World Student Community for Sustainable Development

The WSC-SD today launches its e-book ‘RE:SOLUTIONS – 21 Young Leaders on Climate Change’ during the Copenhagen Climate Summit.This publication showcases a selection of 20 innovative student-led projects on climate change.

From a solar-powered open air cinema, to a sustainable business game or reforestation projects, all initiatives show that students worldwide are taking the lead and providing solutions to tackle climate change.

With this publication, we hope to inspire thought-leaders in business, academia and civil society to acknowledge and support student initiatives that have successfully addressed the issue of climate change.

“This eBook is not only about climate change. It’s about solutions, about students taking the lead.”

Students are not only the leaders for tomorrow – they are especially to be taken seriously today. In this eBook we show that students not only care and talk, they actually take the lead in developing innovations and they reach tangible results, thereby inspiring other people in their local community, or even around the world, to do the same.

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Today we are pleased to announce that the AGS-UTSC is hosting a student-based workshop in the AGS-AM 2010 in Tokyo. The AGS-AM is an annual meeting of the AGS member schools that include Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology and University of Tokyo. The AGS-AM 2010 Student Project is a student-based initiative for motivated and foresighted students in sustainability fields of study from the world community. The theme of the Student Project is “Growing Asian Cities: Structuring Sustainability Problems.” Our activities include lectures, group work, presentation and field trip. We are especially focusing on sustainability problems in the Asian context, as Asia is one of the most important regions for the world’s development in the 21st century.

Please find more detail in our website: http://ags-utsc.org/AM2010-Tokyo/english/index.html

If you are interested and willing to participate in the Student Project, please fill the application form attached and send it to agsam2010application@gmail.com by January 22nd, 2010.

If you have any questions, please email to am2010tokyostudentproject@gmail.com.

We are looking forward to your application!

Yoshimasa Takahashi
The Outreach Director of the AGS-AM 2010 Student Project

The University of Tokyo Energy Club g-Enesis is one of working groups of SUS+. Our activities aim to consider sustainable energy use from international and interdisciplinary view. Sustainable energy use has a critical meaning when we think of sustainable society because current energy use based on fossil fuel not only causes climate change problems but also decreases the reserves of energy sources. We have three main activities to contribute to sustainable energy use: (1)Study Seminars, (2)International Exchanges (e.g. MIT Energy Conference) and (3) Policy Proposals (e.g. eco japan cup 2009).
Here we would like to introduce eco japan cup 2009, which is the contest related to environmental policy and business and hosted by Japanese government and companies. In July 2009, we decided to join the policy contest of eco japan cup 2009 and organized a project team which consisted of two Japanese students and four exchange students. Through the discussions in summer vacation for three months, we made three proposals to submit to the contest: (1)Matching project to spread solar panels in regional areas, (2)Weekend day light saving and (3)Green knowledge broker. As a result, first proposal won the excellent prize in the contest. The proposal aimed to increase the number of solar panels in Japan. It was very up-to-date in Japanese society because the government announced the high reduction target (25% by 2020) while Japan faced a serious depression. Increasing solar panels was expected to overcome both problems at the same time (called Green New Deal Policy). After the announcement of the prize, we attended the awards ceremony and made a presentation in eco products 2009 which is one of the biggest environmental exhibitions in Japan.
Through the participation in eco japan cup 2009, we could show that students from different countries and disciplines can cooperate toward the common goal and make some achievements. Since international and interdisciplinary cooperation is the key factor to realize sustainable society, our experience there seemed to be meaningful. Also, through the contest, we could make new networks with researchers, business persons and policy makers who have the same vision with our club. Making use of this opportunity, we would like to seek for the possibility of collaboration beyond sectors such as the university, company and government.
In next March, four members of our club will join MIT Energy Conference 2010 to get newer information about energy business and technology. We hope that our club can keep expanding our activities and contribute to realize sustainable energy use.

Learning for transformation

Sustainable development requires a shift towards a society that better addresses basic human needs and the limitations of natural systems. A transformation of e.g. mindsets, educational approaches, societal structures, technical systems and economic accounting methods is needed. Engineering education institutions can play an important role in this transformation and in the sustainable society if sustainable development becomes a framework for a redesign of the structure and goal of organizations and of pedagogical, research and cooperation approaches and methods. This conference addresses the role of engineering education in the learning for the required transformation.

