Student Summit for Sustainability 2009 | Final Report

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Foreword of the Organization Committee 3

Foreword of the Organization Committee

Dear Reader,

We are pleased to present you the final report of the 2009 Student Summit for Sustainability (S3), hosted in Zurich and Kreuzlingen in partnership with the Alliance for Global Sustainability Annual Meeting (AGS AM) from January 25th to February 1st. First things first, we think that S3 2009 has been a tremendous success, from several points of view: certainly in terms of contents and insights gained - and we hope to offer a good overview of those in these pages - but also in the quality of interactions and relationships built between students, between experts and with the faculty participating in the AGS.

Our original motivation for choosing the topic of this Student Summit was the realization that today’s global economical and political institutions do not promote sustainable development (SD). Indeed, huge efforts have to be made by specialized governmental agencies, NGOs and other particularly dedicated organizations and individuals to achieve what are only very minimal levels of SD. We were wondering why this should be the case. Our thesis was that the economical and political institutions1 are not providing the necessary incentives and that, somehow, the “incentive structures” driving our world could be changed (see program booklet and website for more background).

So how did the experts, we and our diverse crowd of participants respond to that? Every topic, from peak oil to community currencies, open source software and open access publishing, hit directly on the theme in some unexpected way. How à propos was it to offer a plenary session within the AGS entitled “A Systemic Solution to the Financial Crisis,” in which B. Lietaer explained how economies could become more resilient and functional by learning from the network structure of ecosystems? Read through! And as you will see in our conclusive remarks, the conference has not mainly been about diagnosing problems but about solutions and change.

All presentations were recorded and are accessible to all from our proceedings website (www.wscsd.org/s3zurich), where slides and summaries, readings and more can be found! The video recordings of the presentations can be found here: www.sss2009.blip.tv

1 The term institution is to be taken in its general abstract meaning, i.e. the set of formal and informal rules and

norms that are set by human beings to regulate human behavior. Institutions exist on the micro (individual), meso (family, associations…) and macro (states, corporations …) levels.

Student Summit for Sustainability 2009 – Final Report www.project21.ch

4 Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Foreword of the Organization Committee.................................................3

Introduction to the Student Summit..........................................................5

Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Zurich...............................................7

Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Kreuzlingen....................................13

Conclusions of the Organizing Committee.............................................25

Conclusions and Feedback from Participants..........................................28

Feedbacks from Experts...........................................................................30

Exceptional Reunion of Future Sustainability Leaders.............................31

Financial Report.......................................................................................32

World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSC-SD)........34

[project 21]...............................................................................................35

Our Supporters.........................................................................................36

Participants...............................................................................................40

The Organizing Team / Contact Information..........................................43

Student Summit for Sustainability 2009 – Final Report www.wscsd.org/s3zurich

Introduction to the Student Summit 5

Introduction to the Student Summit

The Realistic Side of the World - Sustainable Development and the Role of Economic and Political Institutions

The seventh annual meeting of the “World Student Community for Sustainable Development” (WSC-SD), organized by [project 21], was held in Switzerland from January 25th to February 1st 2009. During these days, about 90 students from around the world learned about and reflected upon the global institutions driving the world and their relationship to sustainability, and engaged together in imagining alternative paths for the future.

The WSC-SD is the student counterpart of the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS - an alliance between MIT, ETH Zurich, Tokyo University and Chalmers University). Over the last years, however, it has only been very loosely connected to the work of the AGS; to bring the two organizations closer together again, their annual meetings were held together this year, ensuring a stimulating cross-pollination between the two events. For this reason, the first part of S3 was designed such that it would be completely interlinked with the AGS meeting2 and would provide to both S3 and AGS participants some important inputs in the form of plenary keynotes relevant to the S3 topic. In the second part, after the AGS meeting was over, the students retreated to a quieter place in Kreuzlingen, and for four days were able to plunge deeper into the conference subject, working closely with the experts who stayed in residence together with the students.

During the conference in Kreuzlingen, we sought in particular answers to the following questions: what are the obstacles for sustainable development in today’s economical and political institutions? Which rules would have to be changed to promote sustainable development? Where and how can change happen? What are possible leverage points? How can we better understand the importance of our individual actions based on this global background? An important goal was to help participants better understand how their own work can fit into the macro picture and maximize the effect of their contribution by identifying some of the powerful mechanisms driving the world.

To tackle these questions we focused on three topics: geopolitics, financial markets and non-monetary incentives (themes from politics,

2The AGS conference was devoted to the challenges posed by the dramatic growth of the world's urban population and was guided by two propositions: that cities, properly managed, can be transformative arenas in which natural resources are used more efficiently and economically, contributing to a high quality of life for everyone; and that reinventing cities offers one of the most effective ways of reducing human impacts upon the environment.


6 Introduction to the Student Summit

economics and sociology respectively), all three being new angles to think about sustainability.

Geopolitics Geopolitics refers to the contention between existing and aspiring great powers for control over territory and resources. What are the great strategic objectives governing geopolitics in the 21st century to secure resources in the face of increasing scarcity and a growing population? What are the existential needs of a state? Who are the important players and what are their goals? What are the local and global consequences?

Global Finance Global Finance refers to the way investments and exchanges are made for goods and services in the global marketplace. Which roles do taxes, subsidies and financial investments (including speculative ones) play in determining how society uses and distributes its increasingly scarce resources? How does the financial world help or hinder the anticipation of natural limits?

Non-monetary incentives

Non-monetary incentives refers to incentives existing today in modern societies for individuals to act beyond a pure logic of “Homo oeconomicus”. What are they? Where do they come from? How can they grow? We suppose that new types of incentives are emerging and traditional ones taking new roots. We see the open source movement as a prominent manifestation of such non-monetary incentives.

Workshop on non-monetary incentives with Prof. Scholz and Marcus Dapp


Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Zurich 7

Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Zurich

Introduction Day – Monday, 26th January 2009

Prof. Peter UlrichInstitute for Business Ethics, University of St. Gallen

Opening Keynote

Civilizing the Market Economy – The Approach of Integrative Economic Ethics to Sustainable Development.

Taking the discipline of ethics as a starting point, Peter Ulrich questioned the definition of sustainable development (based on an idea of satisfying normatively defined human needs) and the possibility of really reconciling the three dimensions of SD in a synergistic way simply by increasing the ecological efficiency of the economy without questioning the sustainability of its ends. He argued that what is really open to debate is the question of what constitutes a legitimate form of life and societal order, given the ethical obligation of creating equal rights to access natural resources for all human beings. In this context, we must conceive of a global political order - supported by supranational institutions and a global society of free citizens - in which a "vital policy" that seeks a just societal order is recognized as the primary goal. In this context, the global market economy and the policies ensuring its efficiency are only a means which must be subordinated and always serve the "vital policy". What we need most today, is the courage to conduct supranational politics with a civilizing intent.

