Foresight and Sustainability - Perspectives on a Sustainable Future
The Foresight & Sustainability Summit
“For a long time, sustainability was not taken seriously. Thankfully this has changed,” stated Dr. Tobias Heger in his opening remarks at our Foresight & Sustainability Summit 2021 on September 23rd. Hosted together with innovation software company Itonics and EDHEC Business School, the virtual event was a unique opportunity for cross-industry sustainability, strategic foresight, innovation, ESG and CSR professionals to gather and discuss one of the most pressing issues of our era: the climate crisis and businesses’ role in mitigating it.
Below we gather interviews with speakers at the event and Foresight experts at Rohrbeck Heger.
Thomas Boermans - Head of Foresight at E.ON
In this interview, Thomas Boermans highlights
- the complexity of many stakeholders involved and infrastructure challenges
- the needed urgency and speed of a transition
- the challenges facing the energy industry
- how shifts in his industry have already happened
- the question/challenge is not recognizing “we have to change” but rather “how do we execute to get to this change”
Stephan Hankammer - Assistant Professor at Alanus University
In this interview, Stephan Hankammer highlights
- we talk about sustainability since decades, but in reality have seen rather unsustainable development
- the need to envision a post-growth world
- business need to consider imagining “another way of life.”
- all actors should be contributing to a social ecological transformation
Sebastian Knab - Manager at Rohrbeck Heger
In this interview, Sebastian Knab highlights
- that sustainability has become center stage for many companies nowadays and people become more open to new ideas
- that the financial sector, customers and employees are putting pressure on companies
- our own behavior and traditional contradicts our knowledge that we need to act more sustainably
- with foresight, we build scenarios and visualizations of the future that people can unite behind in order to shape together a sustainable future
Alejandro Berbesi and Chris de la Cerda - Consultants at Rohrbeck Heger
In this interview, Alejandro Berbesi and Chris de la Cerda discuss how
- in the future, green consumerism will become a general lifestyle, not a niche subject
- sustainability topics impact our society's future
- managing the actual transition is oftentimes the greatest challenge of businesses
- scenario-driven decision-making helps businesses manage transitions successfully, becoming both sustainable and profitable
- to benefit from new business opportunities in post-growth times
