Language: English
10-02, 12:00–13:30 (Europe/Berlin), BASH
What kind of digital and sustainable business models are out there? What challenges do they face and how could their concepts be scaled for the whole society? At this B&B stage Christian Kroll (founder of Ecosia) will share with us practical experience before a panel will critically examine the role of economic actors in socio-ecological Transformation.
B&B Panel for the Track "Digital and Sustainable - Transformative Business Models". Firstly, Ecosia founder, Christian Kroll, will tell us about sustainable practices at Ecosia and their potential challenges. Afterward, a panel discussion with Prof. Dr. Henning Breuer, Dr. Iana Nesterova, and Laura Niessen will critically examine the role of economic actors for the
Socio-Ecological Transformation.
The aim of the ‘Transformative Business Models’ Track at Bits & Bäume is to elaborate on the role of economic actors for the Socio-Ecological Transformation. The focus will be on the potentials and limitations of entrepreneurial action for an economic transformation, as well as its embedding in political framework conditions. We will shed light on whether shorter working hours, women's quotas, or cooperative work are sufficient or even relevant in the social struggle for a sustainable economy. Moreover, the big question is how the transition to a zero-emissions economy can be supported by digital business models and applications.
Christian is the founder of Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees. He launched Ecosia in 2009 after a year-long trip around the world to help people in developing countries and to do something about climate change. The Berlin-based search engine now has 100 employees and millions of users, enabling the company to plant a tree every second.
Henning Breuer consults, researches, and teaches in the fields of innovation management and business psychology. He is founder of UXBerlin – Innovation Consulting, and a Professor for Business and Media Psychology at HMKW Berlin.
Since 2001, Henning has worked with multinational corporations, SMEs, public organisations, and start-ups, providing consulting on sustainable innovation culture and business models, future scenarios, and ethnographic stakeholder research. Henning co-authored numerous journal and conference publications and books on Values-Based Innovation Management, Sustainable Business Model Design, and Gamification for Innovators & Entrepreneurs. As a visiting researcher and professor, he has worked at the University of Chile (Santiago) and Waseda University (Tokyo). Before, he studied psychology, philosophy, and law in Berlin and Tübingen, and received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Magdeburg.
Dr. Iana Nesterova is a postdoctoral fellow at Umeå University, Sweden. Iana’s research brings together degrowth, critical realism and human geography. Her works on business and degrowth transformations have been published in the leading journals in the field of sustainable organisations, including Ecological Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production and Futures. For more information: https://www.umu.se/en/staff/iana-nesterova.
Laura Niessen is PhD researcher at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute. She investigates sustainable consumption through circular business models and sufficiency-based approaches, focusing on how companies can help their customers reduce resource use.
Previously, she worked on circular economy research and policy in Ireland with the Rediscovery Centre, the Irish Centre for the Circular Economy.