The Planetworkshops

The Founders

Eric Bazin is a French journalist and founder of Satelight, a consulting and photographic production company. He regurlarly collaborates with European press trusts, such as Paris-Match, GEO, Sunday Times, National Geographic, Airone, and is actively involved in the organisation of photography exhibitions with UNESCO.

George J. Gendelman, American, is the former manager of the international operations of the New York Times Syndication Sales and former circulation director of the International Herald Tribune; he founded and still manages the International Press Syndicate in 1990, a consulting agency dedicated to media strategy and copyright management for international media groups.

Working Commissions

Constant provider of solutions for change, the Planetworkshops initiate multi-actors and trans-disciplinary working commissions gathering qualified and recognized experts. These working commissions prepare synthesis notes composed of concrete and realistic proposals to the attention of political and economic decisions-makers. By this work, the Planetworkshops wish to help deepen the debate around very complex topics. The results of these works are presented during the Planetworkshops’ Global Conference in Evian, France. Since 2011, six working commissions were undertaken by the Planetworkshops:

- "Internationalizing the social entrepreneurship model", in partnership with SOS Group;

- "Social and environmental responsibility: transforming businesses governance", in partnership with Terra Nova;

- "Mediation as a Solution to Environmental Dispute"s, in partnership with ESSEC-IRENE;

- “How to reinvent the model of international negotiations on climate change?", exclusively composed from students issued from school and universities world-wide;

- "Crossed views on genetic biodiversity resources and their equal sharing", in partnership with Orée;

- "What conditions for the emergence of a "Blue Society"?", in partnership with Green Cross France and Territories

Studies and publications

You can find all the publications of Planetworkshops here: Publications and Ressources Planetworkshops • "The Words of co-construction", conducted by the Médiascopie Institute for The Planetworkshops in 2012;

• "The Words and the Actors of a more Sustainable World", conducted by the Médiascopie Institute for The Planetworkshops in 2011;

• "The Annual Sustainable Mobility Barometer", conducted by Harris Interactive, SNCF, Mobivia Group for The Planetworkshops;

• "The French and biodiversity", in partnership with Natureparif;

• "The levers of sustainable mobility in France", in partnership with Mobivia Group;

• "The business of climate change", in partnership with Kurt Salmon (anciently INEUM Consulting);

• "The ecological impact of production of industrial enterprises", in partnership with Greenext;

• "The 100 words of Copenhagen and climate change", conducted for the PlanetWorkshops and presented to the MEEDDM;

• "Crisis: Risk or Opportunity?" in partnership with Harris Interactive, SNCF, Mobivia Groupe for The Planetworkshops.

"La Revue de la Terre"

« La Revue de la Terre » is a French geopolitical publication on environmental issues, sustainable development and mutation of societies. This French publication was launched by the Planetworkshops, on the occasion of the third edition of the Global Conference. This now quarterly confidential letter is addressed to opinion leaders, elected officials, local authorities, industry, SMEs with growth envisaged through this new economic challenge. Its geopolitical axis analyses the different levers of industry but also highlights mainstream players and initiatives that will shape tomorrow. La Revue de la Terre n°3

Report for decision makers: Summary and priorities for decision makers

In order to highlight the important trends of a world in transition and to show that the sheer breadth of sustainable development does not exclude prioritizing essential actions, the Planetworkshops, in collaboration with Pricewaterhouse Coopes (PwC), have written this annual report to the use of decision makers. This review is the result of an annual analysis of the progress in the knowledge and understanding of threats to sustainability. It will serve as a guide to ensure the continuity of long-term policies. This report adopts an economical approach combining: - An analysis of the situation and the global geopolitical and economic trends favoring progress towards greater sustainability. - A global and thematic summary of the major international sustainable development conferences.

Throughout this report, PwC and the Planetworkshops’ have attempted to give perspective and legibility to the multiple issues that must be identified by the decision makers of the 21st century. They must show that they are conscious of the increasing scarcity of the resources for an ongoing increase of human kind.

