Happy Holidays from Sustainability Consult

We would like to wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best for a happy, healthy 2012.

From Kathryn and all the Sustainability Consult Team 

Speed dating on.... sustainable food!

Everybody is aware that eating better means not only improving our health, but also reducing the impact of our food production in the environment. But who exactly is out there to helps us, consumers, on this? That's what I found out last Friday, when I 'speed dated' a group of fascinating and diverse people, all related to sustainable food.

Actual Progress on Climate at Durban?

In the early hours of this morning, the United Nations climate negotiations COP17 got behind the EU plan for a binding roadmap for the second period of the Kyoto Protocol. Over 120 countries (out of 194 present) agreed a legally-binding deal. After three all-nighters and going 36 hours over deadline, the talks concluded. The additional time is a classic COP tactic to wear people down until they agree. I remember journalists crashed out in the press room in Bonn ten years ago as the discussions went through the night*.

Thoughtshower Wordcloud, 8 December 2011

Best Belgian Sustainability Report Awards

Over the past 20 years, interest in measuring and reporting organisations’ progress towards sustainability has been increasing, thanks in part to the development of well-established guidelines, such as those provided by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Beyond just transparent and accountable data reports, the latest trends demand a more concise and creative presentation, with an emphasis on the contribution of new interactive media tools.  This seemed to be the key takeaway from the 2011 Best Belgian Sustainability Report Awards on 23 November.

TEDx Comes to Brussels

Over 2,000 people attended
TEDx Brussels 2011

Where else but a TED event could effortlessly blend androids, futurologists, entrepreneurs, free-thinkers and statesmen together into a fabulous cauldron of ideas?  I was very fortunate to attend this year’s TEDx Brussels event sponsored by our client .eu at the Palais des Beaux Arts, where such illustrious figures as British statesman Paddy Ashdown, Geminoid DK inventor Henrik Scharfe and physicist Jacques Vallee enthralled the audience with their robots, poetry and visions of the deep future.

Climate change leading to more extreme weather

Source: IPCC

Since 1950, extreme hot days and heavy precipitation have become more common.  There is evidence that anthropogenic atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide (CO₂), have enhanced these extremes.  In this context, it’s crucial to provide appropriate risk management tools to increasingly vulnerable populations.