I flew in to Dubai a couple of days back for the second World Green Economy Summit, invited by André Schneder of World Capital – who I first met last year in Verbier.
André chaired the first session today, where I spoke alongside Raphaël Domjan, of Solar Planet, who I had first heard of when he sailed his solar vessel, PlanetSolar, around the world. Titled ‘Green Development Visionaries,’ this was a highly enjoyable session. It was followed by a panel discussion on south-south partnerships. again chaired by André. My co-panellists this time were Edem Bakhshish of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, Amal-Lee Amin of E3G, Lars Josefsson who chairs the World Economic Forum Global Advisory Council on De-carbonizing Energy, and Martin Hiller of REEEP (Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership).
Having coined the term ‘green growth’ back in 1986 (SustainAbility was originally tag-lined ‘The Green Growth Company’), and having published The Green Capitalists in 1987 (with Tom Burke, now part of E3G, as a co-author), I have been fascinated to see how the whole field has evolved. But it was truly weird to go up to the 68th floor in the J.W. Marriot hotel with Sten de Witt of TNO, to down a glass or two of Malbec, and in his case beer, and to then see ‘sustainability’ so prominently featured among the cocktails. Not really sure what to make of that …
Meanwhile, Huffington Post published my latest blog today on the B Corporation movement.
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