Theme: Student Leadership on Innovation and Entrepreneurship towards a Green Economy
The 2012 Student Summit for Sustainability (S3 2012) will take place in from 12th – 17th November, 2012 at the Multimedia University, Nairobi - Kenya. It is a three-phase alliance building process highlighting the role of students in building a green economy. The focus topics on energy, waste, water, food, materials, transport, buildings and ICT will be supplemented by practical sessions on education, training and awareness, and the development of partnerships for sustainability.
Participants
The Student Summit for Sustainability 2012 is intended for well selected 300 international students, academics and young entrepreneurs to share their insights and to learn from each other. In order to reduce air travel, the summit will be video streamed online to provide students from around the world the opportunity to follow the proceedings and join in debates.
Objectives
- Contribute to capacity building of students around the world by exchanging information, working on case studies, sharing expertise and international experiences on innovative solutions toward a Green economy,
- Building new kinds of institutional bridges and internationally links engaging students and other stakeholders in building a model sustainable community
- Help broaden the interest in the Summit and WSCSD among a wider circle of players
- Providing a structured platform for gathering students’ contribution to the Road to Rio+20 Earth Summit 2012.
Activities
Pre-summit period entails motivating a critical mass of students, universities and sponsors to take the lead in establishing a consortium for each of the eight tracks and engaging students in a structured activity process towards the summit. The Summit will include three days of presentations, round-table discussions, parallel events followed by a day of a special workshop on leadership and entrepreneurship as well as sustainability touring exhibition. Post-summit activities entail building institutional bridges and internationally linked entrepreneurial ecosystems through:
- Identification of “champions” and units engaging students, faculty, industry in working out new network mechanisms succinct
- Build up of mentorship, seed funding, business angel support structures and entrepreneurial ecosystems for green careers
- Working out course assignments or educational activity to support renewal of curricula and capacity building
Outcomes
The summit is intended to produce enhanced understanding, inspired action and collaborative student-run projects focused on promoting sustainable and resilient communities in developing countries. Concretely, the summit will yield:
- The establishment of a virtual education and learning platform for sustainable development, targeting college students and young professionals and focusing on knowledge exchange, best practices and capacity building of civil society organizations in the fields of energy, waste, water, food, transport
- Establishment of the ‘Global Students Sustainability Fund’ (GSSF) that will make early-stage investments in spin-off student ventures focusing on clean energy development, water and sanitation, ICT, waste, Production Materials and Sustainable Urban Transport.
- Launch of a global sustainability touring exhibition showcasing everyday sustainable urban living in a miniature
- Ten Sustainability Fellowship awarded to students ready to launch Green Careers as entrepreneurs
