In the city of Cotonou, most drivers of the numerous motorbike taxis known as “Zémidjans” in the local language phon have a strange accessory to their uniforms: they wear sleeping masques (the kind one gets in planes) over their mouths.
Digital entertainment giant Sony and the non-profit World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) put one simple question onto the web in September 2010: “How can today’s technology help us to make the most of our planet’s resources?” It was the kick-off for their initiative called Open Planet Ideas (OPI). Participants from nearly 200 countries joined the journey to find an answer. In doing so, they identified more than 300 challenges our world faces at the moment. For instance, how do we turn our behaviours less resource-intensive? And how to turn waste into something useful?
Important intergenerational questions on environmental sustainability and resources have to be tackled in dialogue between generations. However, at the World Resource Conference, these much needed idea clashed with reality.
They are experts in their field. They work for more environmental sustainability. But how well do they do in the real challenges which life has in store? Meet the sustainability experts at the table football.
Conference visitors and locals seldom meet in Davos: the locals often don’t even know what is happening inside their local conference centre. Life continues in a parallel world before and during the days of the World Resources Forum (WRF) in October.