Tag Archive for: sustainable business practices

Last minute opportunity at the Oxford Spring School in Ecological Enonomics

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One extra place is available at the Oxford Spring School in Ecological Economics to take place 24 – 30 March 2019, the deadline has been extended until 31 January 2019.
Mr Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF will be giving a special talk at the School to take place at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. This year the School is devoted to Green Economy for Countries, Cities and Regions: Ecosystems, Economy, Policy. The programme includes interventions from The Club of Rome, Sustainable Europe Research Institute The Open University, Imperial College London, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Institute of Sustainable Development Strategies and Environment Europe.

DG Marco Lambertini (WWF), Prof. Joachim Spangenberg (SERI), Dr Stanislav Shmelev (Environment Europe Ltd), Prof. Herbert Girardet (The Club of Rome), Prof. Dave Elliott (The Open University), Prof. Erik Gomez-Baggethun (University of Life Sciences, Norway), Prof. Victoria Hurth (Plymouth University), Dr. Stanislava Boscovich (Imperial College London), Prof. Irina Shmeleva (Institute of Sustainable Development Strategies) have confirmed their participation in the School.

The School will take place at St Hilda’s College, Oxford and will address key elements of the green economy transformation with a particular focus on ecosystems, economy and policy, exploring the cutting edge methods and policy applications in ecological economics. With a clear sustainable development focus, it will draw on the expertise of a range of disciplines: economics, ecology, physics, environmental sciences, finance, politics, international relations, sociology, psychology, complex systems theory, etc. to address the current challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, water shortages, social cohesion and achieving sustainability.
The course will be composed of theoretical and applied modules and will address the key elements of the environment-economy interaction: the foundations of ecological economics, methodological approaches of input-output analysis, multi-criteria decision aid, ecological conflicts around the world, regenerative cities, smart cities, sustainable transport, sustainable urbanism, renewable energy, urban planning, ecosystem services and case studies from around the world. The Summer School will feature interactive simulation games.
The course is designed for multiple points of entry and could be helpful for PhD students, government experts, representatives of international organizations and business. The course will give participants an opportunity to explore key methodologies for ecological-economic analysis and to apply these to various case studies.
Oxford Summer, Winter and Spring Schools in Ecological Economics organized by Environment Europe attracted participants from  53 countries, including Canada, USA, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Switzeland, Spain, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Albania, Latvia, Ghana, Nigeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, China, India, Bhutan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, and Australia, including representatives of UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, OECD, ILO, DEFRA staff, NGOs, academia and business, including Shell and Deloitte.

Sustainable practices in 30 Islamic finance institutions

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The Responsible Finance & Investment Summit 2018 concluded with the release by the RFI Foundation of a report about Islamic financial institutions’ perceptions and actions on their environmental and social impacts. «The report includes a detailed survey of over 30 Islamic financial institutions’ sustainable finance practices – says Blake Goud, CEO, RFI Foundation – The survey finds growing awareness that Islamic finance has an ethical mandate to address social and environmental impacts linked to the activities they finance. The results of a survey, coupled with an examination of more than 30 case studies from Islamic finance and within Muslim majority countries finds that key challenges on implementation, building internal and external stakeholder awareness about the financial impact of environmental and social issues, and highlight the need for greater capacity building within the Islamic finance ecosystem».

The survey results are incorporated into some recommendations and conclusions including:
– Development well-structured strategies and enhanced policies for environmental and social issues within Islamic financial institutions including incentive programs tied to social and environmental outcomes;
– Greater consideration of how awqaf (perpetual endowments) can be mobilized in support of sustainable infrastructure, education, healthcare, food security, renewable energy, and water management, among others
– Training employees and management in Islamic financial institutions to enhance their focus on environmental and social issues in their business decision-making process, including a more proactive role for Shari’ah scholars on sustainable business practices.