Berlin International (BI) Alumni Association presented last week the "Sustainable Systems for the Future," conference held October 14-16, 2022. During this three-day event on campus, external speakers provided insights into the design- and business-related concepts of sustainability and transformation. The conference took place in a hybrid format, on campus, with the option of online participation.
The goal of the conference, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), is to bring together former students from the Faculties of Business Administration as well as Architecture & Design in the context of an event on the topic of sustainability. Together with experts from the Federal Environmental Agency, the Biomimicry Institute in California, Bahçeşehir University, and many others, they worked out how sustainable strategies can be implemented as a necessary social change in the future.
The focus of the conference is not just theory, but the approach that design and business must enter into a closer relationship to redefine values for social, economic, and environmental change. The societal challenges of the 21st century – climate change, biodiversity loss, and global inequality – are interconnected and cross-cutting and cannot be solved through isolated or sectoral approaches. Sustainable approaches to these challenges recognize systemic interconnections and close relationships among different disciplines.
Framed by theoretical input and expert guidance, a transdisciplinary workshop applied transformative approaches to a practical project. Throughout the conference, participants were encouraged to apply sustainable tools and methods for problem assessment and solution-finding in business and design projects. At the same time, ideas for improving existing structures were questioned and developed to ensure a resilient, regenerative, just, and equitable future.
Click here for more information about the program.
