Building A New Civilization
The leading conference on Social business/entrepreneurship
Global Social Business Summit
The GSBS is the worldwide leading forum for Social Business. It serves to spread awareness about Social Business, foster discussion and collaboration between practitioners and stakeholders, as well as present and conceive best practices.
The annual event is organized by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate professor Muhammad Yunus and his creative advisor Hans Reitz, and gathers experts from the private sector, civil society, governments and academia over a few days of meetings, forums and workshops.
The main topics of the GSBS 2018 will be Plastic & Circular Economy, Mobility, Solidarity, Sports & Social Business and Food & Its Value.
Plastic & Circular Economy
“Plastic does not belong to nature and we need a fundamental system change to address the problem. What we need is a circular economy.” (Hans Reitz)
Plastic pollution has become one of the most urgent social and environmental problems of our generation. Approximately 8 million tons of plastic are dumped in our oceans every year and it is expected that in the year 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. A systemic change is needed. The question is how to start thinking circular and transform our linear industrial production lines in order to transform to a more circular economy? A chance for Social Business entrepreneurs to change the game and become the pioneers for circular solutions.
During the Global Social Business Summit 2018 different plastic recycling & waste management Social Businesses and approaches will be discussed in various workshops, presentations and expert dialogues.
Mobility
Frictionless, automated, personalized travel on demand — there are many dreams about the future of mobility. We are coming closer to a new era of mobility which will create an ecosystem of connected ways of transportation – for persons and for goods.
The future of mobility will be more sustainable, will create less traffic in large cities and will be less ownership orientated by the individual.
We will explore ideas how mobility and Social Business can create a better future for disadvantaged groups and improve peoples life with a sustainable way of transportation.
Solidarity
Today, we live in a period of time with great challenges. The world is affected by global warming, population is growing continuously and the numbers of refugees are growing in many regions.
To solve these challenges, it would be necessary to create a global solidarity culture and start a social age. We can build a new civilization on the base of empathy and solidarity.
Solidarity and human values are at the very heart of the Social Business philosophy. Social Business helps solving solidarity issues and challenges related to migration, by using the best business practices sustainably. At GSBS we will discuss how we can foster more human solidarity especially towards the climate and war refugees around the world and how to create Social Business solutions to support refugees.
Sports & Social Business
“I always felt amazed at the limitless power of sport. It is powerful because it is basic to human nature. Where there is power there is always a chance to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.”
Professor Muhammad Yunus
Sports can play an important role in promoting healthy lifestyles, education, peace and social inclusion. We believe that the sports world is a fertile ground for social business to flourish, and Social Business a trigger to unleash the social potential of sports in a sustainable way.
This year the panel on Sports & Social Business will focus on presenting existing sport and Social Business initiatives. We find answers to questions like: “How can Social Business and sports drive a positive change on corporate culture?” Therefore, we have chosen a substantial number of panelists based on their outstanding work at different levels of the sports world. Each of them will focus on talking about opportunities related to their particular level of engagement and expertise.
Food & Its Value
“Everywhere people want to regain control over their food.” Emmanuel Faber, CEO Danone
Food is an important topic in everyday life – for people experiencing famines as well as for consumers in developed countries who are looking for healthier diets and a more socially responsible way of life.
The way of a global industrial food production is reaching its limits and needs to be changed into a sustainable production. But its production is not only causing challenges but can include solutions on how malnutrition can be avoided. It can also work against diet-related illnesses as diabetes and can be changed in a way that stops wasting water, soil depletion, and climate change.
This year’s GSBS will show how social businesses act different in terms of food production in order to create a new civilization which respects nature, environment and will shift food from a problem cause to a solution for several social and human aspects.
The Grameen Creative Lab
The Grameen Creative Lab was officially founded in January 2009. In February 2008, Hans Reitz undertook his first trip to Bangladesh to visit prof. Muhammad Yunus and learn about Grameen and the idea of Social Business. During 2008, prof. Yunus and Hans Reitz deepened their relationship and agreed on a close collaboration.
Hans Reitz became prof. Yunus’ creative advisor and friend. In January 2009, this relationship was formalized – The Grameen Creative Lab was established as a Joint Venture between the Yunus Centre in Bangladesh and circ responsibility, a CR consulting company based in Wiesbaden, Germany. Their shared vision has been to fight poverty by accelerating Social Business.