EESD 2010 is the fifth conference in a series of biannual international conferences dealing with all aspects of the education of engineers for sustainable development. The date of the conference is the 19th to the 22nd of September in Göteborg and there is also a side event on the 23rd of September in Stockholm.

European Youth Water Summit

17th- 18th March 2010,  Brussels

A European Youth Water Summit, will give the floor to young citizens aged between 15 and 25 years and coming from all 27 EU Member states, to share and discuss water community challenges, needs and priorities and their experience and activities done in this field. They will be included into the debates and discussions at European level, enabling an active exchange with European decision makers – the Members of the European Parliament, representatives of the incoming European Commission as well as the Spanish Council Presidency, but also with peers in different regions and countries.

This event will also facilitate a better understanding of the role and functioning of EU Institutions and the daily life of European representatives.

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This is a call for papers for the ERSCP-EMSU 2010 conference that TU Delft, TNO and The Hague University of Applied Sciences are together organizing and will take place in Delft 25-29 October 2010. The title is:

Knowledge Collaboration & Learning for Sustainable Innovation

The scope include:

• Sustainable Consumption and Production
• Sustainable Innovation
• Sustainability in Higher Education

The call and the flyer can also be downloaded from the Conference website at:

www.erscp-emsu2010.org

The European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) is a non-profit forum that provides a platform to stimulate, develop and disseminate new initiatives aimed at fostering the implementation of concepts involving sustainable consumption and production and approaches within local and regional sustainable development initiatives.
Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) has evolved into a series of international conferences that explore the role of universities in creating new knowledge and attitudes to meet today’s environmental challenges. EMSU promotes a two way exchange of knowledge between universities and society.

The conference organizing committee invites representatives of academia, business, government, NGOs and civil society organizations to submit abstracts for (1) paper presentations or (2) poster presentations, as well as proposals for (3) discussion workshops/roundtables or (4) paper sessions that are within the Conference scope or themes.

All proposals have to be submitted online at the website before April 1, 2010.
Full papers are due at the 1st of September.

The organizing committee can be contacted at conference@erscp-emsu2010.org.

The conference themes are:

• Sustainable Universities and Higher Education
• Knowledge Collaboration for Sustainable Innovation, Design, Business & CSR
• Sustainable Consumption and Production
• Climate, Energy, Water
• Sustainable Cities and Regions
• Sustainable Consumption and Production in Developing Countries

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ERSCP-EMSU 2010 Conference, 25-29 October, Delft, the Netherlands,
‘KNOWLEDGE COLLABORATION & LEARNING FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION’
www.erscp-emsu2010.org

The 12th annual International Conference organized by the Ethos Institute in Brazil: Businesses and Social Responsibility will be held on May 11-14, 2010 in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Registrations are open). The whole conference program is based on the Earth Charter and it is expected to be an interactive and participative event. The audience will have the chance to select the moments they wish to engage during the event: sharing, debating or learning as well as proposing new topics for discussion.

One of the purposes of the event is to debate about what it is considered to be the five inductors of Corporate Social Responsibility: Education, Media, Labor Power, Political Power and Business Leadership. The Ethos Institute believes that responsibility from businesses with society, the environment and the economy is the path for transformation.

This event is promoted by the Ethos Business Institute and Social Responsibility and carried out by UniEthos – Training and Development for a Socially Responsible Mission in partnership with the Akatu Institute for a Conscious Consumption, Our Sao Paulo Movement, the UN Global Compact, Sustainability, BSR – Businesses for Social Responsibility, Business Forum, GRI and Volans.

Registration can be only done through the following site: http://www.ethos.org.br/ci2010/

For more information in Portuguese please refer to the attached document or contact Cristina Spera at cspera@ethos.org.br or Gladis Éboli at Gladis@ethos.org.br

(From Earth Charter in Action )

- Abstract submission is now available at www.eesd10.org -

Welcome to the next biannual conference in
Engineering Education in Sustainable Development, EESD10
Göteborg, Sweden, September, 19th -22nd
(+ side event in Stockholm, September, 23d), 2010.

Theme: Learning for transformation
Sustainable development requires a shift towards a society that better addresses basic human needs and the limitations of natural systems. A transformation of e.g. mindsets, educational approaches, societal structures, technical systems and economic accounting methods is needed. Engineering education institutions can play an important role in this transformation and in the sustainable society if sustainable development becomes a framework for a redesign of the structure and goal of organizations and of pedagogical, research and cooperation approaches and methods. This conference addresses the role of engineering education in the learning for the required transformation.

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