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Dear Madam, dear Sir,

Let me share with you the first issue of CEEweb’s business and biodiversity newsletter, to which you were subscribed due to your raised interest towards environmental protection.

We are striving for the conservation of natural heritage in the Central and Eastern European region, in which businesses have the potential to play significant role, while keep or even increase their competitiveness. Thus, CEEweb has started its programme on business and biodiversity in order to exploit the synergies of well-working cooperation.

This monthly newsletter will provide you information about the most recent international processes, emerging requirements and opportunities, as well as best practices worth following in the field of business and biodiversity.

If you have any comments about our first issue, how we could improve the newsletter for you, we are happy to hear your suggestions.

Enjoy reading!

Kind regards,
Veronika Kiss and Sarolta Tripolszky
The Business and Biodiversity Team of CEEweb

In this issue:

Ecological Thinking for Business Transformation: Article issued in the Nature of Business

Invitation to a global business and biodiversity forum, 12-14 October, 2014 in Pyeongchang, South Korea

Support our work in order to make it more visible! - CEEweb is looking for corporate partners

Ecological Thinking for Business Transformation: Article issued in the Nature of Business

Most people in business subscribe to an out-dated worldview, a perception of reality inadequate for dealing with the volatile and globally interconnected business world. What is required for the health and vitality of our businesses and economies is a radical shift in our perceptions, our thinking and our business behaviour. We are witnessing a change in business paradigm from one suited for the industrial era to one suited for the interconnected era.

At the core of this paradigm shift is a perception shift from ‘seperatedness’ to ‘interconnectedness’

Just as in science we have discovered that no longer can the universe be viewed as a machine composed of elementary building blocks. So too organisations need not be viewed as atomised, silo’ed and tightly managed machines. More they need to be viewed as vibrant, living organisms interacting within emergent, self-regulating and self-organising business ecosystems.

Likewise evolution is no longer seen as a competitive struggle for existence, but rather as a ‘cooperative dance in which creativity and the constant emergence of novelty are the driving forces’ (in the words of Fritjof Capra, founding director of the Centre for Ecoliteracy).

Ditto for business evolution and so business people need to shift perceptions from seeing isolated, competing aspects of the business environment to seeing the interconnected and emergent nature of the business reality ahead.

In fact, the more we understand how life works, the more we recognise how the organising principles of life can be applied to business. It is as if the challenging business environment we find ourselves in (this ‘perfect storm’) gives the perfect environment for us to shift our perceptions to see the business world for what it really is – a part of life.

Knowledge of the core principles of how life works becomes a critical skill for business leaders and change agents wishing to successfully transform their organisations in these volatile times. It is what BCI (Biomimicry for Creative Innovation) calls ‘ecological thinking for radical transformation’.

Here are some ecological principles of nature:

  • Networks: All living systems are interconnected and share resources across their boundaries.
  • Cycles:  As a whole, an ecosystem generates no net waste, as one species’ waste becomes another species’ food with matter and energy transforming and cycling continually through the web of life.
  • Partnership:  Life did not take over the planet by combat but by co-operation, partnership and networking.
  • Diversity:  Ecosystems achieve robustness and resilience through the richness and complexity of their ecological webs.  Increased diversity equals increased resilience.

Understanding the patterns and principles of nature can provide vital insight into how to best future-proof business for the unpredictability ahead.

Time to transform.

Originally published on The Nature of Business.
Giles Hutchins is a writer who believes that “Nature holds the key to solving the pressing challenges business faces today.”

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Invitation to a global business and biodiversity forum, 12-14 October, 2014 in Pyeongchang, South Korea

The CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) is planning an extensive 3-day business forum (12-14 October, 2014) at the CoP12 in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The planned themes cover numerous topics on business and biodiversity. These include: Mainstreaming and Assessment, Capacity Building and Cooperation, Reporting and Communication, Biotrade, Sustainable Tourism, Access and Benefit Sharing, Resource Mobilisation as well as side-events on other B@B topics.

Many businesses that were directly contacted by the CBD have already confirmed their interest in participating, including high-level speakers. However, there are still some available slots for speakers and wider participation. There will be a good cross section of international business participants so if you/your organisation are interested in speaking or attending please contact David Steuerman (david.steuerman@cbd.int) and Strahil Christov (Strahil.CHRISTOV@ec.europa.eu).

More details on the event and registration information can be found on:
https://www.cbd.int/business/bc/cop12.shtml

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Support our work in order to make it more visible! - CEEweb is looking for corporate partners

In order to reach out to regional businesses and other stakeholders we are establishing a dedicated Central and Eastern European Business and Biodiversity website. The website will include a knowledge hub containing information on the most recent EU and international processes and requirements, regional events, as well as new initiatives and opportunities. It will provide networking possibilities for those entities (either business or NGO), which have already recognized that nature conservation ensures environmental, social as well as economic benefits at the same time. The visitors of the website can also learn from regional business and biodiversity pioneers, what pro-biodiversity action they are taking, and how they integrate ecosystem consideration in their business strategies. Last, but not least we have started to prepare training materials on how businesses can gain profit while conserving nature.

If you feel like sharing your knowledge and supporting our activities, please feel free to contact us at business@ceeweb.org! We are looking for premium sponsors, who can make our efforts successful! 

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