Workshop organized in conjunction with the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (Edinburgh, UK)
March 16, 2026
Workshop organized in conjunction with the 2026 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (Edinburgh, UK)
March 16, 2026
Building on the foundational work of our 2025 workshop, this second edition shifts from exploring what sustainability means in HRI to producing actionable outcomes for the community. Last year, we identified strong but often unacknowledged engagement with social and environmental sustainability, alongside gaps in shared language and practical frameworks. This year, we focus on concrete deliverables: guidelines for comprehensively integrating sustainability in HRI research.
The morning features external speakers who integrate sustainable development in their research, and whole room discussions. The afternoon centers on collaborative development of guidelines and standards that researchers could adopt.
We welcome HRI researchers at any career stage interested in operationalizing sustainability - whether through addressing the carbon footprint of computational models, ensuring equitable access to robotic technologies, or embedding SDG principles into research practices. Outcomes will include practical tools for sustainable HRI research and a roadmap for continued community action beyond the workshop.
Sustainability is emerging as a critical concern for the HRI community, yet its practical integration into research practices remains fragmented. At HRI 2025, our first workshop brought together researchers to explore what sustainability means in the context of human-robot interaction. Through a pre-workshop survey of 38 HRI researchers and participatory speculative futures activities, we identified significant but often unacknowledged}engagement with social and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The workshop revealed six key themes in how HRI researchers conceptualize sustainability:
Interconnected responsibilities (linking environmental, social, and economic aspects)
Environmental impact and resource use
Social sustainability and community impact
Sustainability of HRI research practices
Purpose-driven design over novelty
Avoiding known harms from other AI domains
However, the workshop also exposed critical gaps (e.g., economic sustainability). While researchers demonstrated concern for sustainable development, they lacked shared frameworks and practical tools to operationalize these concerns in their work. The rapid proliferation of generative AI in HRI systems has intensified the urgency of these questions, with computational models carrying substantial environmental costs that often go unexamined .
This second edition responds to these findings by shifting from conceptual exploration to practical action. Rather than asking "what does sustainability mean in HRI?'', we now ask "how do we integrate sustainability principles into our research design, development, and deployment processes?'' The workshop aims to produce concrete deliverables that HRI researchers can immediately apply: guidelines for assessing and reducing environmental impacts, frameworks for responsible use of generative AI that balance capability with ecological cost, and tools for embedding UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) into research practice.