World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos

From January 16 to 20st, 2023 the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2023 will be held in Davos, Switzerland under the theme of ‘Cooperation in a Fragmented World.’ It will bring togeher leaders from government, business, and civil society to address the state of the world and discuss priorities for the year ahead.

The Annual Meeting aims to provide a platform for constructive, forward-looking dialogues and enable public-private cooperation.
Source: www: https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2023

Questionnaire by the High Level Expert Group on sustainable finance

The High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance was set up in early January 2017 to help develop an overarching, comprehensive EU strategy on Sustainable Finance by giving operational, practical, and concrete recommendations.

A questionnaire has been prepared by and under the responsibility of the High-Level Group in relation to the interim report, published in mid-July 2017 and presented at a stakeholder event on 18 July 2017. It is aimed at gathering targeted feedback on the analysis and reflections in the interim report of the High-Level Expert Group and informing the preparation of the final report.

The responses provided will serve as information to the expert group. In addition, an aggregated and anonymised feedback statement will be published along with the final report as a further contribution to the wider policy debate on Sustainable Finance in the European Union.

The questionnaire is open from Tuesday 18 July 2017. The final deadline for the questionnaire is 20 September. Early transmission of responses (before 6 September) will facilitate processing and early exploitation by the High-Level Expert Group.

Respondents are invited to provide evidence-based feedback, including specific and concise operational suggestions on measures that can be enhanced as well as complementary actions that can be taken, in order to deliver a sustainable financial system in the EU. Respondents are not required to answer all questions and may choose to respond selectively.

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/sustainable-finance-interim-report-2017

Das Forschungsprojekt Agora Natura entwickelt einen virtuellen Marktplatz für Ökosystemleistungen

Im Rahmen des Forschungs- und Umsetzungsprojekts AgoraNatura arbeiten Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus Wissenschaft, Umweltschutz und Landschaftspflege an der Entwicklung eines internetbasierten Marktplatzes für Ökosystemleistungen und Biodiversität. Angebote zum Erhalt oder der vermehrten Bereitstellung von Ökosystemleistungen und Biodiversität können aus der Land- und Forstwirtschaft, von den Landschaftspflege- und Naturschutzverbänden, aus Kommunen und Stiftungen oder von anderen Flächenbesitzer*innen kommen. Auf der Nachfrageseite sprechen wir Unternehmen und Privatpersonen an. Mit dem marktwirtschaftlich orientierten Mechanismus soll die Lücke geschlossen werden zwischen staatlichen Naturschutzprogrammen, der Finanzierung durch Spenden und der verpflichtenden Kompensation von Umweltauswirkungen.

Die Angebote auf dem Marktplatz werden sich dadurch auszeichnen, dass ihre Wirkungen auf Ökosystemleistungen und die biologische Vielfalt mit Hilfe wissenschaftlicher Methoden quantifiziert werden. Dadurch werden die Angebote vergleichbar, überprüfbar und transparent. Im Mittelpunkt von AgoraNatura stehen Angebote, die Biodiversität und Ökosystemleistungen im Zusammenhang mit der agrarisch genutzten Kulturlandschaft bereitstellen. Denn hier besteht akuter Handlungsbedarf: Während in der Gesellschaft die Nachfrage nach intakten Kulturlandschaften und biologischer Vielfalt sowie der Bereitstellung von Ökosystemleistungen stark zunimmt, wird durch die Agrarpolitik immer noch eine intensive Landbewirtschaftung gefördert, die die Leistungsfähigkeit der Ökosysteme und die biologische Vielfalt gefährdet.

Mit Hilfe von AgoraNatura soll das Bewusstsein für Ökosystemleistungen und Biodiversität, insbesondere in der Kulturlandschaft, gestärkt und ein Beitrag zum Schutz und der vermehrten Bereitstellung von Ökosystemleistungen und Biodiversität geleistet werden. Geplant ist der Start des Online-Marktplatzes für 2018. Er soll langfristig, auch nach Ende des Forschungs- und Umsetzungsprojekts im Sommer 2021, bestehen und dann als unabhängiger Marktplatz für mehr Natur in Deutschland weiter betrieben werden.

Quelle: http://project2.zalf.de/AgoraNatura/index.php/ziele/

Positive Biodiversity–Productivity Relationship Predominant in Global Forests

Research by the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative shows that a “positive and consistent relationship” can be discerned between tree diversity and ecosystem productivity.

The GFBI states:

“The biodiversity–productivity relationship (BPR) is foundational to our understanding of the global extinction crisis and its impacts on ecosystem functioning. Understanding BPR is critical for the accurate valuation and effective conservation of biodiversity. Using ground-sourced data from 777,126 permanent plots, spanning 44 countries and most terrestrial biomes, we reveal a globally consistent positive concave-down BPR, whereby a continued biodiversity loss would result in an accelerating decline in forest productivity worldwide. The value of biodiversity in maintaining commercial forest productivity alone—US$166–490 billion per year according to our estimation—is by itself over two to six times the total estimated cost that would be necessary for effective global conservation. This highlights the need for a worldwide re-assessment of biodiversity values, forest management strategies, and conservation priorities.”

Source: http://www.gfbinitiative.org/research

Financial industry, international organisations, and academic sector launch the “Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation” with the aim to create investment opportunities and tools to help bring conservation projects to the marketplace

Honolulu, HI (2 September 2016) — In an effort to address an estimated US $200-300 billion annual funding gap in conservation, civil society organisations, private and public sector financial institutions and academia joined forces today to launch the Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC) during the IUCN World Conservation Congress taking place in Hawaiʻi. The Coalition’s goal is to help preserve the world’s most important ecosystems by creating new opportunities for return-seeking private investment in conservation.

The Coalition, which includes Credit Suisse, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Cornell University as the founding members, plans to develop new investment models and funding pipelines that will help close the current conservation funding gap and contribute to the global goals for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

Building on the expertise and experience of the various partners, CPIC will serve as a hub, connecting investors and financial institutions with in-country partners, who can help develop and execute investable deals that eventually produce an environmental and financial return. Initially, the Coalition plans to focus on several priority investment sectors: forest landscape restoration, sustainable agriculture intensification, sustainable coastal fisheries and resilience, and watershed management.

“We are at a critical turning point in history, where all stakeholders are increasingly aware of the urgency of sustaining nature for the benefit of all,” says IUCN Director General Inger Andersen. “Public sector finance and philanthropic capital alone is not sufficient to meet these challenges. This new Coalition will serve as a critical platform to share expertise, stimulate innovation, and help scale up sustainable investment models, and raise awareness of the potential importance of private capital to conservation.”

Conservation finance represents a massive, undeveloped private sector investment. Research suggests private investors—wealthy individuals, pension funds, other institutional investors and even mainstream retail investors—could supply as much as the $200 billion to $300 billion per year needed to preserve the world’s most important ecosystems.

“This coalition is crucially important both because of the size of the investment opportunity and the positive environmental impacts that developing this area of finance could have,” says John Tobin-de la Puente, Professor of Practice jointly appointed in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology. “Right now, development of a conservation investment market is probably 10 years behind the market for renewable energy, and 20 years behind the affordable housing market. We have the opportunity to generate a brand new market for conservation investment if we figure this out together.”

“The finance sector is increasingly aware that investing in nature can generate returns for both the environment and the economy,” says Fabian Huwyler, Vice President of Sustainability Affairs at Credit Suisse. “If we want private investors to help close the conservation funding gap, the conservation and finance communities need to better collaborate to shift the field from small, donor-driven projects to large-scale conservation markets.”

“We already bring a wealth of experience into this Coalition,” says Lynn Scarlett, Managing Director of Public Policy for The Nature Conservancy. “At the Conservancy, we have already facilitated six impact investment deals totalling $200 million dollars in marine conservation and agriculture, and this new coalition should help us bridge our largest challenge, which is a lack of investment projects in the pipeline. We’ll know we’ve reached success when the big banks have enough projects as options that they can pick and choose where conservation investment will have the most significant impact.”

Source: www.iucn.org

Recommended Reading: The Business Model Navigator

A strong business model is the bedrock to business success…. And to Sustainability !
But all too often we fail to adapt, clinging to outdated models that are no longer delivering the results we need.
The brains behind The Business Model Navigator have discovered that just 55 business models are responsible for 90% of the world’s most successful businesses. These 55 models – from the Add-On model used by Ryanair to the Subscription model used by Spotify – provide the blueprints you need to revolutionise your business and drive powerful change.
As well as providing a practical framework for adapting and innovating your business model, this book also includes each of the 55 models in a quick-read format.
Source: BMI Lab AG, adapted from: Amazon.

For further information go to: http://www.bmilab.com/

Recommended Reading: Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers – By Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur

Recommended reading for everyone who plans to build a new, sustainable businesss model.

Business Model Generation is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow’s enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don’t yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need Business Model Generation.
Co-created by 470 “Business Model Canvas” practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model–or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you’ll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.

Business Model Generation features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you’re ready to change the rules, you belong to “the business model generation!”

Source: Strategyzer