<p>A workshop bringing together industry, government and academic leaders was organized on 28 January to present the results three years of research on collaboration between governments, international organizations and corporates for a more sustainable economy.<br />
<br />
The participants debated key questions related to the organizational change and learning challenges that companies face when they attempt to make sense of, and manage, sustainability issues as well as rapidly evolving stakeholder expectations in corporate behavior.</p>

<p>The main focus of the discussion addressed: How do firms learn to integrate and manage sustainability and climate change issues in their business model?</p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/legacy/La_Camera-Opening-2.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 450px;" /></p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Francesco La Camera addresses the workshop. Photo Credit: Max Falcone</em></p>

<p>Francesco La Camera, Director General of the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea, opened the workshop explaining the strategic role of governments in the future. He emphasized that sustainability and climate change issues will be the focal point of every country in the future:&ldquo;In 2016 a Nation cannot play any international role without a clear sustainability strategy.&rdquo;</p>

<p>He stressed that both financial tools and education in support of advancing climate and sustainability solutions were necessary requirements to help address the future challenges.&nbsp;&ldquo;We need specific financial tools based on sustainability issues: two days ago China and UK agreed on a common investment find for sustainability projects,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Mr. La Camera</p>

<p>Mr. La Camera&rsquo;s speech was followed by interventions from universities, corporates and international organizations.</p>

<p>From academia the main take away messages included that we have to act as think-tanks to provide operational tools to the management through dedicated observatories and indicators. Stefano Gardi, Director of Sustainable Development Department at Italcementi said:&nbsp;<strong>&ldquo;It&#39;s impossible to be really sustainable if the human resources managers don&#39;t reorganize incentives and career patterns considering sustainability achievements.&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p>Companies that are takings sustainability and climate targets seriously are also considered great places to work:&nbsp;<strong>&ldquo;Carbon neutral companies have always a higher ranking for internal climate and employees satisfaction. Being sustainable means being more effective and profitable.&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p>Maria Cristina Papetti, Head of Sustainability Projects and Practice Sharing at Enel emphasized that&nbsp;<strong>&ldquo;we don&#39;t distinguish anymore between sustainability goals and profit goals; Creating Shared Values and innovating through sustainability is our mission.&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p>Similarly, laudio Puliti, Head of CSR and Sustainability at ACEA noted:&nbsp;<strong>&ldquo;public companies can be sustainable if they engage territories and citizens in strategic decisions. As the main Italian public company providing water; we are a B Corporation.&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p>Speaking about Unicoop, Massimo Favilli, Director of political relations, emphasized the need for sustainability to continue operations,&nbsp;<strong>&ldquo;we were born in 1945 for mutualistic collaboration: our participatory business strategy must be based on sustainability.&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p>Maurizio Zollo, Sustainability and Strategy Professor of Università Bocconi, concluded:&nbsp;<strong>&ldquo;Delivering on the UN Agenda 2030 will require the business sector to complete its transition from sustainability as a stakeholder engagement exercise to redesigning the firm in all its core functions to integrate the contributions of all stakeholders. None of the Sustainable Development Goals and the COP21 targets will be reached without a profound innovation and change effort by the private sector. The question is how to facilitate and reduce the risks connected to the effort. The collaboration of institutions, civil society and academia will be necessary and, hopefully, well appreciated in this respect.&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/EcoCity2015%20copy.jpg" style="width: 1000px; height: 563px;" /></p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Salim Rouhana speaks on a panel at EcoCities World Summit, Abu Dhabi, 2015.</em></p>

<p>The current structure and development of modern Arabian cities seems to go against the current trend of promoting sustainability. In contrast it appears that urban sprawl featuring car oriented growth and individual housing proliferation is the name of the game. This is extremely visible in the suburban development of cities such as Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Doha.</p>

<p>It is often argued that previously tribal or rural societies have to go through this transition prior to attaining a social and spatial optimum of urban living. This is partially true. Arab countries, especially in the Gulf, have been and still are urbanizing rapidly, principally driven by oil-based economic growth and transformation. This urbanization was accompanied by massive public investments in infrastructure and service delivery extremely useful, but could in certain contexts be inefficient due to sprawl. This sprawl also affects lower middle income and poor communities that can less afford the suburb-to-city center commutes.</p>

