Collaboration
Al Gore, Pharrell Williams Talk Climate Change at WEF Annual Meeting

World leaders, activists and celebrities have descended on Davos, Switzerland this week to discuss everything from Ebola to climate change and the future shape of the world economy at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2015.

Al Gore and pop singer Pharrell Williams have announced a second round of Live Earth concerts to promote awareness of climate change. The events will take place on six continents over 24 hours on June 18, anchored from Paris and New York. Organizers are shooting for a global television audience of 2 billion across 193 networks. Organizers say it will be supported by a yearlong campaign in partnership with leading brands, NGOs and nonprofits. All of this is to build climate change awareness ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris this December.

Williams, who is also co-founder of recycled plastic fabric company Bionic Yarn, played Live Earth in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 and will be the new show's creative director.

“Instead of just having people perform, we literally are going to have humanity harmonize all at once,” Williams said.

On Saturday, Remco Teulings, CEO of Desso and president of Tarkett EMEA, will participate as a discussion leader at the latest Project MainStream session. Desso and Tarkett are proponents of the circular economy — the regenerative, sustainable model in which goods are designed to be recycled, reused or remanufactured in a closed-loop system. According to a report released last year in Davos by WEF and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, industry could save as much as $1 trillion a year through cost savings on materials as a result of going circular. Desso has been a member of the steering board of the WEF's Project MainStream, a cross-industry collaborative project searching for practical routes to upscale the shift to the circular economy.

Other topics to be discussed this week include the recent tumble in the oil price to five-year lows, transformational leadership and how to preserve trust in hyperconnected companies.

Earlier this month, the WEF released the 2015 edition of its Global Risks report, which completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, drawing on the perspectives of experts and global decision-makers. Over that time, analysis has moved from risk identification to thinking through risk interconnections and the potentially cascading effects that result. Taking this effort one step further, this year’s report underscores potential causes as well as solutions to global risks. It sets out a view on 28 global risks in the report’s traditional categories (economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological), and also considers the drivers of those risks in the form of 13 trends. In addition, WEF selected initiatives for addressing significant challenges, which is intended to inspire collaboration among business, government and civil society communities.

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Mike Hower

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Published Jan 21, 2015 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET

Mike Hower

Managing Director, Sustainability & Social Impact
Deutsche Bank

Mike Hower is a sustainability communicator and connector committed to helping purpose-driven businesses and people unlock their full potential for positive impact. As founder and principal consultant at Hower Impact, he works with companies to translate sustainability strategy into stories that inform, engage and inspire investors, customers, employees, regulators and other stakeholders in the service of social, environmental and business goals. Through his Impact Hired initiative, he works to connect and engage corporate sustainability professionals at all stages of their careers. (read more ...)