You can read a few flashes on how to build an economic system able to avoid the current financial turmoil and future economic crisis in the article shown at the top of the “Branch Activities” section, in the “Words of Wisdom” section and read new ideas, stories and meaningful job offers from EBBF members in over 62 nations. Click on the image to enjoy INSPIRE edition 20.

Share on Facebook

Attention EBBF researchers: €11 million for research on “combining economic, social and environmental objectives in a European perspective”. This information was recently sent from the European Commission’s research division:

Dear Colleagues,
We are glad to inform you that we are organising an Information Day on the Seventh Framework Programme for Research, “Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities” (SSH theme), Activity 2 “Combining economic, social and environmental objectives in a European perspective”.

A total of around €11 million is foreseen to be available from the 2009 budget for the Seventh Framework Programme for Research, “Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities” (SSH theme), Activity 2 “Combining economic, social and environmental objectives in a European perspective”. This Activity is structured into four Topics:

* New socio-economic concepts, paradigm shift and territorial dynamics (Topic 2.1.1)
* Cities and sustainable development (Topic 2.1.2)   Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

Considering the current financial meltdown we felt that Robert Rubinstein’s (a long standing EBBF friend and current EBBF honorary member) conference is more timely and interesting than ever. His events are so clearly aligned with EBBF’s own values that we will certainly attend and felt that we should offer you the opportunity to see you there.
Specially when we are talking about the world’s largest events dedicated to Ethical Finance, Triple Bottom Line Investing and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Issues. In total almost 100 speakers and more than 20 workshops, will be offered to you at the next TBLI CONFERENCE™ in Amsterdam, from 13-14 November  bringing you and coming together to explore the latest developments in ESG investing.

For more information click here to visit the event’s website. And as an additional bonus: if you are a current EBBF member you will be eligible for a further 50 € discount. Please write to us with instructions on how to claim that discount.

Share on Facebook

One of the keynoters at EBBF’s recent Annual Conference, EBBF member Augusto Lopez Claros, had just landed from another event where he had keynoted sharing the platform with Jean Claude Trichet (President of the European Central Bank).

We share with you the content of Augusto’s keynote speech delivered on 19 September 2008 at the European Business School Symposium in Frankfurt.

Click here to view the text of the talk.

Share on Facebook

Here are some excerpts from Steve Karnik’s talk (and mostly from his slides) on Saturday at the annual conference on the topic of “True Prosperity”.

Human nature is fundamentally spiritual and spiritual principles underlie the essential elements of a peaceful, prosperous and advancing civilization.

The material world is a reflection of spiritual conditions and until the spiritual conditions are changed, there can be no lasting change for the better in material affairs

True civilization does not arise merely from material progress, but rather is defined by and based upon the transcendent values that hold society together

He explained that it is shared beliefs and moral principles that lead to a stable, thriving, and orderly society. We are dealing with complex, interrelated issues on a global scale, and we need the guiding principles to be able to navigate them.   Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

First breakfast, then a selection of holy writings and prayers embellished with live music, and then a brief and energetic presentation by AIESEC Chief communications officer, Lucy Symons on what her 32,000 strong student organization is doing to promote positive change and on prospects for continued collaboration with EBBF.

There was no stopping on the last morning of the EBBF/IEF annual conference, and immediately we were introduced to the CEO of GRI, the Global Reporting Initiative, Ernst Ligteringen (in photo), whose organization has developed a 79-indicator sustainability reporting framework to encourage and help organizations “Make sustainability reporting as visible and substantive as financial reporting.” Mr. Ligteringen spoke on the whys and hows of his work.

The urgency of awareness and reporting on issues of sustainability are becoming more and more clear:

One headline: “At the beginning of summer in the Southern hemisphere, there was a 50% chance of the southern ice cap melting completely”. North Pole ice cap has halved in the last 50 years. Food prices have shot up. Not only are the Italians complaining about the price of pasta; millions of millions of millions of people are now on the brink of starvation. Millions of euros were asked for to help these people, which came in slowly. Far less quickly as the millions which were raised for AIG to survive. As to population: In 2050, reach 9 billion people. Over 80% live in developing regions. Most have legitimate reason to aspire to a better life [in material terms]. Not talking about two cars, huge house, and the like, but access to water, mobility, and food security, maybe a motorcycle, maybe a cheap car. There are billions of people who quite rightly want to change their life, and want to live at Europe standards, but if this happens, we’ll have big environmental problems.