<p>Most Arab governments are continuously struggling and torn between the need for efficiency and compact urban development, and sprawl, presumably driven by social preferences and behaviors. Environmental arguments despite their importance do not suffice to curb this development trend. Financial incentives and behavioral shifts are needed, to encourage? new urban residents to live in more compact settings.</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">World leaders discuss the challenge of building sustainable cities. <a href="https://twitter.com/SalimRouhana&quot; target="_blank">@SalimRouhana</a> present <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate&quot; target="_blank">@Connect4Climate</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ECWS2015&quot; target="_blank">@ECWS2015</a> <a href="http://t.co/idHus6AE9k&quot; target="_blank">http://t.co/idHus6AE9k</a></p&gt;
&mdash; Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate/status/653314523772887041&quot; target="_blank">October 11, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>Governments should be looking at the demand and outcome factors and the impacts of density. On the first, fiscal (and other financial and non-financial) incentives are essential to curb developers but also consumers, into vertical living. On the outcome end, dense and compact cities, and the economies of scale they create, as proven in many researches, are directly correlated to innovation fostering, primarily due to the proximity and agglomeration effects.</p>

<p>This said, sustainable building dynamics take time to shift, working simultaneously on both policies and behavior shifts remain important to accelerate this transition. The notion of common urban good, space, environment, and culture, are more appealing to the younger generations, and so there is an opportunity not to be missed to have them part, but also drivers, of this transformation. This process is ongoing in other regions of the world such as Europe and Latin America, where smart and inclusive urban development was part of this transformation process.</p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/MasdarCity-crop.jpg" style="width: 1000px; height: 563px;" /></p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Masdar City Render. Photo Credit: Foster &amp; Patners</em></p>

<p>Changes, however, seem to be coming -&nbsp;none radical, but soft measures that could lead us on to better city environments. Governments are passing clear messages to citizens that subsidies will be reduced on services and housing, perhaps driven by the drastic drop in oil prices and the reduction of resources. In addition, Governments are starting to experience direct linkages between densification, sustainability, livability, and competitiveness.</p>

<p>What we are seeing in Abu Dhabi with the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.masdar.ae/en/masdar-city/live-work-play&quot; target="_blank">Masdar City Pilot</a>&nbsp;goes in this direction. It tailors well to a fast growing young generation that will shape-up the future of today&rsquo;s aging cities, and which is much more sensitive to a &lsquo;collective&rsquo; future. This generation will live in the rapidly densifying and re-densifying cities, where individual space will be traded for proximity to jobs, fun, and services. This young generation will shape-up the face of Arabian Cities, if and only if, policies are in tune</p>

<p>Connect4Climate joined the UNFCCC to organize the first ever Education Day on December 4 at a climate conference in support of Article 8 of the Paris agreement, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information. The main message was that climate education is a fundamental pre-requisite to advance climate solutions to achieve a resilient, low-carbon future.&nbsp;Max Edkins presented the Connect4Climate strategy at the&nbsp;<a href="http://connect4climate.org/initiative/cop21-youth-heart-climate-talks&q…; target="_blank">Non-formal Education</a>&nbsp;side-event and announced&nbsp;<a href="http://connect4climate.org/event/fiat-lux-illuminating-our-common-home&…; target="_blank">Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home</a>.</p>

<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/_DSC8415%20%281%29.jpg" style="width: 1000px; height: 663px;" /></div>

<div style="text-align: center;">
<p><em>Connect4Climate presented as best-case study at UN Alliance Side Event on Non-Formal Climate Change Education and Innovative Approaches for Climate Change Learning. Photo Credit: UNFCCC</em></p>

