Sustainability: Europe

Showing posts with label Europe. Show all posts

European Commission launches new online portal to support responsible sourcing in businesses

European Commission is launching Due Diligence Ready!, an online portal that provides businesses with guidance on how to check the sources of the metals and minerals entering their supply chains – the so-called “due diligence” process. It will help them ensure that their use of raw materials respects human rights while improving transparency and accountability across their value chains.

Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: “Today, market demand for responsibly sourced raw materials is growing. These materials are essential to new business sectors and clean technologies like high-power batteries, and businesses should ensure that each step in the value chain is carried out in a transparent, responsible and sustainable way. I welcome the launch of Due Diligence Ready! which will help businesses make more informed choices.”

Industrial biotechnology draws from biology and the billions of years of evolution behind it to make the production of any chemical compound more efficient and more sustainable. In Europe, the industrial biotech sector is rapidly growing as a response to the environmental impact of current chemical production methods used in all industries.

Europe’s industrial biotechnology sector is driving a massive change from petrochemical processes to more sustainable alternatives. Here are the top industrial biotechnology companies in Europe making every industry greener:

Have you heard thousands of young people all over the world calling upon us to get serious about the climate crisis? It’s high time we stopped making excuses and started acting. URBACT transfer networks offer concrete examples of how each and every city can contribute to a more sustainable future.

1. Bee-friendly cities - good for nature, good for people

Did you know that bees are one of the best indicators of environmental health? This is why the city of Ljubljana (SL), European Green Capital 2016, originally decided to support urban beekeeping and then things got a little out of control! It turned out that the bees (or was it honey?) had the power to bring so many people and activities together: from biodiversity protection to tourism, from corporate social responsibility to open source design. As part of BeePathNet network, Ljubljana and 5 partner cities are (re)discovering urban beekeeping as a way to co-create greener cities and stronger communities.

Kamel is one of the beneficiaries of the "400Rooftops" campaign, which aims to find stable houses for 400 homeless people by 2020.

The government of the Brussels Capital Region and seven non-governmental organizations (NGO) are part of a international project promoting housing as a first tool for social reintegration.

"I have the allowance of the CPAS, the rent is 610 euros, plus the charges for the energy. Calculate, there is 700 euros per month. I thought: "Kamel is expensive". But as I lived in the street, I said, "Kamel, that's it or to go back to the street." In the morning, I get up and if I have to go to eat in a social canteen or to look for places where I can eat for free, I move and I go there", he explains.

Rising housing costs are a growing problem in Europe. According to a 2019 report about housing insecurity presented by FEANTSA (European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless), in Brussels, on the 22nd march, the so called overburden is one of the major challenges.

What can be done to avoid evictions? How can a city provide housing to the most vulnerable groups and to the young talented people? Can low-carbon housing be affordable?
Barcelona , Dupnitsa and Poznan have developed interesting initiatives to work towards “Housing for All”, looking at the social, environmental and physical aspects of housing policies.

In an excellent article on the meaning of affordable housing,Laura Colini wrote the following: “If affordable housing simply means that adequate housing should be accessible and affordable to all, -and primarily to those at risk of becoming or already less well off- its meaning remains not universally shared in public policies all over Europe… the statistics on Affordability of housing by Eurostat from November 2015 are reporting for 2014 that 11.4 % share of the EU-28 population lived in households that spent 40% or more of their “equivalised disposable income” on housing.”

"East Meets West: Innovation and Discovery"

From natural phenomena and the results of climate change to pollution and societal traumas, migrations and war, the enormous challenges that face humankind and our environment are frequently daunting and difficult to comprehend. However, with every new challenge or disruption comes the opportunity for innovation and discovery. Whether inventing new technologies, implementing innovative systems, enacting better policies, legislation, or governance, or ensuring greater cooperation and information sharing, responses are many and varied.

URBACT III 1st Call for Action Planning Networks now Open!

Following the decision of the URBACT III Monitoring Committee on 11 March 2015, the first call for proposals for Action Planning Networks for 2014 – 2020 is now open. Deadline for applications: 16 June 2015.

The main objective of Action Planning Networks is to improve the capacity of European cities to manage sustainable urban policies and more especially to strengthen their ability to design integrated strategies for sustainable urban development. By taking part in an Action Planning Network, cities exchange and share experiences, problems and possible solutions, generating new ideas to address challenges related to sustainable urban development.

sustainable.onbeon.com/2014/09/sustainable-city-2014.html

9th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, 23 – 25 September, 2014, Siena, Italy.