The White Book

The GC 2011 White Book highlights the most important moments of the Planetworkshops' Global Conference. The White book issued from the VIth edition of the Global Conference (September 2011)was part of the documents that contributed to the UN preparation for the 2012 Earth Summit (Rio+20).

The Global Conference

The Global Conference – International Forum for a Sustainable Development, is an international forum which gathers annually decision-makers and opinion leaders committed for a sustainable development. In a few years, the Global Conference has become a major international meeting, gathering during three days more than 900 actors from 70 countries involved in the change for a sustainable society. Business managers, entrepreneurs, government officials, public authorities, leaders of NGOs and associations, intellectuals, researchers, experts, artists, media and representatives of civil society meet to think together the solutions needed to build a new model of development, more responsible and respectful of humans and the environment. In a friendly and unique atmosphere, "Planetworkers" meet to exchange and share their good practices, to highlight innovative initiatives and to participate in the transformation of society.

The Global Conference - Rabat Round

The Planetworkshops spread their actions in Morocco and organize the first edition of the Global Conference - Rabat Round, on the 16th and 17 May 2011. International implementation of the Global Conference abroad, the Rabat Round tries to preserve an interdisciplinary approach and deals with the specific stakes and challenges of Morocco and in its region. The Planetworkshops maintain their identity: a friendly place of reflection on sustainable development issues and the necessary transformations of our societies; a platform of diverse actors; a transverse approach and the presentation of concrete and existing solutions. In many respects, Morocco is a leader in sustainable development and the country represents today a real open-air laboratory of this new model of development. Renewable energies, conservation of natural resources, smart cities, sustainable mobility, waste management, sustainable agriculture or responsible tourism, are some of the local stakes which were discussed in Rabat in May 2012.

The green growth and its economic, social and human development potential, central themes of the next Rio+20 Conference, will therefore be at the heart of the reflection.

Participants from over more than 30 countries come to assert their peculiarity and their desire of a sustainable development applied with ambition to their respective territories, to share good practices and duplicate them all over the world.

Sustainable Useful Network (S.U.N.)

The Planetworkshops is creating a global network of companies and committed organizations, or having begun a process towards sustainability. S.U.N is a network of exchanges which bases its activities on the collection, the treatment and the circulation of information corresponding to precise criteria. Information is designed on the basis of good practices, actions and initiatives, already involved, with innovative potential, which implement social and environmental responsibility and/or sustainable development, and which produce results even if they are experimental.

International Forum Green Business - Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo

The world awareness of the depletion of natural resources and the consequences of the climate change impose a strengthening of the legislation and a progressive change of behaviors. These two phenomena establish opportunities for Green Business for the whole world and of course for Africa specifically. The objective of these three days conference is to combine growth opportunities; sharing experiences and fight against poverty, through Green Economy. This will lead to structure the point of view of Central Africa’s private sector on the way to Rio+ 20 Conference.

The Rethink Awards

The Rethink Awards stimulate economic growth and innovation through implementable and viable business models by rewarding small companies, students and young journalists who invent and testify of new economic models to face the major challenges of sustainable development today. They will have successfully found a way to turn an important issue of our time into an opportunity of development. The aim of the Rethink Awards is to identify, analyze and value the development of companies striving to find new paths to efficiently respond to the actual issues (global warming, rarefaction of natural resources, social disequilibrium, etc.) They encourage the commitment of the private sector towards a sustainable development, both in OECD and non-OECD countries. They invite students to be creative, to think differently and to dare new business models carrying solutions for change and for the future. They stimulate young journalists to highlight innovations and trends that could revolutionize our economic models, to reflect on the transformation or crucial issues into opportunities of development and to integrate the new techniques of information and communication in this perspective.

"Meaning and Sustainable Development" Meeting

"Meaning and sustainable development" mobilizes the reflection on the meaning of our actions and our daily commitments in favor of a responsible development.

