Podcast: Forum Biomimicy event

The Cambridge Resilience Forum event on Biomimicry, featuring Megan Schuknecht & Bryony Schwan, held in Johannesburg on the 9th of September is available as a podcast on Radio Today’s website. Click here to go the podcast and then select Play to listen or Download to download to your PC /Mac.

Radio Today is available on 1485 AM in the greater Johannesburg area or nationally on DStv audio channel 169 and this insert was aired on 21 September.

Editors Briefing on Climate Change

The media’s power to shape the way a nation thinks about and plans for its future is hard to overestimate. The particular complexity of climate change makes it critically important that editors and journalists understand the issue and its implications well enough to be able to communicate its importance to the public.

With this in mind we worked with an outstanding team of independent people and organizations in the sustainability field (see below) to create a one-day Editors’ Briefing on Climate Change on 6th August in Johannesburg. The Danish Embassy generously funded the event as part of their preparations for hosting the UN negotiations in Copenhagen in December.

Despite warnings from all sides that our target audience of editors and business / political journalists were notoriously hard to lure to such events and the subject matter was likely to interest only environmental journalists, we ended up with 21 of the ‘right’ kind of journalists and editors in the room (see below), with some 8 others telling us they would have come had they not been held back at the eleventh hour by some circumstance or other. All of them gave us very positive feedback on the usefulness of the day.

The Contributors
We had an exceptionally strong and willing roster of speakers (see below), including the UK Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change (Ed Miliband) and the Chairman of Shell UK (James Smith - by video link).

We are now actively looking at how we can expand this format to reach a much wider cross-section of the South African media.

If you have any questions or ideas, please contact Magda de Kok at magda.dekok@cpl.cam.ac.uk or 021 4694765.

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Additional reporting on this event

• David Le Page’s blog
• Business Day
• Polity
• Weekend Post

Programme Team

• Monica Graaff - Associate, Incite Sustainability
• Felicity Harrison - Project Director, Goedgedacht Forum for Social Reflection
• Leonie Joubert - Freelance science journalist
• David Le Page - Freelance journalist
• Branda Martin - Project Manager, Project 90 by 2030
• Peter Willis - South African Director, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability
• Mada de Kok - Senior Project Manager, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability

Contributors

• Tasneem Essop - World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
• Karin Ireton - Director of Group Sustainability Management, Standard Bank
• Jorn Hammer - Vestas
• Dr Guy Midgley - South African National Biodiversity Institute & IPCC co-author
• Ed Miliband - UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
• Pancho Ndebele - Founder, Emvelo
• Mandy Rambharos - Climate Change and Sustainability Manager, Eskom
• Stefan Raubenheimer - CEO SouthSouthNorth & Senior Associate, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership
• Dr Bob Scholes - CSIR & IPCC co-author
• James Smith - Chairman, Shell UK
• Richard Worthington - World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

Delegates

• Quintin Wray - Editor, Business Report
• Barney Mthombothi - Editor, Financial Mail
• Ryk van Niekerk - Editor, Sake24
• Peter Bruce - Editor, Business Day
• Henry Jeffreys - Editor, Die Burger
• Moshongwa Matsena - Senior Editor Current Affairs, Channels Africa
• Marlene van Rooyen - Editor, 25 Degrees in Africa
• Peter Fabricius - Foreign Editor, The Independent Group
• Gavin Stewart - Editorial Consultant, Daily Dispatch
• Stephen Mulholland - Columnist, FinWeek
• Christy van der Merwe - Contributing Editor Online, Engineering News
• Francois Williams - Western Cape Editor, Sake24
• Chantelle Benjamin - Chief Reporter / Associate Editor, Business Day
• Nia McGregor - Bureau Chief, Femina Magazine
• Siseko Njobeni - Energy Editor, Business Day
• Jill de Villiers - Head of Programming, CNBC Africa
• Leigh Roberts - Anchor, CNBC Africa
• Sherilee Bridge - Financial & Commodities Journalist, I-Net Bridge
• Guy Rogers - Environment & Tourism Editor, Herald
• Tony Carnie - Environment Reporter, The Mercury
• Melanie-Anne Feris - Environment Reporter, CityPress
• Rest Kanju - Regional Programme Coordinator, Indigenous People, CBNRM and Climate Change for Southern Africa
• Amelia Genis - Senior Repoter, Landbou Weekblad
• Jorisna Bonthuys - Environmental Reporter, Die Burger
• Elise Templehoff - Environmental Reporter, Beeld
• Sharda Naidoo - Cover Editor, Financial Mail
• Peter Mashala - Journalist, Farmer’s Weekly

International Faculty for BEP seminar

The annual South African Prince of Wales’s Business and the Environment Senior Executive Seminar takes place from 11 - 14 May 2009 in Cape Town.

Once again the seminar boasts with an impressive line-up of international faculty that will contribute to make it an enriching and valuable experience:

Jorgen Randers

Jorgen holds a PhD in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1974 he established and directed a futures research institute in Oslo, doing early work on sustainable development. He served as President of the Norwegian School of Management from 1981 to 1989; worked in Norwegian business from 1989 to 1993 and served as Deputy Director General of WWF International in Switzerland 1994 to 1999.