Dr. Colin CampbellFounder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO)

Keynote on Geopolitics

Peak Oil – A Turning Point for Mankind

Colin Campbell provided us with some fundamental principles to understand oil reserves and the political game behind their evaluation. Very basically, every oil reserve must eventually show a peak in its production, after which production declines, and every peak in discovery is irremediably followed by a peak in production. Finally, the global peak in discovery has already occurred and that of production is approaching. Technology only accelerates the rate at which the resource gets depleted. However, the reported reserve evaluations by the different oil-producing countries contradict these basic facts of nature as they are merely strategic financial numbers, reported in order to attract the


8 Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Zurich

desired levels of investment on the market. After a short oil-age that has transformed human societies by ensuring cheap energy supply, boosting population and economic growth, we are at a turning point where new strategies might become more competitive than the past successful ones. Countries would be wise to progressively cut their oil imports instead of engaging their military power on the remaining oil-bearing territories to secure the last dwindling supplies.

Participants of the student summit during a presentation at ETH Audimax

Antoinette Hunziker-EbneterChief Executive Officer and Founding Partner of Forma Futura Invest AG

Keynote on Global Finance

Invest for a more Sustainable Quality of Life: Combine Social Responsibility and Financial Return

For Mrs. Hunziker, a central question one should ask, and in particular investors, is whether the money is an objective in itself. In her eyes, the value system of the current economic system is centered around the following: profit maximization, material growth, efficiency, short-termism, individualism and linear thinking. But today, we can no longer be satisfied with the old model. Money must offer investors more than the fulfillment of their basic financial requirements, i.e. security, liquidity and return. Investments can and must also be able to fulfill requirements concerning the specific use of assets (e.g. is the money invested in something that is of value to build the future?) and other individual criteria that an investor may have (does the investment reflect my personal values?). Mrs Hunziker believes that we are in the middle of a cultural change whereby investors are learning to harmonize their ethical goals with their profit-maximization goal.



Aaron SeigoPresident KDE e.V., KDE Software Architect, Community Ambassador

Keynote on non-monetary incentives

Democratic Software – The Implications of Open Source in Society

In his keynote presentation, Aaron Seigo explained the four freedoms underlying the open source software movement, showing how these four simple rules of freedom and openness generate complex and rich dynamics of human cooperation. He outlined some of the benefits of open source software for society: ease of information and knowledge transfer, dynamism of innovation, robustness of the industry in the face of change leading to a higher level of integrity of our knowledge heritage, greater respect and integration of cultural diversity, and high levels of transparency and cooperation. All of these characteristics were shown to be in stark contrast with the still dominant proprietary model, generating unsustainable lock-in scenarios. Aaron Seigo helped us learn some lessons from the open source software movement, one of which may be that, by recognizing that people are not just motivated by money but also by other motives such as the freedom to innovate and cooperate, powerful models of human organization can emerge where people sharing a common interest manage to work together towards high-quality solutions.

Aaron Seigo during his talk at ETH on the importance of open source software



S3 – Keynotes at AGS Annual Meeting

Dr. Andrea K. RiemerDirector of the Institute for Strategy and Security Policy at the Austrian Defense Academy, Austrian Ministry of Defense

Keynote on GeopoliticsTue, 27 January

Petro-Imperialism – Geoeconomics and Great Power Strategy

According to Andrea K. Riemer, there are four geofactors which always have influenced foreign policy: geopolitics (the influence of geography on foreign policies), geostrategy (geographical aspects of military), geoeconomics (strategic national and international trade policies like the Marshall plan, WTO or OPEC) and geoculture (geographical aspects of culture and religion). From the geoeconomic point of view, oil and gas form the key basis for economic growth and wealth. The growing demand of emerging (economic) powers like China and India and the biggest oil consumer United States contribute most to the growing world energy consumption, and if these governments stick with their current policies, the world’s energy needs will be more than 50% higher in 2030 than today. Therefore, the United States and the regional powers EU, China, Russia and India find themselves in a competition over access to energy resources. As energy security will continue to play a vital role for the coming decades, securing energy resources and transport lines gain importance for modern industrialized states and become one of the main reasons for military intervention. To understand the national energy and security policies of great powers beyond the medial surface, Riemer suggests analyzing especially geographical aspects simply by “looking at the map”.

Andrea K. Riemer talking at ETH on geopolitical constraints and how they influence the foreign politics of many nations



Prof. Bernard A. LietaerChairman of the ACCESS Foundation, Research Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Resources of the University of California in Berkeley

Keynote on Global FinanceWed, 28 January

A Systemic Solution for the Economic Crisis

In his introductory keynote to the relationship between the financial crisis, the monetary system and sustainability, Bernard Lietaer challenged common notions of money as a value-free facilitator of exchange and as a "natural," or inherent institution of an economy of trade. Flows of money essentially determine our lives, yet do we understand how money is created? Do we see that today's currency system is entirely bank-debt money operating through a monopoly held by the federal banks? As numerous past financial crises have shown, and not least the last one, such a system is extremely unstable, having traded efficiency against diversity and connectivity, very much akin to a monoculture as an extreme example of a hyper-efficient but completely unstable ecosystem. Bernard Lietaer explained how a systemic response to the economic crisis and to our inability of furthering the goals we hold as important for our future sustainability, is to break the monopoly of bank-debt money and allow alternative currencies to develop at different scales of society, each designed with the rules that best fit the intent spurring its creation (for example, being commodity based or having a negative interest).

S3 – Events at AGS Annual Meeting

Panel on Open Access Publishingwith an introduction by Dr. Ulrich Pöschl from Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Biogeochemistry Department, chief executive editor of the journal “Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics”

Panelists:Ulrich Pöschl,Kazuhiko Takeuchi,Ralph Eichler

Moderated by Marcus Dapp

Tue, 27 January

The session started with a presentation by Prof. Pöschl of the concept, mechanisms and benefits of interactive open access publishing of scientific research and collaborative peer-review. With open access, scientific institutions pay publishers for the expenses of publication, canceling subscription fees, and as a result knowledge becomes accessible to all. With interactive publishing and collaborative peer-reviewing, papers are subject to public peer-review as well as commenting by the whole scientific community. The benefits are multiple: traceability and transparency are improved, information is not diluted and lost as in the traditional publishing process, because the



research methods and the reasoning processes are better documented. New papers are published in a specialized (and not indexed) review journal shortly after submission. This allows for faster publication of results and lowers referee time because submitted papers are of better quality, resulting in lower rejection rates. Finally, this open process allows for a rich interdisciplinary scientific inquiry because a wider range of expertise can be used to evaluate the quality of one paper. During the discussion with Prof. Takeuchi, moderated by Marcus Dapp and joined by Prof. Eichler, the panelists discussed the role of universities, the evolving market for open access publishing from the publishers' side and possible strategies for a quick switch to open access of all publicly funded scientific research.

Some of the participants of the student summit presented their work as poster during the AGS annual meeting at ETH

The Future of the Open Source Desktoppresented by Aaron Seigo with an introduction by Georg Greve, president and founder of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)

PresentationWed, 28 January(optional event)

Georg Greve opened the official KDE 4.2 Release Event with an introduction to free open source software (FOSS). He highlighted the importance and advantages of the Open Source approach and also shed some light on the history of KDE and it's role within the open source ecosystem.

Aaron Seigo then took over to present to the audience the brand new version of KDE. KDE is a modern desktop system for Linux and offers a comprehensive set of applications. Since KDE4, applications run natively on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X. For once the audience was not the typical sustainability crowd but mostly open source enthusiasts from all over Switzerland and even other parts of Europe.


Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Kreuzlingen 13

Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Kreuzlingen

Transfer to Kreuzlingen – Thursday, 29th January 2009

Transfer & Movie

After the end of the AGS Annual Meeting, the S3 participants took the train to Kreuzlingen, where the main part of the Student Summit took place. The afternoon was reserved to get to know the area. After dinner we showed the movie “Der Geist des Geldes – The Spirit of Money” to focus the participants on the topics of the coming days. After the projection the students had the possibility to ask questions to Prof. Bernard Lietaer who also appeared in the movie.

S3 – Main Conference – Friday, 30th January 2009

Prof. Bernard A. LietaerChairman of the ACCESS Foundation, Research Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Resources of the University of California at Berkeley

Keynote Complementary Currencies: Intentional economics

In the current system, all wealth-generating economic activities happen through the commercial transactions of the global economy and some money is tapped from this economic activity to fuel the community transactions (e.g. tax deductible funding of NGOs) and to fund the public service (through taxes and subsidies) in order to maintain social capital. If instead these community transactions and public service activities were transformed into a system of complementary currencies, it would result in a balanced system where both types of activities would be self-sustaining and reinforce each other. "A complementary currency can be defined as an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange in parallel with national money." Usually, such currencies are created with a specific intention, addressing a common interest of a group of people. In this keynote, Bernard Lietaer showed several examples of intentional economics and arguments for why standard economic theory does not recognize the possibility of such economic systems.


14 Proceedings – Summaries of Part in Kreuzlingen

Parallel sessions – Expert talks

Non-monetary incentives in software developmentby Aaron Seigo & Marcus Dapp

Workshop In this workshop, we read and analyzed three famous emails, one from Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, one from Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project, and one from Linus Torvalds, initiator of the Linux kernel. We discussed what these emails showed of their authors' motivations for developing software and their vision of the software industry and saw that they embody three different approaches. For Gates it is developing a proprietary product and service to make profit on a market of physical goods. For Stallman, software should be free, as it is a commons that gives freedom to members of society, and for Linus Torvalds, software is a tool whose development is sufficiently fun and challenging to be taken on as a hobby by many and, to ensure optimal design and fast improvement, should be open source to allow for easy collaboration. Stallman and Torvalds' approaches, although they differ, are compatible, both resulting in an inclusive industry, while Gates' approach is exclusive and incompatible with the other two. Yet, all three models illustrate different types of motivation underlying people's undertakings, resulting in very different outcomes for society.

Geopolitics, the Century of Resources and the Grand Strategy of the United States of Americaby Colin Campbell

Expert Presentation

In this session Colin Campbell showed us which factors influence the competition of oil companies over access to oil and gas fields. Taking the Caspian region as an example, he clarified how international border laws can influence the decisions of contractors and the division of the oil and gas revenues. He stressed the importance of the Caspian region for the diversification of the energy sources flowing to the west, to decrease their dependence on the oil resources of the Persian Gulf and showed that this region is likely to become an important focus for the great powers in the coming years and decades.



The TERRA currency, a global standard currency for tradeby Bernard Lietaer

Expert Presentation

In this session, Prof. Lietaer explained some of the inherent problems of the current global trading system: monetary instability due to lack of a standard, the resulting losses of business cycles that are amplified by monetary instability and the conflicts between the short-termism of shareholders and the long-term needs of society. As a response, Lietaer proposes a trading currency called Terra, a currency that provides a reference standard for trade, backed-up by physical goods, with demurrage. The Terra would be a reference unit constituted by a standardized basket of internationally traded commodities (readjusted every so often to reflect shares of traded products), issued by the Terra Alliance, and working in parallel with national currencies. There is a historical precedent of such a system: the Egyptians had a currency system whose standard was bags of wheat, represented by pottery chards. Because wheat degrades over time, interest rates were negative, so pottery chards received against agricultural products were preferentially invested in assets with long-term value. The Terra in effect is just a planning tool that is naturally counter-cyclical: when a multinational corporation faces excess inventory, it can sell it to the Terra Alliance in exchange for Terras (receipt against deposit basket), while it can cash-in its Terras when in need of more goods when inventories are low. This in effect provides more cash in moments of downturn and acts against inflationary tendencies in moments of upturn.

Most of the experts stayed after their talks some more time in Kreuzlingen, allowing a deeper exchange with the students. In the picture Marc Vogt talking with Edward Dommen.



Parallel sessions – Student talks

Financial Sector Development and Economic Growth: Evidence from South AfricaRutendo Dhliwayo, University of Fort Hare, South Africa

Student Presentation

The paper seeks to examine and assess the applicability of theories that have linked the financial sector to development. Using “Granger causality methodology” we evaluate the relationship between economic growth and financial sector development in South Africa. Economic growth is measured as real GDP growth whilst financial sector development is proxied by the financial sector capitalization. The data has some bi-directional causality. In other words, there is a causal relationship between financial sector development and economic growth. The results show a significantly positive relationship between financial sector development and economic growth. A conclusion is drawn that financial market development is imperative for sustained economic growth, while it is also true that sustained economic growth is important for financial sector development. It is recommended that developing countries seek to overcome barriers to financial sector development through the efficient and productive use of financial resources to boost economic growth.

The role of societal macrostructures in problems of collective actionAntal MiklósBudapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary


Collective actions beyond the pure logic of short-term individual economic rationality are inevitable to promote sustainable development. However, social networks, civic engagement, and trust are prerequisites to utilize reciprocity and open the door for long-term collective rationality. Consequently, changes in social capital largely determine the chances of a sustainable future.Though, traditional forms of social capital are declining and a rapid restructuring of social arrangements can be observed. In the present article, a new model of societal macrostructures is presented. Connections between social, state, and business actors are demonstrated, and the role of norms and relationship systems is highlighted.The identified positive feedbacks are deemed to be responsible for long-lasting trends in changes of social capital. Pluralist democracies, communism, and consumer societies are investigated. Major effects of globalization are studied to get an up-to-date picture of future opportunities.



The Geopolitics of Energy in Latin AmericaRenato Sanchez, National Polytechnic School of Ecuador, Ecuador


The energy crisis has been matter of constant debate in recent months mainly in developed countries. Also, since most of the energy currently consumed comes from fossil fuels, there is a tremendous interest in reducing the negative effects that carbon dioxide produces. Interestingly, both facets are openly discussed in rich countries with relatively small amount of natural resources, but high energy consumers. What is the situation in the developing world?Latin America is a very wealthy region in natural resources and its countries may play a more and more important role as supplier of energy for the developed world. Also Latin America has been characterized as a stable zone in terms of geopolitics. In the last century, Latin America did not divide into different countries such was the case of other worldwide regions. Is it possible to expect this situation continues?Our study first analyzes briefly the energy natural resources in Latin America; next we examine the energy policy situation in the region and finally we provide a set of recommendations directed especially for young audience such is the case of university students.

Rizwan Shamim from Bang-ladesh presents his view of the linkage between sustainable de-velopment and the financial markets



Linkages between Financial Markets and Sustainable DevelopmentMohammed Rizwan ShamimBRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh


Currently we face two major challenges-of sustainable development (SD) and of the global financial crises. Over the past century up to now, market economies have gone through ups and downs in cyclic patterns, and the deregulation and free market patterns have led to turmoil in both financial markets and natural limits. There is today a breach of the Washington Consensus as governments try to save their economies by intervening in financial markets. If we view economic activity as being concerned with the conversion of natural resources into products there is the need for technological change, to increase factor productivity, the use of clean technologies and also the need for conservation, recycling and various efforts promoting SD. Here we will discuss the approach of today’s financial system in the free market economy and find the linkages between the three main aspects of SD: Ecology, Society and the Economy.