In the 1980s we passed a big mark: we began to use more of world’s resources (soil, marine resources, timber, ores) than the planet could regenerate. If we continue at this pace, we will need 2 planets to supply our resource needs. Don’t need an accountant to see we have a problem here. We can hold the course for a certain time, but very soon we’ll have to deal with reality.

The big question is how?   Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

After lunch we had the second set of workshops (the first set was this morning), with titles such as “Developing Generative Change Leaders Across sectors: An exploration of Integral Approaches”, “Renewable energy and energy sustainability”, “Spreading values making the best possible use of the media: a powerful means to influence”. I chose to go to one on “Sustainable Consumption” led by Victoria Thoresen (standing, in photo), who introduced the workshop thus:

The purpose of the workshop is to look at sustainable consumption. I’m a teacher of teachers, professors of education in Norway. I’ve worked with value and peace education, but then I got kidnapped by consumer education office in the government which wanted to develop curricula to help kids become better consumers.

But how do you help more people learn about their consumption patterns without making them feel guilty, wanting to put their heads in the sand. And then, how do you teach this? What we’ve created is a concept called consumer citizen education. Not just consumer education, but with citizenship. Because the idea of a consumer who just complains isn’t very constructive.   Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

IEF president and longtime EBBF board member (among many other things) Arthur Dahl (in photo, on right), gave a thrilling talk on “ways forward to true prosperity”. In some way he looked like an Olympic athlete, cruising through 60 slides in less than 30 minutes with seemingly effortless grace, passing through the current state of the world, the rather grim outlook of the next few decades, the new values and system involved in a sustainable model of continued human life, and what that model would look like. He even had time to begin with a few words of caution.

I have a very short period of time to give you solutions to all the problems of the world, and I’m bound to fail so don’t be disappointment. I should be given a health warning to hang around my neck, saying, ‘this is dangerous to your health. What I tell you could lead to nightmares, depression, anxiety, etc.

Then on to talk about the end of the current business and political paradigm where growth is in the center:

There is a conflict between growth and sustainability. If company isn’t growing, off with your head, if GDP isn’t growing, change the president. But there are limits to planet. There isn’t anywhere else to go that is accessible except for to astronauts, and they generally want to come back here.

“On current trends, …humanity will need twice as much energy as it uses today within 35 years…. Produce too little energy, say the economists, and there will be price hikes and a financial crash unlike any the world has ever known, with possible resource wars, depression and famine. Produce the wrong sort of energy, say the climate scientists, and we will have more droughts, floods, rising seas and worldwide economic disaster with runaway global warming.” (John Vidal in The Guardian Weekly, 2007)

We shall probably do both at the same tine

Since we are operating on a limitless growth model with a shrinking resource base, our civilization is headed towards collapse. The question is when. If we continue on the current road at the current rate, says the model that though updated hasn’t changed since the 70s, around 2015 or 2020 we are going to be hitting a crisis of food, resources availability, industrial output, translating into a lower standard of living for all.

In this century we’re coming to an end of the growth paradigm. This is interesting for business based on exponential growth. Economic growth has depended on population growth, energy growth, resource growth and tech innovation. The first three all end this century. All running out. Even these rare earth elements in cell phones are cameras, are very limited, and we’re hitting lots of limits. All we have left is technological innovation. We’re left with brains and heart.

Retreating to a fortress of old values (forgetting bananas and pineapples) and keeping the poor out isn’t possible. We have no option but to move towards a new, sustainable paradigm.

All models show that this is technically possible. We have the knowledge, we have the technology, what we don’t have is political will. We have to look at questions of balance. What is the optimal size of company? Optimal size is not endless growth. Optimal size of a mouse is not an elephant. Dematerialization, how can we do with less. And figuring out working with a closed system, reusing what we have over and over again.

