Speakers
Lewis Akenji, Director for Sustainable Consumption and Production, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
Dr. Lewis Akenji is Director for Sustainable Consumption and Production at the the think-tank IGES (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies). Among others, he coordinates research and policy activities on sustainable societies - including natural resources use, and sustainable lifestyles. He leads the research project consortium on 1.5-degree lifestyles, analysing potential contributions of changes in lifestyles to the 1.5-degree target under the Paris Agreement on Climate change. He is lead author of two recent UN publications:
|
Ella Antonio, President, Brain Trust: Knowledge and Options for Sustainable Development, Inc.
Ella Antonio is the President of Brain Trust: Knowledge and Options for Sustainable Development, Inc., a think tank and consultancy firm; and the President of Earth Council Asia-Pacific, Inc, an NGO. Both organizations are concerned with and focus on various aspects of Sustainable Development. Ms. Antonio had an extensive career in public service rising the ranks to Head Executive Assistant/Chief of Staff of the Socio-Economic Planning Minister. She has been working on sustainable development issues since in government and through her NGO and consultancy involvements.
Ms. Antonio is a Metallurgical Engineer and undertook advanced studies largely through scholarship grants in development economics, industrial engineering management, financial analysis and programming, industrial planning, mineral economics, social and economic development policy, disaster management, development diplomacy, scenario building, etc. in reputable institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, East West Center, International Development Center of Japan, University of Economic Science, and Asian Institute of Management. |
Jeffrey Barber, President, Integrative Strategies Forum
Jeffrey Barber is president of Integrative Strategies Forum, a nonprofit organization identifying and fostering innovative approaches toward sustainable community building and policies. He is one of the co-founders of GRF, working over the years with a range of research and advocacy networks promoting civil society participation and engagement in sustainability policymaking at the UN and other international processes. At the Commission on Sustainable Development he co-chaired the NGO Caucus on Sustainable Production and Consumption, wrote the chapter on consumption and production in The World Summit on Sustainable Development: The Johannesburg Conference (2005) and more recently on the role of sustainability transitions in popular culture in Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of Trump (2019). His research background is in media and audience research at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Arbitron Ratings (now part of Nielsen Research), Peter D. Hart Research Associates, and SRI International.
|
Magnus Bengtsson, Group Director, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
Dr Magnus Bengtsson has worked in Asia as a researcher and consultant on sustainability and government policy since 2003. As Group Director at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), he headed research and policy advisory on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), focusing mainly on developing Asia. This work included close collaboration with SWITCH Asia, where Magnus led the development of high-profile knowledge products and contributed to several capacity strengthening initiatives.
Before joining IGES in 2007, Magnus was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Tokyo, researching water demand management and forecasting. He received his PhD in Environmental Systems Analysis at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden, where he worked on Life-cycle assessment, stakeholder consultation processes and sustainability controversies. He also holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management and a Bachelor’s degree in History. |
Ilana Boltvinik, TRES
TRES (Ilana Boltvinik + Rodrigo Viñas, Mexico City) is an art research collective that has
focused on exploring the implications of public space and garbage through artistic practices that concentrate on the methodological intertwining and dialogue with science, anthropology, and archaeology among other disciplines. Of particular interest has been the inquiry on the subject of garbage as a physical and conceptual residue that entails political and material implications. Since its foundation in 2009, TRES has worked with different qualities that shape garbage. Its mobility {in the project A Cluster of Oblivion} 2009, its symbolic value {in An Informal Gaze} 2009, its aesthetics {in the book Desechos Reservados} 2009, its spatial traits {in Blind Spots} 2010, its intimacy {in All the Shines is Gold} 2011, its permanence {in Chicle y Pega} 2012, its scientific potential {in Urotransfrontation DTC- UR013} 2013, and its global ubiquity {in Ubiquitous Trash –Hong Kong Edition} 2016, amid others. Boltvinik and Viñas are the 2016 Robert Gardner Fellows in Photography of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. They were the Mexican selection for the XIII Havana Biennial. Their works have been presented in solo shows at Connecting Spaces (Hong Kong, 2016), AND festival 2015 (Manchester, UK, 2015), Museo de la Ciudad (Mexico City, 2011), among others. They have participated in group shows America, Europe and Asia. |
Alexander Charalambous, EU SWITCH to Green Facility
Alexander Charalambous leads the SWITCH to Green Facility, supporting the European Commission Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development in promoting an inclusive green economy transition in EU partner countries. Alexander is a senior partner and policy expert at Living Prospects, an EU-based boutique consultancy firm providing advice to businesses and the public sector on sustainable production and consumption, focusing on circular economy, eco-innovation, and resource efficiency.
