International Sustainable Business Conference, Brazil May 2010
The 12th annual International Conference for the Ethos Institute in Brazil focused on Businesses and Social Responsibility. The event was held from May 11-14, 2010 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
One of the primary goals for the conference was to reflect on the Earth Charter (2000) and feed thought leadership into action in the next decade toward building Society’s Partnership with the Planet. To this end, Ethos challenged some of the leading business executives in South America, such as Jose Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo (President of Petrobras) to consider questions, such as how the Brazilian Pre-Salt Layer oil, contributes to sustainability. Janine Benyus, Director of the Biomimicry Insitute, dazzled us with nature’s design solutions to some of humanity’s greatest sustainability challenges; while John Elkington (Volans) led a very comprehensive panel on New Green Leadership, and Mark Lee (SustainAbility) another on positive viral change in the business community. Executives from global brands, like Walmart, Johnson and Johnson, PWC, Nike, and others actively participated in the meeting. And Eye of the Future with Portuguese subtitles (translated by Victor Fische) became a highlight evening celebration of art and global sustainability solutions. Following, the screening inspired a beautiful dialogue among Ricardo Young (candidate governor of Sao Paulo, Paulo Itacarambi (VP of Ethos), Allen White (Stockholm Institute), and Catherine Cunningham (Eikosphere), and the audience on the importance of education and community participation in policy dialogue and sustainability think tanks. The Eikosphere would like to thank Ricardo Young, Margarida Curti Lunetta, and the Ethos Institute for this beautiful opportunity.
