Workshops: Sept. 19, 2011 (Time: 14.00-17.30)

Workshop 1: Sustainable resource use and poverty eradication in developing countries

  • Workshop Chair: Shaoyi Li, Head of the Secretariat for the International Resource Panel, UNEP
  • Workshop Moderator: Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel, Member of the International Resource Panel and Former Director of UNEP DTIE
Speakers:
  • Heiko Warnken; Head of Division Environment and Sustainable Use of natural Resources, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany
  • Joerg Mayer; Senior economics affair advisor, UNCTAD
  • Antonio Pedro; Director, Subregional Development Centre – East Africa
  • Urs Rybi; Commodity Trading, Berne Declaration
  • Ashok Khosla; International Resource Panel Co-Chair, President, IUCN, and Founder, Development Alternatives, India
  • Mark Swilling; Professor, Sustainability Institute, School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
  • Mohan Munasinghe; Director General, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester, UK
  • Alice Kaudia; Environment Secretary, Kenya
  • Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim; Assocation des Femmes Peuples Autochtones du Tchad, Indigenous Peoples Africa Coordinating Committee

Summary:

The workshop should address some of the most urgent issues referring to poverty eradication and resource efficiency/sustainable resource management in developing countries. The focus will be put on the question of how a sustainable resource management and resource efficiency approach can contribute to poverty eradication and to building up sustainable societies and economies by leapfrogging the unsustainable developments of the industrialized countries. The workshop will be divided into answering two questions:

  1. How can economies use their own natural resources most productively for sustainable economic development?
  2. How can consumption sectors be shaped to meet the needs of people in poverty (shelter, food, energy) at early stages of development while leapfrogging resource intensive modes of consumption? 

As far as appropriate it should deepen some aspects already addressed in the plenary session I “What do we need to achieve” (e.g. by the keynote address of Alice Kaudia). The workshop will discuss principles and concrete policy approaches (including show cases and good practice examples) aiming at improving the governance of natural resources in the developing countries.
The WS should result in actual recommendations (e.g. as a possible input for a final WRF conclusions and as a possible input for Rio+20) and will look at how this issue can be further promoted and dealt with in the international resource arena. The Workshop should motivate the participants by identifying promising approaches and highlighting successful examples.

See here for additional information.

Workshop 2: Resource Impact Assessment in LCA/Ecoinvent database

  • Workshop Chair: Mark Goedkoop
Speakers:
  • Marisa Vieira, PRé Consultants, Netherlands
  • Andreas Emanuelsson, SIK, Sweden
  • Francesca Verones, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
  • Laura de Baan, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Summary:

This workshop aims at presenting the state of the art of Life cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) for resource use. Because there is still discussion on the issue of concern regarding resource use, we will open the workshop with this discussion. Following this, we will present three types of resources which are currently being further developed in impact assessment, namely use of mineral and fossil resources, biotic resource, water and land.

Workshop 3: Closing Resource Loops - Distinguishing good from bad in the secondary commodity market

  • Workshop Chair: Rolf Widmer; Empa
  • Workshop Moderator:  Patrick Wäger, Matthias Schluep; both Empa
Speakers:
  • Klaus Hieronymi, HP
  • Markus Reuter, Outotec, Finnland
  • Students of the eWaste summer school

Summary:

The workshop intends to identify suitable approaches to showcase sustainably produced secondary non-energy commodities. This will be done on the basis of expert statements and inputs from eWaste summer school students, who will present profiles of established labelling approaches for other, renewable and non-renewable resources.

Workshop 4: The Rise of the Bio-economy: Chinese and European approaches (only 14:00 – 15:30)

  • Workshop Chair: Gerben Jan Gerbrandy (Member European Parliament)
Speakers:
  • Lotte Asveld; Rathenau Institute, Netherlands
  • Mathis Wackernagel; Footprint Network, USA
  • Dorette Corbey; Dutch committee for Biomass Sustainability issue, Netherlands
  • Liisa Tahvanainen; Koli Forum, Finnland

Summary:

China and Europe face different issues in establishing a sustainable bio-economy. In what ways can they support each other’s transition towards such a sustainable bio- economy and what is needed for this politically? Can European sustainability criteria, initiated by the Dutch government, play a central role in the transition towards a global sustainable bio-economy? Can we expect China to adopt such criteria and if so, under what conditions? At this session we will additionally present a report on the development of the Dutch bio-economy.

Workshop 8: Resource-efficient Companies – Improving the material footprint of Products and Services (only 14.00-15.30)

  • Workshop Chairs: Fritz Hinterberger & Eva Burger, SERI – Sustainable Europe Research Institute, Austria
Speakers:
  • Katrin Bienge, Wuppertal Institute, Germany,
  • Holger Rohn, Trifolium, Germany,
  • Michael Lettenmeier, D-mat, Finland
  • Hubert Rhomberg, Rhomberg Bau GmbH

Summary:

After the short introduction by the chairs, examples on how to use material footprint analysis for eco-innovation will be presented by representatives of several European companies, researchers and consultants. This input will serve as a basis for joint efforts in smaller groups to co-develop ideas by the participants for their own field of interest, facilitated by those bringing experience to the workshop in designing new products or services in order to substantially reduce the use of material, water, land, and energy. The common discussion focuses on the following questions: - What can the material footprint approach provide for companies to improve their resource-efficiency on strategic and product level? - What supports or prevents companies to measure their material footprint? Please bring some product example you want to discuss at the workshop. The topics will be determined according to the participants’ interests.

See here for additional information.