Exploring the First Track at the Reporting 3.0 Conference: "The Village"

Overview of Keynote Presentations & Panels at June Reporting 3.0 Conference in Rotterdam
May 15, 2019 10:00 AM ET

To tap into the excitement of the 6th International Reporting 3.0 Conference, the next four releases will explain each of the four Conference tracks. First, let us examine The Village track, devoted to the primary Keynote Presenters and Panels. The Conference will convene 17/18 June 2019 in the ultra-modern Erasmus Pavilion at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

To register for this dynamic Conference, click here.

The Program for the Conference is based on the metaphor of a mountain climb -- which begins and ends at the village commons. Hence the name for the Conference's first track: The Village. This is where everyone gathers to set the fundamental foundations of understanding of the Context for Thriveable Transformation (the Conference tagline) -- through a series of interactive Keynote Presentations and Panels. Each of these Plenary Sessions features Keynote Presentations followed by discussion amongst the Panelists facilitated by r3.0 Senior Director Bill Baue and/or Managing Director Ralph Thurm, then open up to interactive dialogue with the audience in Q&A mode.

The Village: Session One

Eosta CEO Volkert Engelsman kicks off the Conference with a Keynote on the shift from the necessary is impossible to the impossible is necessary (riffing on Tom Friedman from his latest book Thank You for Being Late) – addressing the magnitude of transformation needed. In particular, Engelsman will focus on the role of True Cost Accounting in achieving truly sustainable food systems.

"We are inevitably headed towards a new economy in which the hidden costs for people, the environment, and society – the so-called externalities – will be included in profit and loss accounts, as they should be," says Engelsman. "The challenge for science is to identify the actual costs, while it is up to the government to create a level playing field in the market that ensures polluters pay. The challenge for the business community is to free sustainability from the isolation of the staff departments and allow it to sink into the DNA of their profit and loss accounts." He sounds as if he's reading from the script of the r3.0 Accounting Blueprint!

The Village: Session Two

Bookending the first day is the second Village session, focused on Building the Backbone of the Transformation. Speakers include:

  • International Integrated Reporting Council CEO Richard Howitt presenting on IIRC's partnership with r3.0 on the shift from Monocapitalism to Multicapitalism.
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Policy Analyst Michal Shinwell will present on OECD's Measuring Well-Being and Progress Program.
  • Natural Capital Coalition Executive Director Mark Gough will speak about the emerging convergence between natural, social, and human capital measurement and management protocols.

"We are unapologetic multi-capitalists," says IIRC CEO Richard Howitt. "We see in this approach the potential to bring about new thinking on thresholds and allocations – how to ensure the sustainable use of capitals that are in limited supply or are non-renewable or need to be continually regenerated – in more technical terms, within the 'carrying capacities' of the capitals themselves."

Michal Shinwell of OECD will present on its Measuring Well-Being and Progress Program, which aligns with the Ultimate Ends of well-being in the Daly Hourglass that Reporting 3.0 introduced in the Data Blueprint, and which serves as the foundation of Context-Based Sustainability

Mark Gough of the Natural Capital Coalition's presentation will cover how to integrate thresholds such as Johan Rockström's Planetary Boundaries & Kate Raworth's Social Foundations into multicapitals-based measurement & management.

The Village: Session Three

Day Two kicks off with a "dream" session, Memes for a Regenerative Economy, featuring Doughnut Economics Author Kate Raworth and Capital Institute Regenerative Communities Network Community Catalyst Joe Brewer. 

In Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth describes the “Power of Pictures” in re-conceptualizing systems: “If we want to rewrite economics, we need to redraw its pictures because we stand little chance of telling a new story if we stick to the old illustrations.” She cites cognitive linguist George Lakoff on framing, noting that “simply rebutting the dominant frame will, ironically, only serve to reinforce it [so] it is absolutely essential to have a compelling alternative frame.”

In this session, Kate will discuss the importance of the Doughnut as a meme for spreading understanding of thresholds -- the "outer limits" or ecological ceilings and the "inner limits" of social foundations (to borrow from the concepts first established by Barbara Ward in the 1974 UNEP / UNCTAD "Cocoyoc Declaration"). 

At the 2016 New Metrics Conference, Bill & Ralph attended a workshop where Joe Brewer presented a brief history of the development of economic theory in the late 19th Century, predicated on linear thermodynamic mathematics. Unfortunately, economic theory failed to adapt to developments in the 20th Century in non-linear thermodynamic mathematics, which introduced systems dynamics and complexity science into the equation. Bill & Ralph were blown away, and asked Joe to summarize this analysis as a bridge to his current work as the Community Catalyzer for the Capital Institute Regenerative Communities Network.

In his Keynote to the 2015 Reporting 3.0 Conference, Capital Institute Founder John Fullerton presented the provocation that the bioregion -- not the enterprise -- represents the ideal locus of attention for triggering transformation. Joe is enacting this, bringing to bear his deep understanding of framing (from working with Lakoff and producing studies on climate memes) to advance the memes of regeneration and bioregionalism.

The Village: Session Four

The final Village Session focuses on Activating Transformation, with perspectives from Designing Regenerative Cultures Author Daniel Christian Wahl and International Bateson Institute President Nora Bateson.

Daniel Christian Wahl is a Reporting 3.0 Conference veteran, having Keynoted last year as well. This year, his presentation mirrors the shift in focus from conceptualization to implementation, as he reports on real-world efforts to actualize the SDGs.  

Nora Bateson's presentation will launch from the foundation of the Reporting 3.0 Data Blueprint, which calls for integrating, contextualizing, and activating data, to bridge her concept of Warm Data, which calls for transcontextualizing information about the interrelationships that integrate a complex system.

Please see the Reporting 3.0 Conference Website to register and to view more Speaker Quotes and Biographies, the Full Program, Sponsors, and Venue information.

Contact:

Bill Baue
Senior Director
b.baue@reporting3.org

Ralph Thurm
Managing Director
r.thurm@reporting3.org