8th International Conference on Sustainability & Responsibility

All of us at Center for Advanced Sustainable Management (CASM) at Cologne Business School are beyond excited to be hosting the 8th International Conference on Sustainability and Responsibility in Cologne this November 14th to 16th.
The conference will kick-off with a surprise which we won’t give away yet, but we are looking forward to opening our event with keynote voices from politics, academia and business: Minister of Economy, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia Andreas Pinkwart will speak, followed by renowned Leadership and Organiztional Behavior expert Lize Booysen and Ben & Jerry’s Social Activist Timm Duffner.

The 3-day conference is set under this year’s topic of  “Leadership in Times of Transformation” and will be featuring insights and cutting-edge advice from academic and industry experts. We organize the conference in collaboration with Humboldt-University Berlin, HSBA and many other national and international partners from academia, business and society. Established in 2004 as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue, the CSR-conference series has attained a remarkable degree of international relevance.

On our Solution Stage, which will be featuring numerous high-level panel discussions throughout the conference, we’re excited to announce that the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of North Rhine-Westphalia will bring to you a panel on “Responsibility and Leadership in the Age of Digitalization”. Moreover, the European Investment Bank supports a panel on “Investing in Social and Economic Development within Planetary Boundaries” which will be featuring their Head of CR, Transparency and Stakeholder Engagement Hakan Lucius, Chief Executive of Share Action Catherine Howarth, our Lifetime Achievement CSR Award recipient Robert G. Eccles and Dirk Voeste, Vice President Sustainability Strategy at BASF.

In our workshop-packed Action Zone you’ll get the chance to participate in sessions ranging from “Digitalization as a Catalyst for Sustainable Business Models” with T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH and M3trix GmbH, embarking on a journey of “Inner Shifts for Outer Transformation” with Unity Effects or participating in a Mindfulness Activity on “Responsible Leadership and Finance”, to discussing “How CC/CSR Managers can contribute to strengthening Social Cohesion” with Phineo gAG – amongst many others.

If you’d like to get even more adventurous, our Interactive Space will give you the chance to discover hidden opportunities with Design Thinking & LEGO Serious Play, or participate in a World Café on “Coding a Sustainable World” with T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH & M3trix GmbH.

Experts Insights:  a stage discourse on “The Future of CSR and Sustainable Management” between John Elkington, father of the triple-bottom-line, and René Schmidpeter, Advocate for Sustainable Management as New Business Paradigm and Dr-Jürgen-Meyer Chair of International Business Ethics and CSR at Cologne Business School. Furthermore, we’re proud to announce keynotes by Edward Freeman, Wayne Visser and Ernst U. von Weizsäcker amongst others and many more CSR Expert Insights throughout the conference.

Check out the full conference program!

You can now register and get your ticket to the conference HERE.