ALAN ATKISSON
Sponsored by INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS SERVICES
Area of Expertise: Sustainability
Keynote Title: The Hope Graph: How to Accelerate and Deepening the Practice of
Education for Sustainable Development
Description:
Climate change, resource scarcity, food crises, disappearing species
... we live in the world that the authors of books like "The Limits to
Growth" (1972) warned us about over 30 years ago. Negative trends
like these are accelerating, and they also link together, in ways that
create unpredictable effects and problematic surprises in our world.
Physical scientists and social scientists are increasingly concerned
about these hidden "tipping points" in our planetary systems, and
research is increasingly focused on how to reduce the risk of going past a point of no return.
At the same time, positive trends are also accelerating, as whole
societies mobilize to create "circular economies", embrace renewable
energy, conserve ecosystems, and practice new forms of "sustainable
development" that can lift people out of poverty and secure justice,
while sparing the Earth. Our world is in a genuine race against time. Can we accelerate these positive developments, and outrace the
problems?
During this crucial and decisive decade, which the United Nations has
declared the "Decade for Education on Sustainable Development" (DESD),
learning plays a central role in all sectors -- and formal education
plays a starring one. Around the world, new mandates for
understanding and teaching sustainability are emerging, formally and
informally. The necessary skills involve interpreting research, doing
systems thinking, and helping to speed up the process of innovation
and adoption of solutions to our gathering challenges.
Alan AtKisson, author of The ISIS Agreement: How Sustainability Can
Improve Organizational Performance and Transform the World, will
review the latest trends in sustainability as they relate to
education. Using a mixture of presentation styles, he will underscore
how education for sustainable development can be engaging, creative,
and fun, while also meeting the serious demands of our times.
AtKisson will also present the "ISIS Method," a structured process for
doing sustainable development in both teaching and management,
together with the "ISIS Accelerator," a toolkit that puts the method
into practice. "ISIS" stands for "Indicators > Systems > Innovation >
Strategy," and forms the core of an approach used by sustainability
initiatives in corporations, cities, government agencies, and schools
and universities around the world.
Biography:
Alan AtKisson has been working at the forefront of innovation and
practice in sustainability for over twenty years. He is president of
the AtKisson Group, an international consultancy founded in 1992, with
associates and affiliates in nine countries. The AtKisson Group's
services, training tools, and planning methods have been used by
hundreds of sustainability initiatives around the world, in
government, cities, development programs, schools, universities, and
global companies.
He is the author of two books, Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks
at a Pessimist's World (Chelsea Green, 1999) and The ISIS Agreement:
How Sustainability Can Improve Organizational Performance and
Transform the World (Earthscan, 2008). He is also a co-author or
contributor to a number of other websites, journals, and books,
including The Natural Advantage of Nations (Earthscan, 2006) and
Worldchanging: A User's Guide to the 21st Century (Abrams, 2006).
Alan is the originator of the "ISIS Method," a step-by-step process
for teaching, learning, and doing sustainable development in practice,
as well as the lead designer of the "ISIS Accelerator," a
comprehensive set of tools designed to support education and strategic
action on sustainability.
In a volunteer capacity, Alan also serves as President of the
International Network of Resource Information Centers, also known as
the Balaton Group, an international network of researchers and leaders
working in systems and sustainability, founded by Dennis and Donella
Meadows in 1982.
While primarily working as a consultant, Alan has twice served as a
transitional executive director, leading organizations through change
and reorganization. Most recently, he led the Earth Charter Initiative
-- a global process to promote the widely endorsed statement of common
ethics, values, and vision known as the Earth Charter -- through a
two-year process of strategic restructuring and organization building(2006-2007).
After university training in philosophy, science, and cultural studies
at Tulane and Oxford Universities, Alan was selected a Henry Luce
Scholar and spent a fellowship year in Malaysia (1981-82), working as
a therapist and staff trainer for a heroin addiction rehab center.
His professional experiences include owning and running a clothing
design company in New York City; managing the US branch of an
international peace NGO (Servas); editing the pioneering
sustainability journal In Context (1988-92); co-founding and leading
Sustainable Seattle, a model volunteer-driven program in civic
indicator development that was copied around the world (1991-96); and
directing the economic policy think-tank Redefining Progress
(1996-97). In the 1980s, he led rock and folk music bands in New York
City. Alan continues to perform as a musician and songwriter and has
released four albums on the independent label Rain City Records.