Geopolitics, the Century of Resources and the Grand Strategy of the United States of AmericaCan Deniz, University of Zurich, Switzerland


In the first part of my paper I define the term “geopolitics” and list today’s main geopolitical actors. The second part describes the changed context of international relations since the end of the Cold War and what is at stake in the 21st century. I close with the explanation of Afghanistan’s significance in the new “great game” over energy resources and its importance for the United States of America.

The paper concludes, that the USA sees itself in a decade of opportunities, in which it can consolidate its unchallenged position of power and that it uses this window of opportunity to make the strategic - particularly military - steps towards its objectives for the assurance of access and control over energy resources. Afghanistan plays a central role in its grand strategy, as it boarders to numerous states of Central Asia and guarantees access to the resource rich Caspian region.



Dr. Daniele GanserBasel University / ASPO Switzerland

Keynote Peak Oil and Resource Wars: What can Small States do?

According to Daniele Ganser, Peak Oil and global climate change will force human kind to quit all fossil energy resources like oil, gas and coal, which supply over 80 percent of our daily energy demand. The “oil age” began about 150 years ago and will end soon. During the First World War, the global energy consumption was at about 1 million barrels per day (mbd). During the Second World War this number increased to 6 mbd, during the Cuban missile crisis to 22 mbd. Today we need 85 mbd if we want our world to function as we are used to. Because global oil production will peak in the coming twenty years, it is better to ask the right questions at the right time, and it is important to act now, so the decline in the second half of the oil age doesn’t become too violent. While climate change dominates state policies already today, the phenomenon Peak Oil will occupy the coming generations – beginning with ours. Actually the “energy question” is being discussed in every government, but the answers they give to this problem are mostly military ones. The United States for example declare to fight terrorism, but in reality they are hunting the last remaining oil fields of the world. According to Daniele Ganser for small states like Switzerland “the energy crisis can become a chance – if we think globally and act locally.”

Dr. Edward DommenAuthor and former UNCTAD researcher

Keynote Prices and Political Institutions in Sustainable DevelopmentEdward Dommen started his keynote with general thoughts on sustainability and sustainable development being two differing concepts. Prices can be seen as an useful signaling device but not more. They can not reflect i.e. the trade-off between present and future generations (a discount rate higher than 0% basically renders future generations worthless).

To finish his talk E. Dommen introduced important principles, such as polluter-pays, responsibility, precautionary and prudence principles and he outlined when each of these principles makes sense and how they can help decision makers in making contracts, drawing laws, setting companies rules, etc. These principles could be useful for solving some of the problems created by the current free market economy.



Crossover Panel Discussion: What are the links between the topics?

Panelists:Aaron Seigo,Bernard Lietaer,Eduard Dommen,Daniele Ganser

Moderated byPascal Mages,Can Deniz

During the crossover panel the experts discussed together with Pascal Mages and Can Deniz from the organizing committee how they address the same goal of working towards a sustainable world from different directions. Important messages to remember from the panel are that we should focus on finding ways to make it better rather than simply criticize, and that we must be aware of the role emotions play in the struggle for sustainability. We must keep our positive feelings, not lose hope and keep doing what we are doing for a 'better world'.

During a cross-over panel the experts showed how their re-spective fields are related to each other

Fireplace Talks

The calm in Kreuzlingen invited us to consider our future in light of what we were learning. Whether reconsidering the balance between occidental scholarship and one's own roots - "Shouldn't I soon go back to Central Asia and build a school transmitting together Western and Eastern traditions?" could be one of our friend’s question we would discuss with joy - or whether imagining practical applications in our power to implement - poverty alleviation through a local currency, financing large scale recycling schemes, switching to open source software... - these moments were amongst the most enriching of the conference.



S3 – Main Conference – Saturday, 31st January 2009

WorkshopsThe workshops pursued the goal of working on a specific aspect of the conference topics in a smaller group together with experts. Based on the information from the keynotes, presentations, talks and discussions, the participants deepened their understanding of the issues and tried to find possible solutions to achieve a sustainable development. The workshops ran in parallel.

The Role of Ethics for Societal Change – with Edward Dommen

Workshop on Global Finance

Edward Dommen, a trained theologist and economist, was a founding member of different banks and funds active in the field of ethical and ecological investment and micro credits. He discussed with the students different question, trying to resolve the relationship between the global financial markets (and in particular the current economic crisis) and the “real economy”, i.e. the daily reality of people in industrialized and in developing countries. It became clear that the expanding financial markets and their often unforeseeable effects have distracted decision takers in many situations, for example in the case of a pharmaceutical company that decided to reduce their research budgets and instead played in global finance, i.e. in a field far away form their actual task. A clear conclusion is that owning money is a responsibility, and its investment should be made with a clear idea of the long term effects.

Students discussing with Edward Dommen the importance of ethical values for the global economy



Complementary Currencies – with Bernard Lietaer

Workshop on Finance and Incentives

This workshop was intended to give participants some essential organizing principles, as well as concrete examples, of how to establish an alternative currency. Perhaps the one most important thing is that the proposed currency must have a purpose and serve a community of interests. Examples of purposes that participants proposed: poverty alleviation, recycling, protection of public commons, strengthening of community. A currency should be designed as a closed system. Administration requires transparency and a cooperative structure. Furthermore, the currency system must value and strengthen all three forms of individual capital: financial capital, human capital (individual skills) and social capital (quality of social fabric). More than 4000 communities in the world today have started a currency, so the most valuable preparatory work when establishing is to study what has been done by others in the same situation (on the proceedings website there is a wiki on complementary currencies for more information and a reading list).

What is needed to implement a local alternative currency? Bernhard Lietaer discusses these questions with students

Fundamental Conflicts of the Human Condition – with Colin Campbell and Can Deniz

Workshop on Geopolitics

In the workshop of Colin Campbell and Can Deniz, the participants discussed three fundamental conflicts for human beings. The tensions between life and death, men and women, and humankind and nature. It quickly became clear that each continent and even each state has its



own perception and thus reality in articulating these aspects of live. It was very inspiring to hear how an Indian participant drew the line of life as a circle, whereas a European student drew a line with a beginning and an end. The rather philosophical discussions with the wise inputs of Colin Campbell gave all the students a feeling of unity, despite their different research fields.

Prof. Thomas AnderssonPresident of Jönköping University, Sweden

Talk Empowerment and Governance in an Era of Crisis and Information Society

Prof. Andersson started by presenting the teaching philosophy of Jönköping University in Sweden, a school that trains students to tackle real-world problems by not only searching technical means but also adequate social and institutional structures, teaching its students to be entrepreneurial and understand the behavioral and social measures that must accompany technology in order to foster real change. From the present financial crisis to the health system of the United States, Anderson gave several examples of malfunctioning systems whose defects cannot be solved by technology but by inventing new models of organization. Taking the long view by putting into perspective salient world statistics, Anderson sketched out the historical context whose threats and opportunities we must understand in order to carry out meaningful work. First, economic power relations and governance rules and structures are changing, the latter shifting to a balance between the local and global level, losing ground on the national level. Second, in a world where information is power and flows at unequaled speeds, but where evermore transparency and openness is needed, intellectual property rights remain very loosely defined, the patent system inconsistent and fragmented and models of learning still too static. Third, Anderson illustrated the changes in business cycles and collaborative structures, in particular due to ICT and the opportunities they present for eliciting behavioral changes. Anderson finally stressed the importance of giving enough time, attention and teaching of fundamental values to children, without which erosion of cultures will worsen.



