The eighth Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Conference took place on 14-16 November 2018. More than 500 experts and change-makers gathered in Cologne to exchange ideas, network, and inform themselves about corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability, and responsible leadership by means of presentations, workshop sessions, and panel discussions. Prof René Schmidpeter, chairman of the conference and head of the Center for Advanced Sustainable Management (CASM) at Cologne Business School (CBS), remarked that “old sustainability paradigms did not achieve the results we had hoped for. Let us rethink these concepts together and, if necessary, throw them overboard. Only by thinking of the present from the future can we initiate fundamentally sustainable change.”
Forward-thinkers like John Elkington have already begun to question their own concepts, such as the Triple Bottom Line. Patrick Bungard, head of CASM, added: “The old dichotomy between profit maximization and sustainability does not help. Digitalization and global exchange offer an opportunity to rethink the topic of sustainable management completely.”
Lively Participation in Lectures and Workshop Sessions
With over 60 agenda items, the leading conference for sustainable management in Europe offered a varied program for conference participants this year. Top CSR experts John Elkington, R. Edward Freeman, Wayne Visser, Lize A.E. Booysen, Ernst U. von Weizsäcker, Robert G. Eccles, Georg Kell, and John Spengler inspired the audience with their lectures presenting new perspectives on CSR and sustainability, questioning old theories.
Monika Kolb, CSR conference coordinator of CASM, summarized the outcome of the symposium: “We were very pleased that our conference could offer a stage to all those who challenge the status quo. The feedback from the workshops and the quantity and diversity of the visitors confirmed how relevant this platform is for the joint development of global challenges in business and society”.
Outlook on the Ninth International Conference on Sustainability and Responsibility
The CSR and Sustainability Conference will take place again in 2020. The biannual conference was held for the first time in 2004 as a “platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue” at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Ever since, it has brought together scientists, executives, political decision makers, entrepreneurs, and committed citizens to discuss key economic issues and social and ecological challenges.
Read more about the eighth International Conference on Sustainability and Responsibility here.
About the Center for Advanced Sustainable Management (CASM)
Since its founding in August 2016, CASM has been dealing with issues of corporate social responsibility, international business and corporate ethics, sustainability, and social innovation. These areas are firmly anchored in CBS study programs. With this integrative approach, CASM is taking on an innovative pioneering role in the German educational landscape.
Further information can be found here.