Crises are consecutive; sustainable development is slowing down, and all because the meaning of actions is not always clear. Promoting exchanges between individuals sensitive to the core values of sustainable development, these meetings aim to make evolve companies and the economy’s vision for a practical and effective mobilization.

Between sharing experiences and ideas for action through individuals which were able to implement responsible practices, the first edition of "Meaning and sustainable development" was held on the 2nd and 3 December 2011 at the Bourdaisière castle in Montlouis-sur-Loire (France), an active laboratory of sustainable development.

Edurable "Imagine your city of tomorrow"

The association "Edurable" was created to encourage the establishment of programs dedicated to education for sustainable development in sensitive areas - Priority Education Zones especially in the suburbs of large French cities. It enjoys the support of the Prefecture of Paris and the Ile-de-France to identify geographic areas and populations of young recipients of these experiments.

Education for sustainable development in sensitive areas and the suburbs is to strengthen the educational component of a comprehensive policy for sustainable development in particular towards people excluded from its scope. This results in the realization of field experiences to an audience of children in primary, middle and high schools. New Technologies of Information and Communication (ICT) are the preferred tool to achieve these initiatives. In this context the association Edurable, with the support of the Prefecture of Paris and IBM France, has launched "Imagine your town tomorrow” for children from 5 to 7 years. This program aims to promote education for Sustainable Development through ICTs and to bring the perspective of these children on their vision of the city, first in Paris.

Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL)

Over 1.4 billion people in the world lack access to electricity. Inadequate lighting is not only an impediment to progress and development opportunities, but also has a direct impact on the health, environment, and safety of millions of people,etc. Recognizing the need to change this, TERI (The Energy and Ressources Institut) with its commitment to creating innovative solutions for a better tomorrow, has undertaken since 2007 an initiative of 'Lighting a Billion Lives' (LaBL) through the use of solar lighting devices to replace kerosene lamps and paraffin candles, and thereby providing opportunities for livelihoods both at the individual and village level. Indeed, bringing clean and affordable sources of lighting into the lives of people facilitates education of children, provides better illumination and kerosene-smoke-free indoor environment for women to do household chores, and has many environmental and socio-economic co-benefits.

LaBL has since 2007 been developed to benefit many more people around the world. It is now in the process of expanding to the African continent, with pilot projects in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Uganda, Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia and Mozambique. TERI and Planetworkshops are joining hands in the endeavor of also bringing LaBL into the lives of the villagers of Niger.

Agroecology in Niger

The Planetworkshops opened in May 2011 a center in Niamey (Niger). In Partnership with Point Afrique solidarités and the Pierre Rabhi Foundation, the Planetworkshops initiate a training center in agroecology located 150 km away from Niamey, at the Hotel La Tapoa. This center aims to help farmers free themselves from extensive financial charges created by the annual purchase of input locations and allow them to improve their yield while protecting biodiversity, their productions and their crops.

UNESCO Chair in Togo

The DESS "Woman, Water and Health" will be the only one existing on this topic in Togo and Francophone West Africa. It currently involves Burkina Faso, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Togo. This Planetworkshops’ chair was founded with the Bolloré Group.

This chair aims to promote an integrated system of research activities, education, information and documentation in the fields of exact science, natural and human sciences, society science and computer science. It facilitates collaboration between high level researchers, internationally well-known professors of the university and other educational institutions in Togo, and in the sub-regions of West Africa. The objectives of this chair are the re-enforcement of national capacities by assuring equality between gender, equality of rights and equal opportunities and treatment in the field of science, of technology and of development.

The Summits of Images

For 6 years now, 60 photographs, taken by authors coming from worldwide are exhibited at Courchevel. This exhibition is seen each year by more than a million visitors. The photographs aim to emphasize the beauty and fragility of the environment. The last edition highlighted the environmental treasures of South Africa.