The venue in Kreuzlingen, where all participants stayed together, allowed for continuing discussions over a glass of wine at the fireplace

Excursions The afternoon was reserved for relaxing and excursions. One group of participants went to “Chocolat Bernrain” - a chocolate manufacturer who is specialized in organic and fair-trade chocolate. Their production process is one of the most energy-efficient within the industry.

A second group visited Konstanz, the town just across the border to Germany. It has a nice historical center and a rich history.

After having the traditional Swiss dish “Fondue” the farewell party for the participants took place in the beautiful Seemuseum.

S3 – Main Conference – Sunday, 1 st February 2009

Sum-up & Return to Zurich

Sunday was reserved for a sum-up of the Student Summit. A slide show reviewed all important events and presentations of the week. This was followed by a feedback round of the past and intensive week.

In the afternoon we returned to Zurich by train.


Conclusions of the Organizing Committee 25

Conclusions of the Organizing Committee

The goal of this summit was to raise awareness of some fundamental structures that shape our society. In particular we discussed the monetary system and geopolitical constraints, and their role in sustainable development. We also discussed non-monetary incentives as an example for bottom-up movements that are based on personal commitment; this is especially well demonstrated in the open source software community.

The conference strengthened us in our initial questioning of the rules of the systems in which we live and function. The experts meaningfully sketched out the world we live in from the three perspectives we had chosen, putting it in historical perspective and sketching open paths for the future. Each one of them, in his or her own way, revealed some aspect of the global institutional system, usually taken for granted, so ingrained in the backdrop of our lives that they seem to have become intrinsic and timeless characteristics of human societies.

They were able to demonstrate that alternative systems can offer hopeful answers to a lot of the issues that preoccupy us. Participants responded by engaging very actively in playing with these ideas, helping each other to understand their implications and apply them to their respective concrete social and cultural realities. Experts supported this reflexion by spending a lot of time aside from their talks engaging with us and exchanging ideas between each other.

With the theme financial markets, we reconsidered the origin and functioning of money and financial systems. Even if the time was too short to gain a deep understanding of the complex structure of the financial markets, we got insights into the way the rules of exchange embodied by currencies affect the type of decisions we make and what alternative systems fostering sustainability could look like.

With the theme geopolitics, we faced the crude and irrevocable reality of the peak oil crisis, and how this constraint forces states to act how they act. Thanks to this, we could consider the significance and possible consequences of the oil crisis in its starkest contours, more saliently than we would have on our own, as pure engineers, resource managers or scientists.

With the theme non-monetary incentives, we discovered the open source community that seems to defeat the portrait of "homo oeconomicus" postulated by classical economics and changed a whole industry. Indeed, how is it that people self-organize in international collaborative networks to work on a product that is open to collaboration by all


26 Conclusions of the Organizing Committee

interested and is openly and often freely distributed? Recurrent keywords for describing such modes of organization were collaboration, transparency, participation, horizontal and network structure, openness, cultural diversity.

Finally, over the course of the week, links between the topics emerged. For example, the open source movement and on-going experiments with complementary currencies show that our world is not only one of scarcity but can be one of abundance and positive returns under some designs and conditions. On the other hand, by considering the geopolitical realities that concern us all, we could better understand that greed, fear and scarcity are often seen. Even if it seems impossible for an individual to change geopolitical constraints, we must all make the difficult effort of being conscious and actively invent and promote more humane systems.

The Student Summit benefited from the retreat to Kreuzlingen, giving us more time with the experts and for personal discussions.

Behind the scenes

The conference was organized by a small core team from [project 21], assisted by several persons in charge for specific tasks. This structure proved to be highly efficient and worked very well. Also close contacts with the WSC-SD were established from the beginning and their input was integrated in the conference. The Chalmers Students for Sustainability even invited an expert to give a talk and helped with the fundraising.

The organization committee worked closely with the organizers of the AGS Annual Meeting. The participation of the WSC-SD and the integration of sessions organized by the WSC-SD into the AGS conference enriched both meetings. The students benefited from learning about "Urban Futures", the topic of the AGS conference, as well as networking with the AGS participants. On the other hand, the S3 input on our topics gave the AGS conference attendees an insight into often neglected topics in the discourse of sustainable development.

Beside the official program, the Student Summit was used to work on administrative issues of the WSC-SD and projects such as the “African Initiative”, “Vision” (e-journal of the WSC-SD) and upcoming conferences. This shows that the WSC-SD is becoming more and more active in different fields. Improvements are possible in the smooth integration of these activities into the conference schedule. Adding some extra time after the official summit, as done for the work on “Vision”, seems a feasible solution.


Conclusions of the Organizing Committee 27

After the summit

The main objective of this summit was individual learning and experience and personal exchange. The topics raised were new for most participants and stimulated us to think beyond our bounded perspectives. Bringing together 90 students from all over the world and experts from different fields created an atmosphere of inspiration and motivation. A strong feeling emerged of being one group working on a better future. We also highly benefited from the presence of different experts during several days, allowing to deepen the discussions after their talks. The very positive feedback that we received concerning the choice of topics prompts us to call for a better inclusion of such questions in the sustainability field of research and action.

The 90 partici-pants returned home full of new impressions and inspiration

Thank you! The organizing team would like to say thank you to all people involved and who helped to make the Student Summit for Sustainability 2009 a success.

Special thanks go to the AGS conference team, especially Evelyn Underwood, Kathrin Ringger and Peter Edwards, Ralph Eichler and Nikolaus Gotsch, Chalmer Student Students for Sustainability, ETH Hausdienst especially Tamas Szabo, WSC-SD EB especially Jess and Justin, all the members of [project 21] and all the people who hosted participants. We would also like to thank the team from Meier&Wirz Catering for serving us excellent vegetarian and organic meals.


28 Conclusions and Feedback from Participants

Conclusions and Feedback from Participants

“This was a chance for me to see and learn that we all, from Economics, from Engineering, from Architecture, and from the many different fields, all have contributions to make in order to progress towards a more sustainable world. Moreover, the fact that there were participants and also experts from so many different countries gave me the picture that sustainability does need diverse attention i.e. from people from all parts of the globe. As such, having the chance to learn about their projects, problems and solutions and sharing my own, is how I think a ‘Market of ideas’ existed throughout the summit. This summit has not ended for me because I still live with the motivation I had during the summit and believe I will go on having it because I had a true glimpse of the realistic side of the world.”

Mohammed Rizwan Shamim, BRAC University, Bangladesh

"My conclusion from the S3 is that sustainability cannot be achieved unless we take into account the history and trends of resource scarcity, rethink the current geopolitics and role of big powers and change the motivation of people for acting sustainably. When talking about sustainability, we theoretically talk about combining socio, economic, environmental and political actions. However, we need to think beyond economic behavior, to broader aspects of political roles, nationally and internationally, and the social and environmental values of actions and resources.