|
Rajat Chaudhuri, author and activist
Rajat Chaudhuri is a bilingual fiction writer and activist from India. He has published five works of fiction (novels and short story collections) including The Best Asian Speculative Fiction, edited and introduced by him. His latest eco-disaster novel The Butterfly Effect is on the list of `Fifty Must Read Eco-Disasters' of Book Riot as well as on a list of Earth Day network. Chaudhuri has won the British Council administered Charles Wallace Creative Creative Writing Fellowship (2014), UK, a Hawthornden Castle Fellowship (2015), Scotland, and a Korean Arts Council-InKo Residency (2013) in South Korea. He has worked with international non-profits and has been involved with the United Nations CSD process. Chaudhuri is a past contributor to the UN World Human Development Report (UNDP) and has published work on water, sustainable consumption and other issues. His critical writing, fiction and essays have appeared in Indian Literature, Asian Review of Books, American Book Review and elsewhere.
|
Rosemarie G. Edillon, Undersecretary for Policy and Planning , National Economic and Development Authority
Rosemarie Edillon is presently the Undersecretary for Policy and Planning at the
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). She holds a PhD in Economics from La Trobe University in Australia, an MA degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics and an MS degree in Statistics from the UP School of Statistics. Among her major responsibilities is shepherding the formulation of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP). The PDP is an elaboration of the country’s priorities over the medium-term and is the blueprint of government policies, programs and projects. She also oversees the monitoring of the PDP implementation. In addition, she is in charge of providing technical advice on policy issues to both the legislative and executive branches of government, especially the committees of the NEDA Board. Currently, she is the Vice-Chair of the Economic Committee of the APEC and a member of the Philippine Commission of the UNESCO. She was also the past President of the Philippine Economic Society. |
Bobsy Gaia, MANA
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Bobsy has been pioneering socially responsible businesses in Hong Kong since 1992. As an ecopreneur, he has sought to build healthy and sustainable communities through ecologically viable food and has founded or co-founded many of the vegetarian eateries that have become the standard bearers of the health movement in Hong Kong—Bookworm Cafe, Life Cafe, and MANA! Fast Slow Food. Since the 90’s, Bobsy has been championing the on-going planting of the Lamma Forest and through ABLE Charity, which he co-founded in 1994, efforts to protect and expand the forest continue today. In 2009, his ‘Save the Human! Don’t Eat the Planet!’ campaign won the ‘Best Documentary Award’ at ISHOT HK film awards. No matter the format or the context, Bobsy’s bottom line remains the same: to live a vocation that is socially responsible, ecologically conscious, and of service to humanity and the planet.
|
Georgina (Ginnie) Guillen-Hanson, Project Director, Collaborating Center on Sustainable Consumption and Production
Ginnie Guillen-Hanson has 20 years of professional and academic experience in the fields of multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development, multilateral collaborations and strategic agenda development. She has successfully designed and implemented projects for the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Commission and UNEP, as well as for several private and civil actors. Her topics of expertise include gamification, CSR, participatory processes for systemic transitions, futures-thinking, narratives of change, education and communication for, about and of sustainable development, particularly in the areas of consumption / consumer engagement and empowerment, circular business models and lifestyles. Having developed and managed the Global Network on Sustainable Lifestyles (2012-2017), and directed a SWITCH Africa Green project, throughout her career, Ms. Guillen-Hanson has organized and hosted over 150 multi-stakeholder dialogues around the world. As PhD candidate (University of Tampere, Finland) she is exploring the ways that meaningful gamification can enable transitions towards more sustainable living.
|
Arab Hoballah, Team Leader, EU-SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility
Arab Hoballah, Team Leader of EU-SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility since October 2017, with the aim to further induce and enable relevant stakeholders in 24 Central, South and Southeast Asian Countries in developing and delivering policies and actions in support to transformative change for sustainable consumption and production. Arab served as UNEP Chief of Sustainable Consumption and Production/SCP from 2005 to 2016, with a particular focus on Lifestyles, Cities and Industry. Prior to that, he served in senior positions for 20 years in the UNEP/Mediterranean Action Plan and in development projects.
