Plenary Session

Resources and Technological Innovation

Improving the quality of life and human wellbeing has historically been strongly linked
to increasing resource consumption. Socio-technical innovation still focuses on increasing production and on efficiency gains, but not necessarily on sustainability, as efficiency gains are often counteracted by rebound effects. However, environmental change and increasing scarcity of both resources and ecosystem services can catalyse innovation towards radically different patterns of resource consumption. The plenary will ask:

• Can we achieve sustainability through technological innovation?
• Can we identify an agenda for action necessary for the transition towards sustainability?
• How do we transform the economic basis of our society into a sustainable
one?
• What role does the current economic crisis play in shaping a possible sustainability
transition?

Professor Ernst von Weizsaecker, IHDP Scientific Committee. Photo Copyright Mike Le Gray 2009.

Professor Ernst von Weizsaecker, IHDP Scientific Committee. Photo Copyright Mike Le Gray 2009.

Richard Tol, of the Economic and Social Research Institute, Ireland. Photo Copyright Mike Le Gray 2009.

Frans Berkhout, Professor of Innovation and Sustainability and Director, Institute for Environmental Studies/Instituut voor Milieuvraagstukken (IVM), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Photo Copyright Mike Le Gray 2009.

Ortwin Renn, University of Stuttgart and Director, DIALOGIK, Germany. Photo Copyright Mike Le Gray 2009.

Ortwin Renn, University of Stuttgart and Director, DIALOGIK, Germany. Photo Copyright Mike Le Gray 2009.

Christopher Bunting, Secretary General, IRGC, Switzerland. Photo Copyright Mike Le Gray 2009.

All conference photographs are copyright Mike Le Gray 2009. For information on licensing please contact him directly at mikelegray@mac.com or +49 1757 283 084. For examples of Mike Le Gray's work visit www.flickr.com/photos/black-dog or www.digitalperspective.biz