<p style="text-align: left;">On December 8, a coalition convened by the World Bank Group&rsquo;s Connect4Climate initiative presented a gift of contemporary public art entitled&nbsp;<a href="http://connect4climate.org/initiative/climate-deal-expectations-rise-ex…; target="_blank">Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home</a>&nbsp;to Pope Francis on the opening day of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, to galvanize action and drive global attention to the importance of tackling climate change.&nbsp;The large-scale architectural public art installation was inspired by the themes of climate change, human dignity and the earth&rsquo;s living creatures in the Encyclical &ldquo;Laudato Si&rsquo;&rdquo; of Pope Francis. Programmed to coincide not only with the Jubilee, but also with COP21 in Paris, the historic occasion called on citizens of the world to join a global movement to protect our common home.</p>

<p style="text-align: left;">The cinematic event featured the work of some of the world&rsquo;s most notable humanistic and nature photographers and filmmakers including Sebastião Salgado (Genesi and Contrasto), Joel Sartore (National Geographic Photo Ark), Yann Arthus Bertrand (Human), David Doubilet, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson (Samsara), Howard Hall, Shawn Heinrichs, Greg Huglin, Chris Jordan, Steve McCurry, Paul Nicklen and Louie Schwartzberg. The projection is curated by Louie Psihoyos and Travis Threlkel, and produced by Obscura Digital. Francesco Carrozzini curated the Creative Direction for Connect4Climate.&nbsp;<a href="https://vimeo.com/149443978&quot; target="_blank">See the full experience on the Connect4Climate Vimeo channel</a>.</p>

<p style="text-align: left;">[video:https://vimeo.com/148381415]</p&gt;
</div>

<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>

<p>Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group:&nbsp;&quot;We are honored to be working with the Vatican to raise awareness of an issue so critical to our shared goal of ending extreme poverty. The poorest people in the world are disproportionately affected by the effects of a warming climate and are most vulnerable to natural disasters and extreme weather. This impressive initiative will draw global attention to the urgency of tackling climate change for the sake of people and our planet.&quot;</p>

<p>By December 9 the event had already reached 53 million impressions and 2.6K mentions and since then&nbsp;the event has&nbsp;been featured in all major news outlets. A BBC News video of it on Facebook already has more than 2 million views.</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Have you seen our beautiful photos of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FiatLux?src=hash&quot; target="_blank">#FiatLux</a> event? Take a look: <a href="https://t.co/mowQlPOhdW&quot; target="_blank">https://t.co/mowQlPOhdW</a&gt; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OurCommonHome?src=hash&quot; target="_blank">#OurCommonHome</a> <a href="https://t.co/CNrJXqWdNr&quot; target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/CNrJXqWdNr</a></p>
&mdash; Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate/status/674709169828704256&quot; target="_blank">December 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>With Connect4Climate&#39;s participation in the high-level Climate Change Communication Event on December 9 (<a href="http://unfccc6.meta-fusion.com/cop21/events/2015-12-09-15-00-un-climate…; target="_blank">see the recording here</a>) we announced the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2015/03/20/film4climate-…; target="_blank">Film4Climate International Charter.</a></p>

<p>The Charter has been in the making for a number of months and the emerging document is the result of lengthy discussions among film executives, film makers and film administrators at workshops and presentations around the world over the past two years, culminating in an international conference on November 25th in Paris organized by EcoProd, the environmental arm of the Ile de France Film Commission; CESAR, the Social, Economic and Environmental Council for the Ile de France and Connect4Climate.</p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/_DSC9622%20%281%29.jpg" style="width: 1000px; height: 663px;" /></p>

<p style="text-align: center;"><em>High-level Climate Change Communication Event at COP21 with (R to L) Nick Nuttall, Kathleen Rogers, David de Rothschild, Bianca Jagger, Donald Ranvaud, Blanca Juti, Max Schorr and Angelique Kidjo. Photo Credit: Max Edkins</em></p>

<p>The aim is for the Charter to form the base for action in conjunction with COP 21 decisions where working groups will determine the details of how best to implement widespread &lsquo;green&rsquo; production guidelines internationally, and also propagate further integration of sustainable lifestyle decisions into content and storylines.</p>