He has launched various global Initiatives and Partnerships related to buildings, cities, tourism and food. Among his achievements together with his teams: putting SCP at highest level in the UN and Government strategies, establishment of the International Resource Panel, adoption of the 10 Year Framework of Programmes for SCP and SDG12, establishment of the Mediterranean Commission for Sustainable Development. World Citizen, Arab is specialized in systemic and prospective analysis. He holds a PhD in economic development and a master in international relations. |
Vimlendu Jha, Founder and Head, Swechha
Vimlendu Jha is an activist and social entrepreneur known for his innovative and unconventional approaches to contemporary environmental and social issues. In 2000 he founded Swechha a youth-run, youth-focused NGO operating from Delhi, India, whose work focuses on the environment and social development. Swechha has come to be considered as one of India’s most influential organisations on youth matters, resulting in Vimlendu been selected to speak international and take part in numerous councils and assemblies. He currently serves on the Government appointed Ridge Management Board and also on the UNEP Multi Stakeholer Advisory Council on Sustainable Lifestyle and Education.
|
Rita Joker, Founder, My Fair lady
Rita Joker is a media professional for 19 years and is devoted to Global Citizenship, Chinese Philosophy, Social Enterprise, Green & Ethical Living, Gender Equality, Fair Trade, and Animal Cruelty Free. She has previously worked as a TV and Radio host, and is now a trilingual event emcee and founder of Women Social Enterprise - My Fair Lady. Founded in 2014, My Fair Lady is a cross-country curated platform that aims to raise awareness in women the conscious consumption in cruelty free, fair trade and green living. My Fair Lady has worked with like-minded organization and companies in Japan and Taiwan for a better future for Mother Nature.
|
Jacqueline Kacprzak, Lecturer, Warsaw University, Kozminski University, and Collegium Civitas
Jacqueline KACPRZAK is an experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in public administration, civil society organizations and media. From 2013 she serves as Counsellor to the Minister on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and responsible business conduct (RBC) issues in the Ministry of Investment and Economic Development of the Republic of Poland. Chair of the Polish OECD National Contact Point for responsible business conduct (2016-2019). She is an expert in human rights, sustainable development, non-financial reporting and CSR/RBC. Lecturer in the field of business and human rights, and CSR/RBC at the Warsaw University, Kozminski University and Collegium Civitas. She has also experience as mediator in civil and commercial matters.
From 2017 she serves as a member of the Bureau of the OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct. As an expert in the field of non-financial and sustainable reporting she is also a member of Global Reporting Initiative Governmental Advisory Group. |
Louis Lebel, Director, Unit for Social and Environmental Research
Louis Lebel is the Director of the Unit for Social and Environmental Research at the Science and Technology Research Institute at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. His interests include: social justice, global environmental change, livelihoods, public health, gender norms, development studies, adaptation, aquaculture, consumption, flood disaster politics and water governance. His special areas of expertise include quantitative and qualitative methods and interdisciplinary research design. He is a Senior Editor of Global Environmental Change and a subject editor for Ecology & Society and Aquaculture-Environment Interactions. He also holds the positions of Research Associate at the Stockholm Environment Institute, and Honorary Fellow at the Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne.
|
Caixia Mao, Policy Researcher for Sustainable Consumption and Production, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES)
Caixia Mao is a policy researcher for Sustainable Consumption and Production at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). Her current research focus looks at future aspects of lifestyles, in particular on how foresight could be an instrument to empower the public in the transition towards sustainable lifestyles. Her foresight research emphasises a “people-centred” approach to understand social dimensions such as culture and social norms, as well as connections and social relationships for future lifestyles. Caixia’s other research at IGES includes food waste issues at the consumption phase of the supply chain to analyse factors on consumer behaviour on food waste generation. Her academic background is in international development with training on qualitative and ethnographic research methods.
|
Kira Matus, Associate Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Kira Matus received her PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University in 2009. Her primary research focus is at the intersection of innovation, sustainability science, and public policy, focusing on sustainable production-consumption systems. A large portion of her research is on how policy interacts with the development and implementation of "green" technologies in supply chains, especially those that include the production and/or use of chemicals. She looks at how policy can incentivize innovation- but also at how innovation can feed-back into policy, and when new technologies allow for, and sometimes even demand, new approaches to policy on the part of public, private and civil society actors. This includes areas such as certification and voluntary regulatory tools, as examples of some of the different approaches being used to effectively regulate emerging technologies. She also has a longstanding interest in the use of scientific expertise in the policy process, which has led to work on the controversies surrounding efforts to control bovine Tb with the culling badgers in the UK and possums in the NZ. Previous to joining HKUST, Prof. Matus was a Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Sustainability and Deputy Head of Department at UCL STEaPP, and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Management at the LSE. She was also a Ruffalo Sustainability Fellow in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University, where she was project co-director of "Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development."
