NEW Sustainable Business Development Task Force - Launch.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 17:30 - 20:30
Residence of the British Ambassador to the EU
Rue Ducale 17
Brussels
1000
Belgium
The Business Development Group has established a new task force on Sustainable Business Development. The task force will organise a series of four events in 2010 helping to ensure that British Chamber members aren’t left behind when it comes to developing a business case for sustainability and executing it.
The series of events will provide you with:
- an in-depth understanding of sustainable development,
- privileged information relative to sustainable development business opportunities as well as political threats and opportunities in Belgium and in Europe,
- Opportunities to anticipate and shape change within their own business practices.
The opening event, which is hosted by the British Ambassador to Belgium and which will take place at the Ambassador’s Residence on 25th May at 17h30, will see Alain Hubert, founder of the International Polar Foundation (IPF) with the purpose of raising awareness about the importance of polar science and climate change, and Professor Van Ypersele, Vice Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and member of the Royal Academy of Belgium take the floor to give us their insights into where the government level discussions go next and what the impact and opportunities for businesses are.
Biography Alain Hubert
 Alain Hubert is a civil engineer, certified mountain guide (UIAGM) and entrepreneur. He has taken part in several mountaineering and polar expeditions from 1983 to the present, including many as a guide: polar treks since 1990; more than 15 expeditions in the Himalayas between 1983 and 1999; geographic North Pole in autonomy in 1994; worldwide record crossing of the Antarctic continent (4000 km) in 99 days in autonomy in 1997-98 using power kites; and The Arctic Arc expedition, first crossing ever from Siberia to Greenland via the North Pole in 2007. He is also the initiating chief director and engineer for the on-site construction of the Princess Elisabeth station, first “zero emission” research station built by the IPF in Antarctica during the International Polar Year 2007-2009.
In 2002, Alain Hubert founded the International Polar Foundation (IPF) with the purpose of raising awareness about the importance of polar science and climate change, and establishing the Polaris Climate Change Observatory in several locations around the world (www.polarfoundation.org). Active on a scientific and educational front, Alain Hubert continues to give speeches worldwide and to carry out polar expeditions. He is Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, and has been awarded the Georges Lemaître International Prize in 2003 and the first Climate Change Prize ever by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation in 2008.
www.alainhubert.com
Biography Professor Van Ypersele
 Jean-Pascal van Ypersele (1957, Belgium), has a Ph. D. in physics from the « Université catholique de Louvain » (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium), where he is extraordinary professor of climatology and environmental sciences, and directs the Master programme in Science and Management of the Environment (http://www.uclouvain.be/cgse). He made his doctoral research in climatology at NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research, Colorado, USA). He specialized in modelling climate and the climate effects of human activities, and has recently focused his research on the impacts of climate change and on integrated assessment modelling. He chairs the Energy & Climate Working Group of the Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development (http://www.cfdd.be). Since 2002, he is member of the Bureau of the IPCC (http://www.ipcc.ch, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore), and has been elected Vice-chair of IPCC in 2008. In 2009, he was elected a Member of the Belgian Royal Academy. He has participated to a number of United Nations conferences on climate issues, as scientific advisor. Among other prizes, he received in 2006 the « Energy and environment award » from the International Polar Foundation, and the “Francqui Chair” from the Université libre de Bruxelles in 2007-2008.
Photo: ©Jacky Delorme (UCL)
If you’d like to find out more about the work of the task force, sponsor an event or the programme of events or become a member of the task force you can find more information here
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