2016 International Conference on Business, Policy and Sustainability

The CBS Sustainability Platform and the Velux Chair in Corporate Sustainability hosted the 2016 International conference on Business, Policy and Sustainability at CBS on 16-17 June.

On the first day, torrential rain and flooded building didn’t prevent engagement and passionate discussions around policy and business solutions to sustainability. In the first session, keynote speaker Gail Whiteman talked about the need for better science-based policy and actions and Hans Bruyninckx shared his future vision on circular economy and gave us his thoughts on the need for a more systemic approach. The second session kicked off with leading academics Dirk Matten and Ed Freeman. They highlighted the need to move away from the old stories and to create innovation and new language around sustainability. Annette Stube gave a practitioner’s perspective sharing examples of the work Maersk have been doing to address systemic issues such as corruption and CO2 emissions and stressing the need for collaboration.

On the second day, the focus moved to inter-disciplinary approaches to sustainability and the role of business schools in influencing sustainability leaders of tomorrow. In the first session, Stefano Ponte from CBS talked about COSI and the challenges and opportunities of cross-university partnerships. He was followed by Dag Petersson from KADK who highlighted the importance of context when thinking of sustainable buildings. Finally, Per Østergaard Jacobsen talked about the Rio to Roskilde festival as a living lab to study and test sustainable projects. The second session focused on the university and the role of the organization to embed sustainability in education and operations. Jonas Haertle talked about PRME and the work the UN Global Compact is doing to promote sustainability in business schools. Peter Jonasson, former University Director at CBS, was up next talking about the challenges of embedding sustainability in university operations and debating if sustainability is more a cost than value. Finally, Julie Junge-Jensen closed the session with an inspiring talk highlighting the work oikos Copenhagen have been doing and truly demonstrating that students are indeed the university’s biggest resources.

More than 50 academic papers were discussed throughout the different sessions in the afternoon of both days closing a discussion-packed conference. Watch a highlight video of the conference here. The abstracts and the paper presentations can be found on the conference website.

Thanks to all our keynotes, guests and participants for an amazing two days.