Industrial Sustainability Conference,South Africa
May 23 – May 24, 2012
Johannesburg, South Africa
Pooran Desai OBE will present BioRegional’s One Planet Communities projects at this two day event located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Conference details
This will be an opportunity to be immersed in the ever changing discussion of operating within a low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions renewable energy intensive world. The growth of clean energy, the associated sustainability impacts and economics, the developing regulatory trends and the growing international legal ramifications of future international accords continues to gain momentum.
This event is designed to provide sector baseline knowledge and impact clarification on a myriad of business, compliance, regulatory and operating categories connected to the industrial ecology, agribusiness, manufacturing, GHGe engineering, sustainability and social responsibility topics. You will gain insight into just what elements of this new paradigm means from an operational and financial standpoint.
Who should attend?
Key decision makers
Executive team members
Consultants
Trade and industry experts
Government officers
Managers
Business development professionals
Manufacturers and Suppliers
More information at http://www.antimonygreen.com/conferences.html
BioRegional gave an interview on One Planet Initiative during COP17
Pooran Desai, International Director of One Planet Communities and Sarah Aslen, BioRegional South Africa spoke about One Planet Initiatives and work in South Africa at an interview to ‘Responding to Climate Change‘ channel during COP17
Click below to watch the interview:
A COP17 side event hosted by World Green Building Council and BioRegional
28th November – 8th December 2011
Durban, South Africa
At COP17 we want to share the lessons from our international portfolio of One Planet case studies with delegates, we are:
- exhibiting in the UNFCCC exhibition and;
- holding a joint side event with the World Green Building Council ‘Voices from South Africa’ taking place in Room 3 at the International Conference Centre at 6.30pm on the 3rd December. For event details please download the flyer.
You can also follow our blog to find out more about our activities and get inside information on the negotiations.
One Planet partners to get support from world experts
BioRegional is launching an Expert Panel for the One Planet initiative, which will draw on the knowledge and experience of leading names in international sustainability to help keep the One Planet initiative and its endorsed partners and projects at the cutting edge of green thinking and technology.
With an initial focus on the One Planet Communities programme, panel members have been selected for their expertise in areas including urban planning, green building, ecological footprinting, policy, and campaigning.
Its six independent members are: Susan Burns, CEO of ecological footprinting think tank, Global Footprint Network; Jim Heid, President and co-founder of US based sustainable development advisory company, UrbanGreen; Kevin Hydes, CEO of deep green building services engineering company, Integral Group and former Chair of the World Green Building Council; Tony Juniper, UK based author and environmental campaigner; Professor Li Shirong, Professor of construction management at Chongqing University and Deputy Director General of Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission, China; and Raf Tuts, Chief of the Urban Environment and Planning Branch, UN-HABITAT.
They are joined by representatives from BioRegional’s endorsed One Planet Communities partner organisations, with their experience of practical delivery of the One Planet Communities programme: Pete Halsall, BioRegional Quintain Ltd; Geof Syphers, Codding Enterprises and Paulo Reis Silva, Pelicano.
The role of the Expert Panel is to ensure that the ‘planet with a heart’ logo remains, and is increasingly recognised as, a symbol of truly exemplary commitment to, and leadership in, sustainability.
The One Planet Communities programme is using the concepts of One Planet Living and sustainable ecological footprint to create a network of the earth’s greenest neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods will be showcased at the Rio+20 World Summit in 2012 to demonstrate to policy makers, business leaders and civil society that it can be easy, attractive and affordable for people to live happy and healthy lives within a fair share of the earth’s resources. BioRegional are excited and pleased to have the support of the Expert Panel in making this happen.
The Panel will be run using a virtual network, with three group sessions each year – the first is scheduled for 17th March.
To read more visit the role of the panel and member profile pages of this site.
Durban, South Africa to host COP 17
BioRegional South Africa is gearing up to make the most of the opportunity afforded by the recent announcament that Durban is to be the host city for the Seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the UNFCCC and CMP17 in December 2011. In particular, the intention is to showcase a One Planet Demonstration Home in collaboration with land developer Tongaat Hulett Developments and a local housing developer. The house will be part of a new residential area developing in north Durban in an area known as Izinga, on Umhlanga Ridge, and will be an example of One Planet Living in the middle to upper socio-economic housing range.