Alan is a frequent conference keynote speaker who seeks continuously
to increase people's intellectual, strategic, ethical, and creative
commitment to sustainability; to "raise the bar" on sustainability in
practice; and to inspire more and more people to an optimistic
engagement with the great challenge of global sustainability.
A dual citizen of Sweden and the United States, he lives in Stockholm,
Sweden, with his wife and partner Kristina AtKisson -- who also works
as a sustainability consultant and trainer -- and their two children.
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WILLIAM LISHMAN
Sponsored by BUFFALO STATE, SUNY
Area of Expertise: Environment, Adventure, and Film Making
Keynote Title: If We Are Not Part of the Solution We Are Part of the Problem
Description:
Bill Lishman reviews how colour blindness and a learning disability
led him to becoming a renown wildlife sculptor pioneer ultralight
aviator and an innovative architect giving new insight into problem
solving team building and creative thinking. Included are
inspirational visuals and stories taking us through many of his career
highlights
An autobiographic Journey from a farm boy in southern Ontario to an
Honorary doctorate
Biography:
William (Bill) Lishman M.S.M., L,L,D. (hon) is a world renowned
artist in many media. His works include award-winning ducumentry films
and numerous works of public art, and his best selling autobiography
inspired the Columbia Pictures hit film Fly Away Home. He was a
pioneer in ultralight aviation and initiated the use of ultralight
aircraft in establishing new migration routes for precocial birds. He
is cofounder and chair emeritus of Operation Migration which has
played the key role in establishing a back up flock of endangered
Whooping cranes. Bills current passion is Air First Aid a unique plan
for a first response supply system for victims of natural disasters.
Bill has received numerous awards including the Odyssey of the Mind's
prestigious Creativity Award, The Canadian Meritorious Service Medal
and the US National Wildlife Federation Conservation award. In June of 2008 he recieved an honorary doctorate from the University of
Ontario.
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JOHN LIU
Sponsored by Studywiz
Area of Expertise: Ecosystem
Keynote Title: "Earth's Hope" - Responding To Climate Change - By Healing the Planet
Description:
In 1995, I was assigned by the World Bank to document the
rehabilitation of the Loess Plateau in Northwest China. Arriving, I
found a vast ruined area the size of France and millions of poor
people struggling to survive. Historically this area was once a
pristine mixed forest and grassland ecosystem that must have been one
of the most nurturing places on earth because it is the birthplace of
the Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group on the planet.
I became fascinated with learning what causes a once pristine
ecosystem to collapse?
Over the years since beginning this line of inquiry I have learned a
great deal and traveled to many other parts of the planet in search of
answers. The inquiry quickly revealed the causes of the destruction,
how the situation in the Loess Plateau parallels the development of
many parts of the world where civilizations failed because their
ecosystem collapsed.
With new understanding, policies and behavior on the plateau, it
became clear that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged
ecosystems including restoring ecosystem function that had been lost
over large areas and over long periods of time; that restoring the
functionality to these systems changes the development trajectory for
communities and individuals making it possible to end centuries and
even millennia of poverty and despair; that restoration ensures the
survival of biodiversity ensuring that the genetic vitality that has
reached this point from the beginning of evolutionary time is
conserved; that functional vegetation cover and soil organic matter
regulates the hydrological system of ground water and humidity in the
atmosphere; that restoring ecosystem function ensures natural nutrient
cycling increasing fertility and productivity; and that this includes
carbon sequestration in the biomass and soil organic matter, the
natural and most effective response to human induced climate change.
For some time now I have been studying whether lessons learned in the
Loess Plateau could be applied elsewhere. Research in Africa and
elsewhere suggests that if everyone understood this and we
collectively acted on this knowledge we could ensure survival and
sustainability for future generations by healing the planet.
This is what I want to share.
Biography:
John D, Liu is an American who has lived in China for more than 25
years. Initially helping to open the CBS News bureau in Beijing at
the time of normalization of relations between the U.S. and China, Mr.
Liu has concentrated on ecological film making since the mid-1990s.
He has written, produced and directed films on Grasslands, Deserts,
Wetlands, Oceans, Rivers, Urban Development, Atmosphere, Forests,
Endangered Animals, Poverty Reduction, primarily for EARTH REPORT and
LIFE series on the BBC World. In 2003, Mr. Liu wrote, produced and
directed "Jane Goodall - China Diary" for National Geographic.
Currently a Research PhD candidate in the School of Human and
Environmental Affairs at the University of Reading, Mr. Liu consults
with the World Bank & the United Nations Environment Programme. Mr.
Liu has been awarded fellowships from the University of the West of
England, The Rothamsted Research Institute and the Asia Society.
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