|
Oksana Mont, Professor, Lund University
Oksana Mont is a Professor in Sustainable consumption governance at Lund University, Sweden. She conducts inter-disciplinary and international research on the design, application and evaluation of policy, business strategies and tools for sustainable consumption and production. The main topical domain is sustainable consumption and its links to urban sharing and circular economy. Oksana leads a research group on Sustainable consumption governance at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics at Lund University. Her expertise in innovative business models is combined with focus on sustainable urban lifestyles, consumer and organisational behaviour and sustainable consumption policy. She has over 15 years of project leadership. She is a Principal Investigator of the 5-year programme on Urban Sharing funded by the European Research Council (www.urbansharing.org) and a 4-year project on Urban Reconomy funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas. She also leads projects on business models in two 4-year programmes funded by MISTRA on “REES – Resource-Efficient and Effective Solutions” (https://mistrarees.se/) and Mistra Sustainable Consumption – from nisch to mainstream (https://www.sustainableconsumption.se/). She co-edited a book with Max Koch on “Sustainability and the Political Economy of Welfare (2016), Routledge and is an editor of an upcoming book on “Research Agenda for Sustainable consumption governance” (2019), Edward Elgar. She is an author of more than 150 peer reviewed publications.
|
Lars Fogh Mortensen, Product, Consumption and Plastics Expert, European Environment Agency
Lars Fogh Mortensen has worked for the EEA since 2003 as an expert and manager on environmental assessments and sustainability. He is currently responsible for work on product, consumption and plastics in the context of circularly economy. Lars is a trained economist from the University of Copenhagen with 25 years of international experience on sustainable development and environmental assessments. Prior to joining the EEA, he was the lead author of the first OECD Environmental Outlook after having lead the work on sustainable development indicators in the UN headquarters. He is the author of a number of EEA reports, scientific articles and book chapters on sustainability, focusing on measuring sustainability and wellbeing, and assessments of systems of sustainable consumption and production.
|
Lukas Mueller, Researcher, Chair of International Politics, University of Freiburg
Lukas Maximilian Mueller is a researcher at the Chair of International Politics at the University of Freiburg. His research focuses on global, regional, and national policy coordination processes, primarily in economy and connectivity. Lukas has also conducted research and consultancy work on the 2030 Agenda, particularly processes of implementation and monitoring at the national level, localizing the global objective. Lukas' regional focus lies on West Africa and Southeast Asia, with a particular interest in the CLMV countries. In the area of sustainable consumption and production, Lukas has led projects on the national implementation of SDG 12 in the cases of Lao PDR and Cambodia. Lukas has also conducted research on the environmental and economic assessments of infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia.
|
Chandran Nair, Founder and CEO, Global Institute For Tomorrow (GFIT)
Chandran Nair is the Founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), an independent pan-Asian think tank based in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur focused on advancing a deeper understanding of global issues including the shift of economic and political influence from the West to Asia, the dynamic relationship between business and society, and the reshaping of the rules of global capitalism. He is the author of Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet and the creator of The Other Hundred, a non-profit global photo journalism initiative to present a counterpoint to media consensus on some of today's most important issues. His new book The Sustainable State : The Future of Government, Economy, and Society has just recently been published on 9 Oct 2018.
Chandran was chairman of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) in Asia Pacific until 2004, establishing the company as Asia’s leading environmental consultancy. Chandran has served as Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. He is a Member of The Club of Rome and sits on their Executive Committee, he is a Senior Fellow of CIMB ASEAN Research Institute (CARI) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. |
Grazyna Pulawska, Senior Project Manager, Asia-Europe Environment Forum
Ms Grazyna PULAWSKA is a Senior Project Manager in charge of the Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ENVforum) consorcium. ENVforum is a platform for exchange between Asia and Europe on achieving sustainable development through research, knowledge hub and outreach events. The consorcium consist of Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center (ASEIC) and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES).
Prior to ASEF, Grazyna worked for the Ministry of Economy in Poland, working in the field of regional development. She has also been active in the NGO sector, mainly with the Service Civil International network in Belgium and the Development Wheel, a Bangladesh-based NGO specialising in supporting local entrepreneurship and fair trade. She received her Master's degree in International Relations through a joint programme between the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Warsaw School of Economics. |
Bernadette P. Resurrección, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute Asia
Dr Bernadette (Babette) P. Resurrección has researched gender, livelihoods, climate change adaptation, migration, and natural resource management in Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. She is a Senior Research Fellow at SEI Asia.