An aspect of the conference I much appreciated is that it showed us how we can work together. If we work together irrespective of the national, educational and social background with dedication, success in achieving sustainability is obvious. Among the speaker inputs, I liked the concepts of monetary diversity towards sustainability by Prof. Bernard Lietaer. I believe we need to find out a stable global economy system that would not collapse time and again to incorporate other issues of achieving sustainability."

Shiba, Pennsylvania State University, USA


Conclusions and Feedback from Participants 29

"An important lessons for me in Zurich and Kreuzlingen was that I had not devoted enough attention to the role of the financial systems in global processes."

Miklós, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary

"The expert discussions and the workshops were based mainly on geopolitics and financial market thinking in order to make an interface to the sustainability. For me it was completely new topic and it enriched my own acknowledges in a good way. Now I have another sphere of perception of the sustainability, thanks to the conference. I am extremely glad on it. In my own idea, I am sure it is only the beginning of a long way. The important thing is be well informed holding new tools to help in the construction of a world where the future generations could live with quality of life."

Ivana Almeida de Figueiredo - University of Tokyo, Japan

"Amongst the speakers, I very much appreciated the presentation by Colin Campbell - Peak Oil: a turning point for Mankind. I was impressed by his presentation on oil issues as our planet is running out of this scarce resource, before his presentation I did not reflect on how serious the oil issue really is, but now I have more exposure to what is happening in the oil industry. It was also a great opportunity to benefit from some high-quality talks from the AGS conference, such as that of Lars Reutersward - Sustainable Urban Futures: Challenges and Opportunities for Academia. Despite being from Tanzania, I did not have precise factual knowlege about Kibera Slum in Nairobi. His presentation of the problem made the problem that we are facing in developing countries clearer. The combination of S3 and AGS was valuable as it allowed me to think in a connected way about some of the key problems facing my country: population explosion, urban migration and decreasing resources. It would be great if in future the number of participants - especially from developing countries - could be increased."

Robert Kwame Leopold Kintu, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden/Tanzania


30 Feedbacks from Experts

Feedbacks from Experts

"The Student Summit for Sustainability in Kreuzlingen turned out to be a well-organised, well-thought out and constructive event loaded with positive energy. In terms of substance, the setup succeeded in linking issues covering the economy, geopolitics, and the emerging information society, and how they influence sustainability. In between the lectures, students and other participants engaged in friendly but intensive discussions on the issues confronting us and how we can work together more effectively to address them.”

Prof. Thomas Andersson, President of Jönköping University

"It was a great pleasure and privilege to take part in the Summit. What impressed me most was that the students, who came from all over the world, were able to stand up and express their ideas so lucidly and in a level-headed manner. The generally atmosphere was one of confidence. They recognised the serious challenges arising, directly and indirectly from Peak Oil, but expressed confidence that with intelligence and dedication a new more benign way of life could open. It was most encouraging."

Colin Campbell, Founder of the Association for theStudy of Peak Oil and Gas

"I was impressed by the energy and commitment of the participants, as well as the international character of the gathering. They were a high-quality bunch. I was, frankly and in all friendship, struck by how little the participants knew about ethics, but be reassured that this is common among students even of subjects which have important ethical implications. University teaching of the subject needs to be encouraged; students should demand it! The little working group on financial ethics went very well in my opinion, with lively and well-informed participants."

Edward Dommen, author and former UNCTAD researcher

"The conference was extremely stimulating, because it addressed challenging issues with a global perspecitve. I was much impressed to see that a global consciousness is arising in the form of the next generation which unites across national boundaries. We need


Feedbacks from Experts 31

sustainable solutions and non-violent approaches to pressing global issues. I hope that future generations will be able to break free from much of the hatred, fear and greed which has gotten us into this rather complicated situation."

Dr. Daniele Ganser, Basel University.

S3 2009 was not only well organized, but demonstrated a consistent understanding and application of the themes and concepts the event claimed to espouse. This was achieved even in the details, such as by serving locally sourced vegetarian food. The choice in venues was also superb, each lending itself to a comfortable yet distraction-free pursuit of knowledge and discussion.

This created an open and comfortable environment for the people who had gathered to share and collaborate on a wide spectrum of topics. I personally found the attendees to be very receptive to the information I presented on the topic of freedom in software and technology. It was equally evident that many applied noticeable thought to the information over the course of the event. Moreover, I personally took away a good amount of new and useful information from the other presenters.

S3 was an excellent example of a well run event that rewarded both the giver and the receiver equally.

Aaron Seigo, President KDE e.V., KDE Software Architect

Exceptional Reunion of Future Sustainability Leaders

The Student Summit for Sustainability brought together 90 young people from 27 countries, from various academic and social backgrounds, whose activities or ambitions are all in some way or another connected to sustainability. Although learning and reflecting was one of the major activities of the summit, with such a crowd, sharing between us was intense and rewarding. From the market of cultures – a traditional S3 event where student groups show each other some of their national customs – to the sharing of the Swiss fondue before the closing party, living and learning collectively for a full week in a spirit of comradeship and solidarity is a very intense and rewarding experience that we can carry long with us in our work and daily lives, as an inspiration to continue our quests. Till the next Summit!


32 Financial Report

Financial Report

SFr. 87'266ETH Professors SFr. 10'950

SFr. 67'316SFr. 9'000

SFr. 35'361

SFr. 1'453SFr. 838SFr. 616

SFr. 16'670SFr. 9'900SFr. 6'770

SFr. 22'476SFr. 10'723SFr. 11'753

SFr. 2'825

SFr. 8'154

Student Support SFr. 18'606

SFr. 10'500

SFr. 1'252SFr. 182

SFr. 1'071

SFr. 16'498SFr. 9'000SFr. 1'000SFr. 3'347

Office Material SFr. 582SFr. 1'365

SFr. 325SFr. 879

SFr. 10'000

SFr. 124'081 SFr. 106'982

SFr. 17'098

Total SFr. 124'081 SFr. 124'081

Income Expenses

Sponsoring

Organisations and CompaniesAGS sponsored Conference Office

Participation Fees

Other IncomeWelcome Party (Monday)KDE Release Event

Accommodation & Conference venuesZurichKreuzlingen

Catering & FoodZurichKreuzlingen

Transportation

Speakers

AGS Participation Fees

Other ExpensesExcursionsKDE Release Event

Administration & PrintingConference office, 30% position over 6 mtExtension of Conference office for 1 mtPrinting

Preparation WeekendsGeneral Expenses StaffBanking fee and exchange rate

Project Support by [project 21]

Subtotal

Surplus (please see next page)


Financial Report 33

Surplus

The summit was also unexpectedly successful on the financial side. Only a few weeks before the conference started, we still had not collected enough money. Thanks to a finally higher than expected inflow of sponsors and a strict cost control we ended up with an surplus of about 17'000 CHF. The surplus goes to [project 21] and will be used as follows:

5000 CHF reserve for future projects of [project 21]5000 CHF for the TibMed project of [project 21]5000 CHF support for [project 21] members participating in conferences such as Student Summits or similar2000 CHF support for participants from developing countries in future Student Summits

Celebrating the gathering of 90 students from different cultures and with different backgrounds, but sharing common values and visions


34 World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSC-SD)

World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSC-SD)

The World Student Community for Sustainable Development is a multi-disciplinary network of motivated students with the ability to think and act both locally and globally, and who share the vision to make a difference. Our purpose is to be a leading international student organization that carries out meaningful projects which result in positive and enduring changes that improve lives and communities around the world.

