GIN2008 Conference: Facilitating Sustainable Innovation
<st1:date month="6" day="26" year="2008" w:st="on">June 26-28, 2008</st1:date>
<st1:city w:st="on">Leeuwarden</st1:city>, The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Netherlands</st1:country-region></st1:place>
Go to www.greeningofindustry.org/gin2008.htm for the Conference Announcement and Call for Participation. Proposals due on <st1:date month="3" day="21" year="2008" w:st="on">March 21, 2008</st1:date>.
Innovation is considered a major driving force in sustainable economic development. Regions may play an important role in this process utilizing undiscovered resources and being as a breeding ground for innovation. The regional perspective is also vital in sustainable development. The concept of sustainability is often discussed at the national or even global level. Yet, processes for sustainable development find their origin and the potential mostly at the local and regional level. It is at these levels that sustainable development is actually influencing people, current practices, and routines.
The challenge that we raise with this conference is how to evoke on a regional scale successful innovations, also commercially successful, within a shifting paradigm towards sustainable development. Conference participants will work together to respond to the conference challenge: How do we create a context in which sustainable innovations can succeed? The conference outcome will include a manifesto on Creating Sustainable Pathways with concrete recommendations how to create sustainable innovations on a regional level. All sessions at the conference will contribute to the manifesto.
The three-day program will include a visit to the Frisian Solar Challenge (http://www.frisiansolarchallenge.nl/eng/index.php), a race between boats running solely on solar energy.
The GIN2008 Conference is co-organized by:
The Greening of Industry Network - The Cartesius Institute - The Province of Fryslân (Friesland)
u Please mark your calendars: June 26-28, 2007. A detailed Call for Participation has now been released: www.greeningofindustry.org/gin2008.htm. t
Best wishes from GIN,
Theo de Bruijn, European coordinator (theo.debruijn@utwente.nl)