Local Durban architects East Coast Architects have completed concept drawings for the home, an outline business plan is taking shape and eThekwini municipality is supportive of fast tracking planning permission 
such that the house is on the ground in time for COP 17 as a best practice exemplar and ‘One Planet’ exhibition centre for overseas visitors, local, provincial and national government and other housing developers.
The home will set a precedent for other homes to be built at Izinga as well as 100 affordable homes at a new town centre urban development nearby known as Bridge City, a joint venture between eThekwini municipality and Tongaat Hulett, which BioRegional is engaging with another developer on to create 100 ‘affordable’ One Planet homes at this site.
UNEP climate campaign features One Planet Communities
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has featured One Planet Communities in their new 30WAYSin30DAYS climate change campaign. The campaign states: “UNEP’s 30 case studies prove that solutions to combat Climate Change are available, accessible and replicable”
Click here for more details
One Planet Communities film to be broadcast on CNBC this weekend
One Planet Communities is the focus of the next episode of the Responsible Business Television series, broadcasting on CNBC around the world this weekend.
Tune into your region’s CNBC channel at the following times to see several of the ground-breaking projects showcased and an interview with International Director, Pooran Desai OBE:
CNBC Asia
1st Broadcast: 30 October 17:30 SIN/HK Time
2nd Broadcast: 31 October 09:30 SIN/HK Time
CNBC Europe
1st Broadcast: 30 October 08:30 CET
2nd Broadcast: 30 October 13:30 CET
CNBC USA
Single Broadcast: 30 October 16:00 EST
If you miss the broadcast the film will go up on www.oneplanetcommunities.org early next week.
Waterloo Entrepreneurial Development Programme: The role of a business coach
by Sthe Ndzimbomvu
As a business coach my responsibilities are to coach:
- people who have business ideas and want to develop them into businesses and don’t know how to,
- people who are already in business who want to expand their businesses but don’t know how and they need assistance,
- people who have interest in community development in terms of seeing their community develop in various areas such as better schools, parks in the area, environment and human well being in the areas they stay in.
Sthe Ndzimbomvu, BioRegional South Africa's business coach
A client will come with a business idea and my role as a business coach is to coach that client on that business idea and together with the client turn that business idea into a business that is sound and sustainable. The idea should be based on the TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE requirements in order for me to coach the client. The idea should be ECONOMICAL, ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY and SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE in the community.
A client comes with an idea, I listen to the idea and I work with the idea the way the client wants it to be. I have no rights whatsoever to approve or disapprove a client idea. My role is to make sure that I use all the skills and tools I have to lead the client to the right decision.
Our philosophy is to always create a space for the client by doing so allowing the client to talk and make decisions about the life and their business at the end of the day. I do not do things for the client, but the client does everything to allow for internalised learning to take place because I strongly believe in the Samuel Smith philosophy which says help from within is more strong and powerful then help from outside.
I use the T-GROW approach to allow the client to vision and to create the space for the client. It is a very excellent approach, before I never thought it might work but now it touches every single part of my body when I use it.
BioRegional win Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship
Oxford. Labelled “the Davos of social entrepreneurship” by the Observer, the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is the gathering of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. At this year’s Forum, One Planet Communities co-founders Sue Riddlestone and Pooran Desai were presented with the Skoll Award by Ebay founderJeff Skoll and Dr R K Pachauri, Nobel prize-winning chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). BioRegional was selected as one of seven organizations leading in the areas of tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, and economic and social equity.
Head of UNEP addresses first-ever “One Planet Conference”
London. Today, Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, addressed a sold-out crowd in London, UK at BioRegional’s One Planet One Day convergence. Watch the Youtube video as Achim describes the One Planet program as the vanguard of a global movement towards a green economy, and calls for our partners to work with UNEP to provide the solutions that will drive this transition forward.
We invite you to learn more about the conference… The Sustainability Action Plan for the event is also available.
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"Our partnership with BioRegional has helped us to deliver high quality homes and lifestyle packages for residents and visitors to our developments. Sustainable solutions such as fossil fuel-free transport, ecosystem restoration and new building technologies are essential to meeting this target, and to Pelicano's success in the market place."
Joaquim Mendes Duarte
Chief Executive
Pelicano