Join IRDO International Conference Innovative, Sustainable and Socially Responsible Society 2024
On 12-13 June 2024, join the online 19th IRDO International Conference INNOVATIVE SUSTAINABLE and SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE SOCIETY 2024: ESG Aspects in Theory and Practice & Learning and Action for Sustainability and Green Transition.
The Conference is also the 4th IRDO & Citizens' Initiative for an Integral Green Slovenia Conference. The organizers are IRDO – Institute for the Development of Social Responsibility, University of Maribor, Citizens' Initiative for an Integral Green Slovenia, and Science and Research Centre Koper.
UN Global activities within Agenda 2030 and its 17 sustainability development goals (UN, 2015) provide significant incentives to change our world. Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 focuses on climate change and our impacts on them (UNFCC, 2015). From 2019, the EU is focusing its policies, legislation, and practices towards green transition (European Council, 2019).
Yet changes are slow, and some targets have experienced no progress or, even worse, regression below the 2015 baseline, as stated in The Sustainable Development Goals Report (UN, 2023). Today we face a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. We have transgressed many planetary safe zones. None of the environmental SDGs and the main internationally agreed environmental goals (e.g. Paris Agreement) will be achieved. The prospects for achieving the social and economic SDGs are also bleak. On the other hand, solutions that are already being implemented bring opportunities for the wellbeing of all.
The environmental, social, and governance aspects of our daily lives are guiding us toward fostering awareness about our lifestyle choices, identifying challenges, and recognizing their long-term consequences. The call for sustainable engagement, transparent reporting, and responsible governance necessitates the adoption of innovative tools, methodologies, and standards. Consideration of the double materiality matrix, value chain, ESG KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), internal organizational structure, and effective communication of social responsibility and sustainability is crucial. Our transformation extends beyond business models, reflecting an increasing awareness of our responsibility towards the Earth, ourselves, and future generations.
50 years after the Club of Rome report The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al., 1972), several of the world's leading experts and institutions have produced a new report: Earth for All – A Survival Guide to Humanity - Earth4All (Dixson-Declève et al., 2022). They concluded that despite warnings, it is possible, desirable, and even essential to be optimistic about our collective future: the next decade must see the fastest economic transformation in history, the Giant Leap scenario. To help humanity avert ecological and social catastrophe, societies must adopt unprecedented and immediate systemic action across five interconnected turnarounds: poverty, inequality, empowerment, food, and energy. The possibilities to implement this scenario will be explored from the global, European, and Slovenian perspectives, with a special focus on the ongoing European green transition.
Effective implementation of ambitious policies for green transition requires empowerment in sustainability competencies to help humans develop agency, and form a knowledge basis for everyone who cares about our planet’s present and future state.
Where do we stand in this respect – as local, national, European, and global communities, and as individuals?
How far have our educational and other informative systems reached on this path, and how can we support these processes?
Action and learning for a more innovative, sustainable, and socially responsible society are urgent. By joining the Conference, you will help to co-create the scientific-based wisdom for renewing our unsustainable systems, from societies and communities to businesses and ourselves.
Therefore, IRDO kindly invites you to participate in the Conference to share your experiences, views, and suggestions with researchers, top consultants, experts, and experienced practitioners from around the globe. Young authors and students are warmly welcome.
Invitation for authors of papers:
IRDO kindly invites you to present original papers and report about your contributions and plans in creating a local or global, scientific, or applied way out of the current crisis towards a more balanced, innovative, sustainable, and socially responsible way of living and working! Every viewpoint matters. So far, over 1.500 authors from all over the world have participated in eighteen IRDO Conference. Find the submission documents here.
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