Greening the Economy, Fringe or Core Business? « TECHburgher :: Putting some sizzle in the Pittsburgh technology sector.

The Pittsburgh Eric M. Warburg Chapter of the American Council on Germany, in cooperation with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, is hosting a luncheon and discussion with Professor Ernst von Weizsäcker, Dean, University of California Santa Barbara, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Von Weizsäcker will be speaking on the topic of Greening the Economy, Fringe or Core Business.

Ernst von Weizsäcker joined Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara as Dean in January 2006. Previously, he served as Policy Director at the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development and was Director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy in Bonn, Germany. He spent nearly a decade as founding president for the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy in the North Rhine / Wesphalian Science Center in Germany. After its founding in 1991, the Wuppertal Institute became the largest climate policy think tank in Europe and earned Dr. von Weizsäcker recognition as one of the most respected climate policy experts on the continent. He attended several Conferences of the Parties (COP) of the Climate Convention, including the Kyoto COP 3 in 1997, from which Kyoto Protocol originated.

Dr. von Weizsäcker is a member of the Club of Rome, a global think tank devoted to improving society, and he served on the World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalization. Prior to coming to the Bren School, he chaired the Environmental Committee of the Bundestag, the German parliament, overseeing the establishment of the carbon trading regime and the introduction of a powerful incentive system for renewable energies in Germany. From 2003 to 2004, he served as Germany’s representative on Tony Blair’s Study Group on climate policy, which prepared UK policies for the Gleneagles G8 Summit.