Back to  Off-site sessions

Overview: 

1.00-1.15: Welcome @IBM Client Center Manager (to get into the IBM building you need to have with you and ID document with a picture: ID card, driving licence...etc )
1.15-1.45: Opening Panel: Understanding the context: why is business interested in resilience?
Panelists:

• Peter Williams
• Dr. Maria Mendiluce, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
• Brian Walker, CSIRO/Resilience Alliance
• Chair: Gail Whiteman

1.45-3.30: Deep dive 1: IBM’s approach to Resilience

• 1.45: Resilience IBM Point of View => Peter Williams
• 2.10: IBM Smarter Planet & Resilience: presentation based on IBM Montpellier Client Center activities in different areas
  • Smarter Cities and Water (15') => Olivier Hess
  • Smarter Energy, Food and Agriculture (15') => Denis Gras
• 2.50: Resilience in IT departments.  Why and How? => Jean-Marc Vandon

4.00 - 5.00: Deep Dive 2: The Business of Resilience

• Power sector (Dr. Maria Mendiluce, WBCSD)
• A resilience lens to (enterprise) risk management (Dr. David N. Bresch, Swiss Re, by skype)

5.00-6.00: Parallel Academic Sessions

Parallel Session 1

Investing in Resilience: Challenges and Opportunities

Chairs: Dr Margot Hill Clarvis (University of Geneva and Earth Security Initiative), Prof Gail Whiteman (Rotterdam School of Management and World Business Council for Sustainable Development), Prof Michael Schoon (Arizona State University, School of Sustainability).

Abstract
Business, and the finance institutions that lend to, invest in, and insure them, are at the heart of many of the drivers and solutions to ecological degradation, resource depletion and social vulnerability. Resilience principles should be at the heart of practical steps to both alleviate these pressures and frame opportunities for more sustainable financing models and investment practices. So far, the majority of dialogue on resilience and investment has focused on a limited set of issues primarily relating to disaster risk resilience. However, there has been very little investigation into these issues within the academic discourses on resilience, and even less dialogue with this practitioner community than other communities (e.g. park rangers, water managers etc). At the same time, the business and investment community are scaling up efforts to transform accounting and valuation practices and strategic priorities in order to facilitate more sustainable investment.
This panel seeks to generate a conversation between resilience scientists and a range of practitioners from accounting, insurance and financing perspectives that interface with a contrasting range of resilience based challenges. The session aims to present novel perspectives from a range of practitioners involved in finance (i.e. insurance, accounting, investment) or financing ‘resilience’
based activities in order to provide insights into the challenges and opportunities for integrating resilience into the practical mechanics of enterprise risk and investment evaluation. Panelists will therefore give an overview of how their practical work/research intersects with resilience issues and science, the challenges in the operational application of these frameworks, the expected opportunities and benefits to doing so (focusing on the novel insights it provides) and how best to drive further progress. Interactions with academics and the audience will provide a unique opportunity for dialogue between the academic communities engaged in resilience research and a set of practitioners seeking to better account for resilience based challenges within business practice and investment.

Panelists

• Dr. David N. Bresch, Director Global Head Sustainability, Swiss Re (Skype)
• Dan Dowling, Assistant Director, Sustainability and Climate Change, PwC
• Linda Freiner, Flood Resilience Program Manager, Group Corporate Responsibility, Zürich Insurance
• John Fullerton, Founder & President, Capital Institute (Skype)
• Prof. Sander van der Leeuw, Arizona State University

Parallel Session 2

Exploring the Role of Business within Social-Ecological System Change: The World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Engagement with Planetary Boundaries and Action2020

Speakers:

• Gail Whiteman (Professor-in-Residence, WBCSD)
• Sarah Cornell (Stockholm Resilience Centre)
• Maria Mendiluce (WBCSD)

The objectives of this session are to assess if and how the Planetary Boundaries framework has helped WBCSD and its corporate members to prioritize the mid-term Must Haves (by 2020) in Vision 2050 and to develop innovative Business Solutions targeting those boundaries which are past the safe threshold level. We will also identify key lessons learned, and identify factors that enabled or detracted from the collaborative engagement between science and business.

6.00-6.15: Closing Thoughts

Attention : (to get into the IBM building you need to have with you and ID document with a picture: ID card, driving licence...etc)

Off-site session planning:

Location: