Conferences

Another component of the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise’s (DOCSE) Research Programs relates to networking and sharing ideas. DOCSE will host periodic conferences on sustainability related issues. These conferences bring together world class scholars, key thought leaders, and influential representatives from business and government. Topics for these conferences are and will be selected based on the timeliness of a given issue.

RIO+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (June 2012) - 50 + 20: Management Education for the World

50+20 is a collaborative initiative that seeks to learn of new ways and opportunities for management education to transform and reinvent itself. We are asking critical questions about the state of the world, the emerging societal issues, the dominant economic logic, the purpose of business, the crucial role of leadership, and the challenges facing management education. The upcoming RIO+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (June 2012) will mark the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Rio Earth summit. It has therefore been 20 years since Governments have been collectively urged to rethink economic development and find ways to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources. It is at this juncture in history where 50+20 takes action to reset the management education agenda.

Balance-Unbalance Conference

The Balance-Unbalance Conference was a two day event (Nov. 4th and 5th, 2011), which brought together over 130 people (artists, scientists, economists, sociologists, engineers, management and policy experts) with the intent of reflection, debate, and the promotion of projects and actions regarding the environment and our human responsibility. Using art as a catalyst, BALANCE-UNBALANCE 2011 explored intersections between NATURE, ART, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY as we move into an era of both unprecedented ecological threats and transdisciplinary possibilities.One of the main goals of the conference was to develop the role of the arts and artists in dealing with environmental challenges.

International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas

Twenty years after the Earth Summit in Rio, the linkage of sustainable development to economic growth requires profound rethinking. It has not offered a convincing solution to one of the most dramatic crises in history: how to avert ecological collapse while enhancing social justice and improving life’s prospects. In advance of Rio plus 20, our Conference seeks to challenge and move beyond the sustainable development agenda. A degrowth perspective will help us visualize and build towards a truly prosperous world. Drawing from previous degrowth conferences in Paris and Barcelona in 2008 and 2010 respectively, the Montreal conference will focus on the particular situations and dynamics of the Americas.

The World Business School Council for Sustainable Business

During a Mini Unconference on "Breaking the Silos" organized by DOCSE in Montreal, a small group of concerned deans and professors (Thomas Dyllick, St Gallen University, Katrin Muff, Lausanne Business School, Sanjay Sharma, JMSB and Paul Shrivastava DOCSE-JMSB) took a first step to create the World Business School Council for Sustainable Business (WBSCSB). WBSCSB is a sustainability think-tank and platform of action for business schools to make business sustainable through their research, education and engagement. WBSCSB outlined three core areas of activities to achieve its vision:

Research must address the pressing sustainability issues in a global and overarching way, transcending disciplinary perspectives while producing insights that are timely, widely understood and actionable;
education must embrace sustainability as an integrated function of business in order for graduates to effectively address sustainability as part of their management responsibilities;
business scholars and educators can and should use their competence and reputation to engage in public dialogue and activities to further sustainable development.

Breaking the Silos Conference

Research in business schools has evolved in functional area silos of Management, Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, Operations, and Marketing. In each of these silos there is interest in issues of “sustainability”. The Research Associates that form the core of DOCSE represent several of these “silos”. In addition, there are researchers across Concordia University (Art and Design, Social Sciences, Geography, Engineering) with whom DOCSE is building relationships because they are doing very interesting work pertinent to sustainable enterprise. One of DOCSE’s main goals is to promote holistic understanding of enterprise sustainability, which means going beyond siloed functional area thinking, to develop integrated theories and approaches to sustainability. We seek to bring together faculty who are actively working on integrative approaches across functions to achieve enterprise sustainability. By assembling these faculty members, not only do we break down the silos in our own school/university, but we begin to build relationships with colleagues on local, national and international levels to evoke a broader more holistic and systemic understanding of enterprise sustainability. Through these relationships, DOCSE can position itself to host “Breaking the Silos”, a holistic business sustainability research conference.

Sustainability: Management & Beyond (IIM Shillong)

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in collaboration with DOCSE has created an international conference that provides a multi-disciplinary platform for thinkers, academics, business leaders, government officials, civil society groups, and grass root activists to initiate an ongoing dialogue on sustainability along its multiple dimensions. Leveraging the unique assets and expertise of IIM Shillong as a hub of sustainability in business, this conference covers global perspectives and practices, keeping in view national priorities as well as regional challenges.