The fundamental purpose of the World Student Community for Sustainable Development is to give motivated students, who are passionate about sustainability, opportunities to learn from each other and to collaborate. Our strength lies in the fact that we are both multi-disciplinary and international, thus by first understanding each other and then by working together, we can make a difference. The WSC-SD hopes to offer students opportunities to get involved and to take action.

Currently, the WSC-SD is comprised of 9 member student communities, 4 partner student communities and a growing network of individual members internationally. The scope and the nature of the student communities differ just as the personal efforts of the individual members vary. When we realize that in order to provide innovative solutions as well as innovative approaches to some of the worlds great problems we need a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural approach, the potential for the WSC-SD can be understood.

The WSC-SD is making a difference in the world because of the projects being implemented by the members. Such projects occur at different levels. Currently, countless projects are being implemented by student communities around the world. This year we have welcomed many new individual members who are involved with meaningful projects at their universities and in their local communities. Furthermore, we are in the process of launching key international projects which bring our members together from different regions to collaborate on identified challenges. Our annual meeting, the Student Summit for Sustainability, is hosted each year by one of our student communities and brings together not only WSC-SD members, but motivated students from across the globe, to engage in meaningful dialogue, share their knowledge and collaborate on action projects.

Please visit our website for more information about the WSC-SD!

www.wscsd.org


http://Www.wscsd.org/

http://Www.wscsd.org/

[project 21] 35

[project 21]

Student Community for Sustainable DevelopmentUniversity and ETH Zurich

[project 21] is an interdisciplinary group of students from both the University and the ETH Zurich, which engages in discussions and actions for sustainable development. Our vision is a world in a dynamic equilibrium, in which consumption and regeneration of resources are in balance. In order to attain this goal, it is necessary to focus on long-term thinking and a responsible and sensible way of dealing with social, economic and ecological resources.

Since its foundation in 2001, [project 21] has organized numerous events, among them the WSC-SD annual meeting 2006 in Rasa. Furthermore [project 21] has served as a platform for several spin-off projects, which now operate autonomously, such as “myclimate”, one of the leading providers of carbon offsetting measures, www.myclimate.org or “seed sustainability” (platform for student based transdisciplinary research in the field of sustainability, www.seed-sustainability.ch.)

Through constant presence and systematical campaigns and actions, [project 21] has acquired a firm position within the ETH and the University of Zurich in the last few years.

www.project21.ch

[project 21] members on the Stanserhorn


http://www.project21.ch/

http://www.seed-sustainability.ch/



http://www.myclimate.org/

36 Our Supporters

Our Supporters

The organization of an event like the Student Summit for Sustainability would not be possible without significant financial support of organizations, companies and individuals. We would like to express our gratitude to all who helped us financially, ideally and with their work.

Supporting Partner

Mercator Foundation Switzerland

Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS)

ETH Rat

Sponsors RocheHolcimQt SoftwareDepartment of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Department of Earth Sciences and Department of Environmental Sciences from ETHUmwelt und Forst Fachverein (UFO)Zürcher UniversitätsvereinUniversity of ZurichErnst Basler & PartnerTEP EnergyMunicipality of KreuzlingenLandert Table CookingVictorinoxAppenzellerAIDS-Hilfe SchweizRicolaASVZ

Individual sponsors

Prof. Konstantinos Boulouchos, Prof. Roland W. Scholz, Prof. Thomas Rutherford, Prof. Massimo Filippini, Prof. em. N. Amrhein, Prof. Leibundgut, Prof. Stefanie Engel, Prof. Nicolas Gruber, Prof. Felicitas Pauss, Prof. Günther Dissertori, Prof. Gerhard Tröster, Prof. Domenico Giardini, Prof. Sacha Menz, Prof. Bernhard Wehrli, Prof. Holger Wallbaum, Prof. Sarah Springman, Prof. Emmanuel Frossard


Our Supporters 37

Mercator Foundation Switzerland

The Mercator Foundation Switzerland is one of Switzerland’s largest foundations. It initiates and funds projects that promote better educational opportunities in schools and universities. In the spirit of Gerhard Mercator, it supports initiatives that embody the idea of open-mindedness and tolerance through intercultural encounters, encouraging the sharing of knowledge and culture. The foundation provides a platform for new ideas to enable people - regardless of their national, cultural or social background - to develop their personality, become involved in society and make the most of the opportunities available to them. Mercator Foundation Switzerland takes an entrepreneurial, international and professional approach to its work.

Bringing forward new ideas

The Foundation makes grants on three broad subject areas: Science and Research, Children and Youth Education, and Tolerance and Intercultural Understanding.

Science and Research

The Mercator Foundation Switzerland supports higher education in Switzerland aiming at increasing its competitiveness and quality as well as its ability to train students in an outstanding way. The foundation believes that a carefully reasoned and systematic understanding of the forces of nature and society, when applied inventively and wisely, can lead to a better world for all. The foundation offers support for scientific meetings in Switzerland to strengthen scientific relations and to undertake innovative research. It makes grants that foster a better public understanding of the increasingly scientific and technological environment in which we live. And it attaches great importance to funding interdisciplinary research projects, since interdisciplinarity is a necessary prerequisite for tackling new research topics and innovation.

Children and Youth Education

The Mercator Foundation Switzerland provides young people with the opportunity of a proper education and promotes cultural, scientific and social engagement. The foundation aims to strengthen and propel children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the society. It provides proposals for improving Switzerland’s educational system and concepts for early-childhood education. It supports civic involvement and initiatives to improve historical and political awareness in Switzerland.


38 Our Supporters

Tolerance and Intercultural Understanding

The Mercator Foundation Switzerland recognizes the importance of developing tolerance and understanding between people for the development of a peaceful society. The foundation funds projects which encourage dialogue and mutual understanding between people from different cultures. It develops and funds initiatives that help improve the integration of young people in Switzerland with a migration background.

Our commitment to the Student Summit for Sustainability 2009

As part of its encouragement for Science and Research, the Mercator Foundation Switzerland supports the Student Summit for Sustainability 2009. We think it is important to motivate young people to engage in the complex issues of sustainable development in a global context. Therefore it is essential to bring together students from different countries. We encourage you to take personal and professional advantage of this unique interdisciplinary and international meeting and to learn from each other. We congratulate you for the joint effort for a better understanding of today’s economic and political institutions in relation to sustainable development.