Babette leads sponsored projects on climate adaptation, gender and water stresses in peri-urban Southeast Asia (IDRC), mobility and disasters in Philippine coastal areas (The Research Council of Norway), and the Mekong research fellowships program on water governance (CPWF-M-POWER-AusAID). |
Puja Sawhney, South Asia Expert, SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility
Dr. Puja Sawhney currently works at the EU funded SWITCH-Asia Sustainable Consumption and Production Facility as the South Asia Expert. She has done extensive work on Climate Changes Issues for more than almost two decades in the Asia- Pacific region. Puja was the Regional Co-ordinator of the Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) from 2011-2017. She received her PhD in Natural Science (Geography) from the University of Bonn, Germany. She holds two Master degrees, one in Environment and Development from the University of London and another in Geography from the University of Delhi.
|
Markus Terho, Project Director, Resource-Wise Citizen, SITRA
Markus has decades of valuable experience in sustainable development, both in creating strategies and visions and in implementing them in practice. He has a Master’s degree in technology.
In Markus’s opinion, work must be fun and that way it also provides better results. The old motto of technology students – according to which even serious things need not always be done joylessly and through gritted teeth – describes this attitude very well. |
Vanessa Timmer, Executive Director, One Earth; Senior Research Fellow, Utrecht University
Dr. Vanessa Timmer is the Executive Director of One Earth, a Vancouver, Canada-based environmental ‘think and do tank’ creating and imagining sustainable ways of living in cities and around the world. One Earth collaborates with partners to transform how people live their lives – what they need, what they consume and produce, and what they aspire to – enabling everyone to live good quality of lives within their fair share of our planet’s resources. Vanessa is also a Senior Research Fellow at Utrecht University with Pathways to Sustainability, the Urban Futures Studio, and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. She holds a Doctorate and studied at Queen’s University, Oxford, UBC and Harvard. Vanessa sits on the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee for the United Nations 10YFP Sustainable Lifestyles Programme. In Canada, she is a Board member of the National Zero Waste Council and of the Vancouver Foundation Partnership Committee. She received the 2018 YWCA Women of Distinction Award in Environmental Sustainability.
|
Marlyne Sahakian, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Geneva
Marlyne Sahakian is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, specialized in bringing a sociological lens to consumption studies. She gained a PhD in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute in 2011, and became a founding member of SCORAI Europe in 2012 – a network in the field of sustainable consumption research and action. Her research interest is in understanding natural resource consumption patterns and practices, in relation to environmental promotion and social equity, and identifying opportunities for transformations towards more sustainable societies. She is currently coordinating several national and international research projects on household energy and food consumption, working with interdisciplinary teams. Her work outside of Switzerland is central to her research and teaching: she has focused primarily on the urban centre of South and Southeast Asia, whether tackling the changing food consumption practices and related food waste in Bangalore and Metro Manila, or considering the influence of built systems on air-conditioning usage and micro-climate diversity in Asian cities. She is currently coordinating a research project in four cities of South and Southeast Asia, making the link between fundamental needs, and green public spaces, towards the normative aim of “sustainable wellbeing” within planetary limits. She writes regularly for journals in the fields of sociology, sustainability, as well as food and energy consumption. Her recent books includes a book Keeping Cool in Southeast Asia: energy consumption and urban air-conditioning (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and an edited volume Food Consumption in the City: Practices and patterns in urban Asia and the Pacific (Routledge Studies in Food, Society & the Environment, 2016).
|
Rodrigo Vinas, TRES
TRES (Ilana Boltvinik + Rodrigo Viñas, Mexico City) is an art research collective that has
focused on exploring the implications of public space and garbage through artistic practices that concentrate on the methodological intertwining and dialogue with science, anthropology, and archaeology among other disciplines. Of particular interest has been the inquiry on the subject of garbage as a physical and conceptual residue that entails political and material implications. Since its foundation in 2009, TRES has worked with different qualities that shape garbage. Its mobility {in the project A Cluster of Oblivion} 2009, its symbolic value {in An Informal Gaze} 2009, its aesthetics {in the book Desechos Reservados} 2009, its spatial traits {in Blind Spots} 2010, its intimacy {in All the Shines is Gold} 2011, its permanence {in Chicle y Pega} 2012, its scientific potential {in Urotransfrontation DTC- UR013} 2013, and its global ubiquity {in Ubiquitous Trash –Hong Kong Edition} 2016, amid others. Boltvinik and Viñas are the 2016 Robert Gardner Fellows in Photography of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. They were the Mexican selection for the XIII Havana Biennial. Their works have been presented in solo shows at Connecting Spaces (Hong Kong, 2016), AND festival 2015 (Manchester, UK, 2015), Museo de la Ciudad (Mexico City, 2011), among others. They have participated in group shows America, Europe and Asia. |