uploading their own research datasets. Students are helping each other find opportunities and people are recommending others join. We’re seeing new members join every few minutes, and the numbers are climbing fast.”
Looking for sustainable financing
Not only is SUSANhub gaining in popularity, but the initiative is constantly evolving.
“We’re looking to build a governance structure and bring more professors on board to democratize the platform,” said Serpa. “I’m also in talks to partner with organizations like the National Sustainability Society in the United States and GreenBrain Inc. in the Netherlands.”
While SUSANhub currently operates without external funding, relying on donations and grants to keep the platform running, the long-term goal is to secure sustainable financing.
“With a solid investment, we can expand and create tools like a directory of sustainability programs and an online certification platform. Think of it like Coursera for sustainability, where people can earn certifications in specific fields like food sustainability,” said Serpa.
“As the climate crisis escalates, it has never been more crucial to foster collaboration and streamline access to critical resources,” said Serpa. “SUSANhub.com is a powerful weapon in this battle.”
Visit SUSANhub.com to learn more.