Albert KesseliManaging Director

Learn more about the Mercator Foundation Switzerland:www.stiftung-mercator.ch

ContactStiftung Mercator SchweizGartenstrasse 33Postfach 2148CH – 8022 ZurichPhone: +41 44 206 55 80E-Mail: [email protected]


http://www.stiftung-mercator.ch/

Our Supporters 39

The AGS is a partnership of four leading scientific and technological universities - MIT, the University of Tokyo, Chalmers University of Technology, and ETH Zurich. It was formed in the conviction that closer collaboration amongst leading research institutions, and partnership with government and industry, are essential for achieving progress towards sustainability. Since its foundation in 1997, AGS has promoted many important research projects and provided intellectual leadership to help societies improve both environmental quality and the quality of life. The AGS mission is to contribute to a sound scientific understanding of sustainability, prepare tomorrow’s leaders, and synthesize research so that corporate, political, and regulatory decisions can be informed by the latest science.

AGS believes that one of the most effective ways of making progress towards sustainability is through training and providing opportunities for the next generation of researchers, faculty, industry and opinion leaders. It has addressed this challenge in three ways: involving students in multinational research projects; convening intensive educational seminars on sustainability that welcome students from all partner schools (as well as others); and supporting international student initiatives in global sustainability, particularly the World Student Community for Sustainable Development and its AGS university chapters.

In the past decade, students have made a distinguished contribution to AGS activities, looking at problems in a fresh light and taking action where they identified gaps. The AGS will continue to enrich student education by supporting student participation in AGS annual meetings, technical workshops and research projects, and intensive courses on sustainability for graduate students. This year, ETH is co-sponsoring the Student Summit for Sustainability, and the organisers of S3 and the AGS Annual Meeting have worked together closely to provide a wide-ranging and exciting programme.

www.globalsustainability.org


http://www.globalsustainability.org/

40 Participants

Participants


1 Aaron Thom USA [email protected]

2 Abdullah Tahir Bangladesh [email protected]

3 Adriana Valenzuela Colombia [email protected]

4 Ahmed El Batran Egypt [email protected]

5 Amanda Gudmundsson UK [email protected]

6 Amira Morgan Egypt [email protected]

7 Andreas Hanning Sweden [email protected]

8 Anna Goldman South Africa [email protected]

9 Aquil Jalia India [email protected]

10 Arina Hayati Indonesia [email protected]

11 Aude Reymond Switzerland [email protected]

12 Ayumi Koyama Japan [email protected]

13 Berik Dossayev Kazakhstan [email protected]

14 Can Deniz Switzerland [email protected]

15 Carl Kamp Sweden [email protected]

16 Catherine Lippuner Switzerland [email protected]

17 Cecilia Matasci Switzerland [email protected]

18 Christopher Baan Netherlands [email protected]

19 Christopher Hedvall Sweden [email protected]

20 Conal McGinley UK [email protected]

21 Cristian Köpfli Switzerland [email protected]

22 Daniel Edison Husana Japan [email protected]

23 David Alejandro Huertas Bernal Sweden [email protected]

24 Dylan McFarlane UK [email protected]

25 Elke Hodson Switzerland [email protected]

26 Erin Romanchuk Canada [email protected]

27 Florian Faure Switzerland [email protected]

28 Franziska Elmer Switzerland [email protected]

29 Giuliano Laurenza Sweden [email protected]

30 Guoguo Liu Sweden [email protected]

31 Roman Hüppi Switzerland [email protected]

32 Ian Lavery USA [email protected]

33 Ivana Almeida de Figueiredo Japan [email protected]

34 Jess Schulschenk South Africa [email protected]

35 Joana Portugal Japan [email protected]

36 Johan Petersson Sweden [email protected]

37 Juan Diego Valenzuela Colombia [email protected]

Participants 41


38 Kaoruko Kurasawa Japan [email protected]

39 Kristina Sahlestrom Sweden [email protected]

40 Kristina Nelson Canada [email protected]

41 Linus Helming Sweden [email protected]

42 Manizha Kodirova Sweden [email protected]

43 Marc Vogt Switzerland [email protected]

44 Marcus Högberg Sweden [email protected]

45 Mari Tomita Japan [email protected]

46 Marion Dumas Switzerland [email protected]

47 Martin Persson Sweden [email protected]

48 Matthias Pfaff Germany [email protected]

49 Mike Gesa Munabi Uganda [email protected]

50 Miklós Antal Hungary [email protected]

51 Mina Mouawad Egypt [email protected]

52 Muhammad Mufti Azis Sweden [email protected]

53 Nickson Otieno Kenya [email protected]

54 Nina Kruglikova Russia [email protected]

55 Niranji Satanarachchi Japan [email protected]

56 Nuno Domingues Portugal [email protected]

57 Pascal Mages Switzerland [email protected]

58 Patricia Martins Portugal [email protected]

59 Payam Ghiaci Sweden [email protected]

60 Peeranut Savetvijit Japan [email protected]

61 Regula Keller Switzerland [email protected]

62 Renato Sánchez Ecuador [email protected]

63 Ricky Ramdani Rahenod Sweden [email protected]

64 Risma Avriana Sweden [email protected]

65 Rizwan Mohammed Shamim Bangladesh [email protected]

66 Robert Kintu Sweden [email protected]

67 Rutendo Dhliwayo South Africa [email protected]

68 Salome Schori Switzerland [email protected]

69 Samia Shawkat Japan [email protected]

70 Sandra Perez Switzerland [email protected]

71 Saranpat Piriyaprasit Thailand [email protected]

72 Sarina Jenni Switzerland [email protected]

73 Sheedeh Fouladvand Sweden [email protected]

74 Shiba Kar USA [email protected]

75 Sina Birkholz UK [email protected]

76 Stella Schieffer USA [email protected]

42 Participants

Participants having breakfast at the Youth Hostel in Kreuzlingen


77 Supatra Marlairodsiri Thailand [email protected]

78 Susetyo Priyojati Sweden [email protected]

79 Sylvia Essendi Kenya [email protected]

80 Takahiro Hirato Japan [email protected]

81 Takashi Nishimura Japan [email protected]

82 Takuma Iino Japan [email protected]

83 Tamilla Khalikova Usbekistan [email protected]

84 Tulsi Giri Nepal [email protected]

85 Yoshimasa Takahashi Japan [email protected]

Experts

1 Aaron Seigo Canada [email protected]

2 Andrea K. Riemer Austria [email protected]

3 Antoinette Hunziker-Ebneter Switzerland [email protected]

4 Bernard Lietaer Belgium [email protected]

5 Colin Campbell UK [email protected]

6 Daniele Ganser Switzerland [email protected]

7 Edward Dommen Switzerland [email protected]

8 Marcus Dapp Switzerland [email protected]

9 Peter Ulrich Switzerland [email protected]

10 Roland W. Scholz Switzerland [email protected]

11 Thomas Andersson Sweden [email protected]

12 Ulrich Pöschl Germany [email protected]

The Organizing Team / Contact Information 43

The Organizing Team / Contact Information

Conference Core Team

Pascal MagesCatherine LippunerMarion DumasCristian KöpfliCan Deniz

[email protected]@project21.ch

[email protected]@project21.ch

[email protected]

Extended Team Céline Ramseier, Linda Kren, Salome Schori, Franziska Elmer, Sandra Perez, Nadja Gross, Selma L'Orange, Marc Vogt

[project 21] LEA D6Leonhardstrasse 15CH-8001 Zurich

[email protected]

Pascal, Catherine, Salome and Cristian from the organizing committee at the farewell party at the end of the conference


mailto:[email protected]






Supporting Partners

Sponsors

Documents

Student Summit for Sustainability 2009 | Final Report