The International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability addresses all aspects of the urban environment aiming to provide solutions leading towards sustainability. The Sustainable City 2014 conference follows a series of very successful meetings that started in Rio (2000), followed by Segovia (2002), Siena (2004), Tallinn (2006), Skiathos (2008), A Coruña (2010), Ancona (2012) and Kuala Lumpa (2013).

The Conference addresses the multi-disciplinary aspects of urban planning; a result of the increasing size of the cities; the amount of resources and services required and the complexity of modern society.

By joining Leading for sustainability you will learn key leadership and sustainability tools including Theory U and Systems Thinking. You will also graduate as a Lead Fellow and be a part of a global network and community of 2500+ sustainability leaders, all from a diverse selection of sectors and regions from around the world.

Lead is a non-profit organisation dedicated to building leadership capacity for sustainable development. Over the past 20 years, they have trained more than 2,500+ leaders (Lead Fellows) across 90 countries.

Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee has been implementing the Green Building Recognition Program since 2011, jointly with SC «Olympstroy». In September 2011, awards were presented to the winners of the first stage of the recognition program — a competition among design organizations. In 2012, the results of the second stage were drawn up — a competition among construction organizations. In 2013, there was a competition among Olympic venue user organizations and investors.

The European Commission has today announced a new programme which will help cities in the EU’s Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood to address local sustainable development challenges such as energy efficiency, security of energy supply and sustainable economic growth.

This programme is part of the EU’s efforts to encourage municipalities to sign up for the Covenant of Mayors (a voluntary initiative to reduce CO2 emissions) and boost local economies in the region in a more sustainable way.

The International Conference on “Micro Perspectives for Decentralized Energy Supply” (MES) ( was established as an international forum to discuss the micro perspective of the technical, economic, social, and environmental aspects of microenergy systems. 27th February to 1st March 2013 , Berlin, Germany

ENERGY and SUSTAINABILITY SUMMIT at the EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, 30th January 2013, Brussels, Belgium

Major utility companies around the world have diversified their energy production across a wide variety of sources consisting primarily of gas, carbon, and nuclear, but also supplementing renewable sources.

The Symposium aims to address the causes and reasons of the actual economic crisis from the economic, financial, managerial and entrepreneurial perspectives.

In particular the symposium will focus on the epistemological, theoretical, methodological, technical and practical, contributions of the systemic approach from a disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective (finance, management, engineering, economics, etc.) to shape an agenda to address the present global economic and social crisis.

V International Seminar Tourism and Spatial Planning, Centre for Geographical Studies, University of Lisbon, Portugal, 24-25 January 2013

This conference intends to meet and discuss new research ideas on the tourism impacts in the Global South, focusing namely on the construction and transformation of landscapes through tourism, on issues of identity friction and cultural change, and on the responsibility of tourism on poverty reduction and sustainable development.

European Commission states that to fully meet their social responsibility, enterprises “should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical and human rights concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders”.

22 November 2012, the commitment of €800m for education, sustainable development and renewable energy was announced by the Aquitaine Region and the European Investment Bank (EIB), following a signing ceremony held at the Aquitaine Regional Council presided over by Alain Rousset, President of the Aquitaine Regional Council, and Philippe de Fontaine Vive, EIB Vice-President.

The Global Sustainable Cities Network ( GSCN ) will provide a platform for pioneering sustainable city initiatives throughout the world; enabling knowledge sharing of city development best practices. It will publish a set of recommendations for driving the commercialization, scalability and cost reduction beginning with focus areas such as waste-to-energy and demand-side management within cities. The Network will also provide a platform to encourage collaboration between cities and drive public private partnerships

Leadership for Sustainability: 5th EuroCharity Yearbook Update

The forthcoming EuroCharity Yearbook on "Leadership for Sustainability" is rapidly gaining momentum. The 5th EuroCharity Yearbook is a highly-respected, international multi-stakeholder album with a global audience of key stakeholders and distribution in over 50 countries. This timely, English-language Yearbook will be published in June this year, just in time for the Rio+20 Summit.

EuroCharity is expecting a total of 40 guest authors (leading CEOs, top policy makers and world-renown experts) and 25 participating corporations (sustainability leaders in their line(s) of business) from around the world to confirm their space in the new EuroCharity Yearbook.