<p>&ldquo;The document responds to a general feeling among the participants that it is something the industry can and should do universally to answer the challenges of climate change, while at the same time recognizing the importance of flexibility when t comes to specifics, specifics especially with regards to the vast differences in scale of production and regional or local customs and requirements&rdquo;&nbsp;noted Donald Ranvaud, creative producer of Connect4Climate.</p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/rene_leys&quot; target="_blank">@rene_leys</a> announced the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Film4Climate?src=hash&quot; target="_blank">#Film4Climate</a> charter at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COP21?src=hash&quot; target="_blank">#COP21</a> - an international effort to advance sustainability <a href="https://t.co/rVYsP7ZILE&quot; target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/rVYsP7ZILE</a></p>
&mdash; Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) <a href="https://twitter.com/Connect4Climate/status/674602294244212737&quot; target="_blank">December 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<p>At COP21 Max Edkins and Donald Ranvaud explained the #Youth4Climate and #Film4Climate initiatives of the Connect4Climate Program of the World Bank Group.</p>

<p>[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kZmPzJLWy0]</p&gt;

<p style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;</p>

<p>On December 8, a coalition convened by the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate initiative presented a gift of contemporary public art entitled “Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home” to Pope Francis on the opening day of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, to galvanize action and drive global attention to the importance of preserving our natural environment and tackling climate change.</p>

<p>The coalition comprised of Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc., the Li Ka Shing Foundation and Okeanos, in partnership with The Oceanic Preservation Society and Obscura Digital, is working under the auspices of Connect4Climate, the World Bank’s global partnership program dedicated to driving global action on climate change.</p>

<p>At this unprecedented and historic event, beautiful images of our shared natural world were projected onto the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica in a contemporary work of public art that tells the visual story of the inter-dependency of humans and life on earth with the planet, in order to educate and inspire change around the climate crisis across generations, cultures, languages, religions and class.</p>

<p>The large-scale architectural public art installation was inspired by the themes of climate change, human dignity and the earth’s living creatures in the Encyclical “Laudato Si’” of Pope Francis. Programmed to coincide not only with the Jubilee, but also with COP21 in Paris, the historic occasion called on citizens of the world to join a global movement to protect our common home.</p>

<p>The cinematic event featured the work of some of the world’s most notable humanistic and nature photographers and filmmakers including Sebastião Salgado (Genesi and Contrasto), Joel Sartore (National Geographic Photo Ark), Yann Arthus Bertrand (Human), David Doubilet, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson (Samsara), Howard Hall, Shawn Heinrichs, Greg Huglin, Chris Jordan, Steve McCurry, Paul Nicklen and Louie Schwartzberg. The projection is curated by Louie Psihoyos and Travis Threlkel, and produced by Obscura Digital. Francesco Carrozzini curated the Creative Direction for Connect4Climate.</p>

<p>Jim Yong Kim, President, World Bank Group, states, “We are honored to be working with the Vatican to raise awareness of an issue so critical to our shared goal of ending extreme poverty. The poorest people in the world are disproportionately affected by the effects of a warming climate and are most vulnerable to natural disasters and extreme weather. This impressive initiative will draw global attention to the urgency of tackling climate change for the sake of people and our planet.”</p>

<p>Minister Gianluca Galletti, Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, Italy, among the Donors and Funders of Connect4Climate, said: "The fight against climate change invokes each of us in a battle for civilization and democracy. This was explained by the Holy Father in his extraordinary encyclical "Laudato Si": respect to the environment is the condition to reaffirm universal rights and defend human dignity, to guarantee global security, to build a fairer world...Intercultural dialogue is our most important objective and the most efficient tool for peace."</p>

<p>Lucia Grenna, Program Manager of the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate global partnership program, adds, “We are proud to support the realization of this gift of art to Pope Francis and to work with our creative partners to highlight the biggest issues facing mankind: poverty and climate change. This artistic display will tell a powerful visual story of the interdependency of all life on earth with our environment and we hope inspire the teams in Paris to push for the most ambitious deal possible.”</p>

<p>[video:https://vimeo.com/148381415]</p&gt;