Personal Information

Name

Leo Roman Caprez

Institution

University of St.Gallen

Town

St.Gallen, Switzerland

Some words about myself

Born in Winterthur, Switzerland. I graduated in Law and Economics at the University of St.Gallen (two exchange semester at the University of Lausanne) in 2008 (bachelor). Next year (2010) I will finish my master degree in Law and Economics at the University of St.Gallen. I just came back from an exchange semester at Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa (former IBMEC - Instituto Brasileiro de Mercado de Capitais) in São Paulo.
 
My main area of interest is the way how to implement solutions for a sustainable way of life. What is the role of the legal framework, the regulations and therefore the governments? What is the role of the market forces, innovations etc.? Studying the field of overlaps between law and economics I focus on environmental aspects of these overlaps. And (scarce) resources are right in the middle of all that. How can we apply the theories of law and economics to resources, to its sustainable use?
 
My interest in natural resources and its protection goes back to my childhood when I joined and later led a local environmental youth group (greenteam from greenpeace). Since then I always tried to be well informed and personally act in a sustainable way – a very difficult task. Being aware how difficult sustainable behavior on a personal bases is, the task to get the whole world onto a more sustainable path seems impossible. I met, however, a lot of people who are joining their efforts to get the planet - or better the global economy – to a state of sustainability. These people - and I’m sure I will meet a lot of them in Davos during the WRF - show me that it IS possible to change from a very unsustainable way how our economy works today to a sustainable economy tomorrow. Personally I had the chance to influence the Swiss outdoor equipment company Mammut Sports Group over one and a half year as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) manager to get more sustainable. Being responsible for sustainability – or the triple bottom line – within a company added an important insight to my experience. It opened my eyes to the difficulties companies face to get more sustainable - even with a fully committed management and great efforts. Finally all or at least a lot comes back to the consumer and his willingness to pay for a premium price for sustainable produced goods and his behavior in general. In the field of sustainable consumer behavior I just finished a one month internship with Floresteca SA, a São Paulo based teak plantation operator company. The success of this sustainable orientated and FSC certified company is very much dependent on the willingness of (end) consumers to pay a premium price for (FSC) certified wood.
 
I am very much looking forward to participate in the WRF. I expect interesting discussions and hopefully great ideas will result from the get-together of so many dedicated and important people. Ideally I can contribute to the diffusion of these ideas trough making them available on our blog. Personally I hope to get some inputs for my Master thesis in the field of Sustainability I’m about to start writing. Davos and the conferences there always had a very inspiring impact on me; let’s see how it will be this year with the WRF…