Informational Meeting

Join oikos Tbilisi for its information meeting at Tbilisi State University and know more about oikos projects.

Read more information in Georgian here

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oikos International

posted November 30, 2016

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Movie Screening: Before The Flood

Join oikos Tbilisi for its movie screening: Before The Flood.

Read more information in Georgian here

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oikos International

posted November 28, 2016

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Upcycling with oikos Urban

Join oikos Vienna Urban  Team for upcycling workshop in a Christmas Advent Sundays atmosphere (with biscuits, music, etc.).

Read more information in German here

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oikos International

posted November 28, 2016

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Boost your business, dare CSR

Join oikos Lille for the Conference-Discussion-Networking session on the topic: Boost your business, dare CSR.

Read more information in French here

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oikos International

posted November 26, 2016

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Lecture: Impact of Fair Trade on the Example of Central America

Join oikos Leipzig for its lecture: impact of fair trade on the example of Central America.

Read more information in German here

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oikos International

posted November 25, 2016

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oikos LEAP Webinar “Thinking Innovation For Better Projects”

As part of the oikos LEAP Leadership Program, three inspirational Webinars are open to all oikos members.

We’re kicking of the season with this special Webinar on project design, design thinking and putting a good will into an even better project, captured under the name “Thinking Innovation for Better Projects”. Webinar Leader Daniel Hires has conducted numerous projects and grown businesses in the sustainability realm. T name a few, he co-founded MakeSense, an online matching-platform for social entrepreneurs, co-authored the book “Phase 0 – How to make some action” (http://www.phase0.org/), established the Silent Climate Parade and now works with the UN environmental program to connect the landscape of green entrepreneurs in the MENA region.

We are extremely happy to have him with us. Appreciate his great work by attending our LEAP webinar and bring questions along his way! To join the webinar, find the call details in the oikos Intranet Calendar or write to adrian.jagow@oikos-international.org. Time is 6pm (18:00) Central European Time.

Read more about Daniel Hires on his Website below.

green social business

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oikos International

posted November 23, 2016

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Discuss & Do: Nutrition

Do you want to know how we can organize our food supply more sustainable? Then join oikos Hamburg’s event: Discuss & Do.

Read more information in German here.

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oikos International

posted November 22, 2016

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Movie Night: Before the Flood (+ Free Popcorn & Competition!)

Join oikos Copenhagen for its Movie Night – a screening of Leonardo DiCaprio’s highly acclaimed documentary “Before the Flood”.

Read more information here

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oikos International

posted November 22, 2016

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Raising Youth Voices Again at the PRME DACH Meeting in Krems

On the 9. & 10. November, the 3rd RME Research Conference took place on the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems. oikos also contributed to this conference – members joined the panel discussions, conducted a workshop and were responsible for the documentation of the different conference sessions. Katherina and Bernhard, from oikos Vienna, present you an excerpt of the keynotes.

Lise Kingo, the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, situated in New York, held the first keynote of the 3rd RME Research Conference. She argued that the adaption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement in 2015 were historic milestones for the way into a sustainable world. The 17 SDGs point out the objectives that must be achieved by 2030 and even though they present many current challenges of our world, Lise Kingo argues that they open up enormous opportunities, enabling the building of new markets.

There is a need for solutions that business can deliver. As SDGs reflect the complex environment, companies are required to follow the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) and engage in the fulfilment of the SDGs in order to make good business and to better support our world. The world is full of radical exponential innovators proposing ideas about how to achieve the 17 SDGs, but there is only a short time left to make the goals come true.

Lise’s ambition is to personally approach companies that are not yet engaging in the sustainability topics with the goal to raise awareness and to break down glass walls. Global Compact developed a platform, where they invite companies to participate, giving them information about the goals and facilitating more interactivity. If a company wants to have a breakthrough innovation, it needs to employ staff that have a sustainable mindset. It must be ensured that future business leaders have that certain mindset. They need to better understand their role in the private sector and must be empowered to become “changemakers”.

Andrew Main Wilson, Chief Executive of the Association of MBAs gave some input to that topic, talking about the necessity to align the Principles of Responsible Management Education with the SDGs.

Andrew Main Wilson put a focus on the virtuous cycle model, claiming that by introducing responsible management principles in the curricula of business schools, students will become responsible employees and entrepreneurs. They will consequently become more responsible sponsors for Not-for-Profit Organisations.

Mr. Wilson, being an alumnus of the Harvard University, mentioned that in the past, graduates from his university went to big companies in order to gain a lot of money, but mindsets have changed as half of Harvard alumni go nowadays to Non-Profit Organisations.

The second part of the Wednesday’s morning presentations dealt with Responsible Management Challenges. Thomas Dyllick, Director of the Institute for Economy and the Environment at the University of St. Gallen, started with explanation what true business sustainability is.

On the one hand, more and more companies report an increasing commitment to sustainability in order to strengthen competitiveness, reputation and other business goals, Dyllick mentioned. On the other hand, the ecological footprint is still rising and is way beyond a reasonable dimension. Therefore, it is important for businesses to get a better understanding of sustainability and become pro-active when it comes to making our world a better place. To show how the understanding of business sustainability has changed over the years Dyllick showed an excellent video produced by the University of St. Gallen.

After the theoretical input Anne Wolf, Director Corporate Responsibility of the Swiss Post, gave us insights on responsible management in practice by the example of Swiss Post.
As a leading company in four different markets (letters, parcels, passengers, customer assets) and being the backbone of public transport the Swiss Post constantly have to innovate and improve its products and services. What is more, there is always the aspect of taking responsibility towards people, customers, employees and the environment.

Once the responsibilities and resulting targets are defined the next step is to harness the potential of responsibilities. Consequently, you have to put the people in the centre and approach topics like diversity, digitisation, transformation, generation Y and new forms of work. Sustainability relates to every single topic and as soon as you implement a responsible management, you achieve a sustainable management.

Afterwards, a panel discussion took place and Julia of oikos Vienna, joined the speakers. For her the biggest problem today is that business sustainability still is seen as a side topic at a lot of universities. As long as the global challenges aren’t linked to business, future leaders will not fully understand the importance of sustainability in businesses. Moreover, sustainability needs to be integrated into the main curricula and become a central vision of universities. Furthermore, Julia appealed to universities and schools to take action and change from “talk the walk” to “walk the talk”.

Written by: oikos Vienna

Read the original post here.

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oikos International

posted November 22, 2016

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Time to Apply: oikos Spring Meeting 2017!

We drink, we eat, we drive; we consume ‘stuff’ the entire day. But mostly not in a sustainable way! That’s why consumption is a critical issue towards sustainable development and, therefore, better citizenship. The United Nations even included this aspect in their Sustainable Development Goals. We bring the oikos network together to share and facilitate knowledge across different local chapters in order to promote, inspire and enable future solutions for action on sustainable consumption.

With the title: USE YOUR POWER – Empowering Young Leaders for Sustainable Decisions, the oikos Spring Meeting will consist of speeches, discussions and workshops. It will involve local firms and projects, which share their concepts of sustainable consumption. The aim of the conference is to increase the knowledge in the different areas of sustainable consumption as well as enhancing critical thinking and foster project experiences. Through this meeting, participants will be more aware of their responsibility as informed consumers, sustainability conscious employees and future leaders. Thus, they will be empowered to make more sustainable decision in their private and work life.

+++ The 1. registration deadline is the 10. December 2016 +++

You want more information? Follow this link: http://oikos-international.org/hamburg/projekte/projekt-spring-meeting-2017/idea-of-spring-meeting-2017. Keep an eye on the Facebook page too!

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oikos International

posted November 22, 2016

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