Tag Archives: Rio+20

Quarterly Review and Index

28 Jun

Our editorial streams in the quarter April-June 2012  were dominated by coverage of the UN Sustainability Summit, (Rio+20) with considerable input from ‘Groupe Intellex Associate’ Marit Hendriks in Rio de Janeiro filming for NextGen TV.

Surprise hits, however, were the editorials on the ‘digital’ economy, New Economic Models and, from the archive, a heart-felt sermon on the iniquities of call centres, ‘ Please hold during the silence’.

The Quarterly Review includes references, acknowledgement, a chronological listing and a full alphabetical index of topics and people featured  in the last 3 months.

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Rio+20: Pressing for a Restart

26 Jun

In this final editorial from the UN Sustainability Summit in Rio we consider the disappointments felt by many participants but also celebrate the digital connectivity that has taken the messages from this event to all corners of the world.

In Marit Hendrik’s compilation of voices from Rio we hear from the UN leadership, from those concerned with their own country’s leadership deficit in environmental matters and those who really understand the need to re-engage with a digitally-empowered and well-connected next generation.

Full story here with video from Marit Hendriks for NextGen TV.

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Ria: a tribute to worldly-wise women of Rio+20

22 Jun

Ria in Spanish is the feminine of Rio and it seems only appropriate for our 4th report from Rio+20 to acknowledge the work of women around the world.

On a day when London and Brussels both experienced the power of dignified but determined voices we turn our Rio+20 spotlight on Tanya, Doris and Brittany – three voices with messages that lift us out of politics, resolutions and declarations and into the real world of getting on with finding solutions to everyday environmental problems.

In the rain forests of the Amazon or remote valleys in Switzerland or from the distant shores of New Zealand we feature three great examples of digital empowerment.

Politicians and the media may think the Rio+20 sustainability text is ‘insipid’ but life goes on and the present powers will be held to account by the next generation.

Full story here with videos by Marit Hendriks for NextGenTV.

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Rio+20: the reality of Digital Engagement

20 Jun

From an aerial view of the beach in Rio de Janeiro to Argyll & Bute in the Scottish Highlands by way of Brighton & Hove (and Nick Clegg, Aung San Suu Kyi, the EU delegation led by Denmark, ‘the hairy cornflake’ and Ellen MacArthur) we bring you our second report from the UN’s Sustainability Summit and a message about ‘the problem solving capabilities of networks‘.

All that plus Paragraph 65 of the Rio+20 draft final text that world leaders are expected to affirm this week.

Full story here with additional reporting from Marit Hendriks in Rio for NextGen TV.

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Rio+20: digital realities dawning

19 Jun

As thousands of delegates throng the conference halls of the UN Rio+20 Summit and work late into the night to try and reach a sustainable consensus, voices of reason are highlighting the national and global deficits in digital infrastructure.

In this first of our reports from Rio we bring together thoughts from the European Commission, the ITU, Boston Consulting Group, BT and the guy from Aberdeenshire who just got on with it and founded Mashable.com .  Additional reporting from Marit Hendriks of NextGenTV.

Full story here

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A digital Wake Up call

17 Jun

Whoever gets around to documenting the history of digital transformation should not overlook the small and seemingly insignificant moments that make the pennies drop.

One of these hit the headlines this week.  It was not some great scientific breakthrough, some amazing innovation in clinical practice, or the discovery of new sources of energy.  Nor was it an outbreak of peace in troubled places or a rush by world leaders to sign up to new commitments at the UN Rio+20 summit.

It wasn’t even another report on people empowerment expressed in YouTube videos from conflict areas.

This week’s commotion was the sound of scales falling from the eyes of everyday folk as they realised what digital citizenship was all about.

A nine year old student used her blog to review the quality of her school meals and raise money for the children of Malawi – and it caused havoc in the minds of local government officials.

It’s another a small step in wider awareness of the economy’s digital transformation that, when history is written, should not be forgotten.

Full story here

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Getting Rio

14 Jun

As Rio+20 gets underway and the mainstream media find this gathering of world leaders creeping into the news agenda, we give some time to considering how they will find consensus around fundamental issues for future sustainability.

The leaders will not be short of advice.  Lobbyists from every quarter of the globe and every sector of society are geared up for for a field day and honing their green credentials.

As great minds attempt to focus down on key global policy issues, the question that we hope the world leaders will ask of all those earnest supplicants is ‘Why are you telling me this?‘

And, when they jet back home to more mundane matters we hope that it will be a question they keep asking wherever and whenever they hear continuing excuses for the ‘digital deficit’ that blights the infrastructure that their citizens and venture leaders need for a return to economic health.

Full story here 

(Rio+20 will be reported for Groupe Intellex and NextGenTV by Marit Hendriks)

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Searching for new economic models

20 May

The tide of digital enablement – across the entire economy – has triggered research projects that seek to understand the foundations of new economic models.

The work may lead to new UK centres of research excellence and generate a source of independent and influential policy advice for businesses, organisations of all sizes, communities, governments and regulators.

Some aspects of the RCUK’s work will be presented at NextGen Bristol (17th July) in a workshop led by Prof. Roger Maull from Exeter University.

Full story here

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On the road to Rio: Legacy and Lateness

15 May

The Groupe Intellex editorial ‘Sustainability: the end game for the next generation’ has attracted a great deal of attention and the feedback has been interesting.

It reveals that the themes that most catch readers’ attention are little to do with the UN’s Sustainability summit in Rio – there’s precious little hope expressed for successful outcomes and a great deal of apathy about global governance.

Top of the real concerns of readers are worries about the legacy that inaction will leave for future generations and the fact that after 20 years it still looks as if another twenty years may pass before political leaders are strong enough to address the digital investment that is needed to make progress on environmental issues.

Full story here.

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Preparing for Rio+20 – the full edition

28 Apr

Over the past few weeks Groupe Intellex has devoted space to raise awareness of and prepare delegates for the forthcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in June.

We have now brought these editorials together in a single edition to make it easier for readers to navigate and comment on the series.  Some of these have appeared in previous posts but together they add up to a fairly weighty reading list that delegates might turn to in the 6 weeks remaining before the mechanisms of global diplomacy and lobbyists for corporate interests seek consensus and commitments that might flourish more effectively than those made in 1992.

Our focus kicked off with Marit Hendriks’ piece on ‘Sharing Experiences‘ and the need to learn from others without being tempted to ‘reinvent the wheel’.

This was followed by another essay on ‘the end game for the next generation‘ – an editorial that has been widely shared around the world.

Distracted by racing cars cavorting in the Middle East the short piece ‘What, on Earth Day?‘  made us think more about the silo mentality that compartmentalises discussions that are, or should be, interconnected.

The publication of the Royal Society’s report ‘People and the Planet’ gave us opportunity to start the ‘Ready for Rio‘ series and then the Ellen MacArthur Foundation weighed in with a brilliant exploration of ‘The circular economy‘ – by far the most widely read of our trilogy to date.

Finally – not least because you now have more than enough homework before Rio+20 – we reflected on a more spiritual view – taking the thoughts of Dr Rowan Williams Archbishop of Canterbury – and suggesting amongst other things that our fixation on growth, markets and the commoditisation of everything was somewhat ‘eccentric’.

Groupe Intellex will, in the next few weeks, seek out and publish the news and views of others (your inputs are welcome) and will then report on the outcomes of Rio+20 and the prospects for further progress toward sustainable development.

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