In this new paradigm we must redefine prosperity, and along with this the kind of civilization we want to build. He used the Bahai writings for inspiration on this theme:

Man’s merit lieth in service and virtue and not in the pageantry of wealth and riches. Take heed that your words be purged from idle fancies and worldly desires and your deeds be cleansed from craftiness and suspicion. Dissipate not the wealth of your precious lives in the pursuit of evil and corrupt affection, nor let your endeavours be spent in promoting your personal interest. Be generous in your days of plenty, and be patient in the hour of loss…. Guard against idleness and sloth, and cling unto that which profiteth mankind, whether young or old, whether high or low.

…although material civilization is one of the means for the progress of the world of mankind, yet until it becomes combined with Divine civilization, the desired result, which is the felicity of mankind, will not be attained…. Material civilization is like the body. No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and beautiful it may be, it is dead.

That purpose must be sought in spiritual dimensions of life and motivation that transcend a constantly changing economic landscape and an artificially imposed division of human societies into “developed” and “developing”.

the real purpose of development… is laying foundations for a new social order that can cultivate the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness.

So we aren’t talking about no growth, but a new kind of growth: growth in beauty, in science, in creativity. There are all kinds of possibilities for growth, if we define prosperity in different context.

He then painted the outline of the New World Order, the institutions that we need to build in order to create a sustainable society, based on the principles of unity and justice. (You can see this part of his presentation— and many other parts that I’ve skipped, skimmed, or misrepresented(!)—on the conference website.)

Arthur then addressed the question of how to get there (sustainable world order) from here, highlighting the role of ethics and values in this process.

Ethics is the social equivalent of DNA. In biology everything is coded in a cell’s DNA tells them how to each other. In society these types of interaction are determined by its values. The most important way to transform a society is through its values. Otherwise a society will need an elaborate system of laws, backed up by a significant police force and large prison system. If individual knows how to behave, and is self-directing, it’s a cheap and effective system.

We are trustees of this planet. Sustainability itself is an ethical concept, for it has to do with being moderate and humble. We must ‘be content with little and be freed form all inordinate desire”. Just as an individual doesn’t only eat and grow forever, so likewise a company.

Sustainibility therefore requires a new kind of entrepreneurship. We are in the midst of a major global transition. We can either consciously work for change, or wait for catastrophe to force us to change. There are new forms of wealth creation and business out there that haven’t been done before, so we need creativity.

[Note: Photos to follow. Also, I’m posting only about 10% of what’s happening here. We’ve had guided walk in the woods while talking about issues of sustainability, workshops galore, and other interesting talks. This is all to say, being here is much better than reading this!]

Share on Facebook

After lunch is a difficult slot to fill, as the energy needed to be an attentive listener isn’t easily disengaged from its previous date with your stomach. But Steve Karnik, from the Bahá’i International Community (BIC), and John Patterson, whose work as a clergyperson, businessman, and now NGOman exemplified service, kept us more than awake, with respective talks redefining prosperity, and giving an example from business of translating spiritual principle into practice.

Below I include selections from Steve’s slides which lead to an alternative conception of prosperity and some ideas about how to measure a society’s movement towards that prosperity, and after that the gist of what John Patterson said.

Steve Karnik on a new definition of Prosperity

Human nature is fundamentally spiritual and spiritual principles underlie the essential elements of a peaceful, prosperous and advancing civilization.    Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook

After a devotional period, reflecting on the beauty of creation and the natural world. Sylvia Karlsson gave the keynote of conference, directly addressing the central question of the conference: Growth OR Sustainability.

She began by reminding us that sustainability is something that involves a lot of defining (what resources, species and all should be sustained and for how long?), and that it has both temporal and spatial dimensions. Environment has long temporal dimensions. What we do today, for example, to temper the dangers of climate change, will be felt after a lapse of decades. Economic issues, on the other hand, have to do with short-term decision making and consequences. Sustainability also implies spatial dimension inasmuch as economies are interconnected. While one country may clean up its act as it moves towards service economy, the polluting processes of production may just have been moved to another part of the world (e.g. China).   Read the rest of this entry »

Share on Facebook