HEC Paris – Sustainable Business Conference

Smart Cities.
Smart Sustainability

January 22, 2012

The theme of this year conference is “Smart cities, smart sustainability” and will focus on the social, environmental and energy-related impacts of the rising urbanization and globalization trends. Indeed, since 2008 more than half the world's population is living in urban areas and this trend is continuously rising. This phenomenon raises a number of questions, which will be addressed during SBC 2012: Is urbanization an unavoidable evil or is it the only sustainable growth model? ...

Energy and
Environment Track

January 22, 2012

The main objective of this track is to enable existing and upcoming cities solve the fundamental problem of energy and waste generation plaguing them, in a manner that satisfies all four pillars of sustainability - economical, social, environment and institutional. The focus is to help derive solutions that address the challenges of consumer demand and production supply with a minimal ecological impact. The track focuses on three panel discussions: Reducing energy intensity in urban spaces...

Social Business Track

January 22, 2012

How can cities address the social challenges brought by rapidly increasing urbanization? FOOD: In the context of rapidly urbanizing countries, being able to transform agriculture to feed the growing population, in the face of a changing climate, without hindering the natural resource base, will achieve food security goals. Agriculture not only suffers the impact of climate change, it is also responsible for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions and has the potential to be an important par...

Infrastructure
and Mobility Track

January 22, 2012

Several recent independent research initiatives suggest that together with increased urbanization and growth of cities, large investments in sustainable city infrastructure are necessary in order to eliminate negative effects of growing cities on environment. Nevertheless, this is only part of the story, successful cities for the future will be those that will embrace the idea of sustainability and turn it to an opportunity to create a great place to live. Our first panel discussion will b...

This phenomenon raises a number of questions, which will be addressed during SBC 2012:

Is urbanization an unavoidable evil or is it the only sustainable growth model?
How can we take advantage from the environmental challenges that threaten the planet, to rethink and build better cities?
How can we guarantee a harmonic development of our cities under the new impressive urbanization wave?
How can we reconcile the right to economic development of emerging countries (which often implies a massive urbanization trend) with the respect for environment?
How can we guarantee an equal access to resources (economic, energetic, environmental, infrastructural, social) to the new citizens – in particular to the poor layers of society?

Smart Cities. Smart Sustainability

Energy and Environment Track

Social Business Track

Infrastructure and Mobility Track

Smart Cities.
Smart Sustainability

Energy and
Environment Track

Infrastructure
and Mobility Track