Currently, Jorgen is a Professor in Climate Strategy at the Norwegian School of Management, where he teaches Climate Policy, scenario analysis and sustainability. He serves on a number of corporate boards, in Norway and abroad, including the environmental advisory boards of The Dow Chemical Company and British Telecom. In 2005–6 he chaired the Norwegian Commission on Low Greenhouse Gas Emissions who reported to the cabinet on how Norway can reduce its GHG emissions by two-thirds by 2050.

He is co-author of the infamous book: THE LIMITS TO GROWTH (1972).

Jo da Silva

Jo da Silva is a Director and leads Arup International Development which specialises in sustainable development in low income countries particularly in urban environments.

Jo originally joined Arup having studied engineering at Cambridge University. She has combined a career at Arup, focussed on building design, urban re-generation and sustainable development with active involvement in humanitarian relief and international development. She has particular expertise in shelter-housing, urban environments and disaster risk reduction including climate change adaptation.

As a structural/civil engineer has worked on a wide variety of technical projects both in the UK and overseas which have won major awards: Chek Lap Kok Airport, Osaka Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Geographical Society, Ideas Stores, Surestart nursery Mitcham.

She has been a RedR-IHE Member since 1991, and has provided expertise in post-disaster situations including the Rwandan genocide (1994), and as Senior Shelter Co-ordinator for UNHCR in Sri Lanka post-tsunami (2005).

She has considerable project management experience, and proven leadership skills. This includes: project/programme monitoring review, stakeholder consultation, assessment, evaluation and reporting; people and cost management; liaison with local and national government, funding bodies and key stakeholders.

Jo has extensive overseas experience, and has lived and worked in India, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Germany, Tanzania. She has travelled extensively in the India sub-continent, South-East Asia, Middle East, Central Asia and Europe.

Paul Gilding

Paul is an independent writer, advisor and advocate for action on climate change and sustainability.

An activist and social entrepreneur for 35 years, his personal mission and purpose is to lead, inspire and motivate action globally on the transition of society and the economy to sustainability. He pursues this purpose across all sectors, working around the world with individuals, businesses, NGOs, entrepreneurs, academia and government.

He has served as CEO of a range of innovative NGO’s and companies including Greenpeace International, Ecos Corporation and Easy Being Green. He has also helped to establish and served on the board of a number of new NGOs including Inspire Foundation, the Australian Business Community Network and Climate Coolers. His speaking and work has taken him to over 30 countries including the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, South America, Europe, South Africa, the USA and Mexico.

7th Annual Southern African Senior Executive Seminar

“Profitability and Sustainability – Conflict or Convergence?”

11 - 14 May 2009. The Vineyard Hotel, Cape Town

We are living in increasingly turbulent and uncertain times, marked by financial system breakdown, accelerating climate change, a widening poverty gap, resource depletion and large demographic shifts. The sustainability of our way of life is no longer assured.

How should senior executives respond to these challenges? What does leadership in these times look like?

The underlying theme of the Prince of Wales’s Business & the Environment seminar is the successful management of change through understanding global trends finding practical ways to integrate social and environmental solutions into management systems and decision-making processes whilst still remaining profitable.

We invite you to join us at this seminar, which is the gateway to membership of the Prince of Wales’s Business and the Environment Programme. Established in 1994, the Programme is recognised as:

• The premier international forum for executive learning and leadership for sustainability.
• A unique source of leading-edge information and expertise.
• A global network for the exchange of ideas and best practice on sustainability.

This annual seminar is the pre-eminent regional opportunity for senior decision-makers to think deeply with their peers about the strategic implications of major emerging environmental and social trends and is held in the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa the United States and Australia. At each seminar there is a predominance of business executives with a smaller number of senior delegates from government and civil society.

The South African seminar will be running for its 7th year in 2009, from the 11th – 14th of May 2009. The cost is R29,500 +VAT for delegates resident in Africa, ₤3,950 for delegates from overseas. A small number of bursaries is available for appropriately senior civil society and government delegates. The fee covers all seminar costs including accommodation and meals for the 4 days and 3 nights at The Vineyard Hotel, plus membership of the Global Network

Its programme is a rich mixture of contributions from experts and extensive dialogues in small groups, facilitated by a seasoned international faculty. Delegates leave with a fresh sense, not only of the nature and scale of the challenges, but of what they can do in their respective organisations to help minimize the risks and maximize the opportunities suggested by these trends.

Participation is by invitation only, although anybody is welcome to nominate a suitable candidate. Upon receipt of the nomination form a Selection Committee vets the nominations to ensure a balance amongst industry sectors and between business, NGOs and government.

For more information please contact Magda on magda.dekok@cpi.cam.ac.uk, or +27 (0)21 469 4765 or go to the official Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership website at www.cpsl.cam.ac.uk