World Knowlege Dialogue

The Scope :
An unprecedented three‐day interactive program aimed at experimenting with new ways of practicing interdisciplinarity. READ MORE

The Projects :
In recent years, corporations have been under the pressure to deal with the rising number of social and environmental problems connected to their production processes. Growing availability of social and environmental data about products leads to an unprecedented consumer and investor awareness and to expectations for a new level of accountability and transparency. Products now have a biography of “harm-doing”. Major international corporations have reacted to pressure from NGOs and the media and have even initiated corporate social responsibility (CSR) measures in their supply chains over the last few years. Global environmental challenges, and in particular climate change, as well as limited natural resources like water and oil, motivate businesses and governments alike to take action. However, the challenge of reducing or alleviating social and environmental harm in production raises numerous questions requiring solid scientific research: How can child labour be abolished, for example, in the Ivory Coast? What does it mean to pay a fair wage and how can this be organized across a supply chain? How can the energy efficiency of a supply chain be improved? How can corporations calculate and reduce their water footprint along their supply chains? How can unsustainable consumer routines be changed? What would an internet platform look like that processes sustainability data for various target groups? These questions illustrate the range of trans-disciplinary questions behind the ambitious idea of sustainable production and consumption. READ MORE

The scientific committee :
Jérôme Billotte, WKD
Guillemette Bolens, UNIGE
Frédéric Darbellay, IUKB
Claire Jaquier, UNINE
Philippe Moreillon, UNIL
Jean-Dominique Vassalli, UNIGE
Martin Vetterli, EPFL

Organized under the auspices of :
The Universities of the Triangle Azur, www.triangle-azur.ch
- University of Geneva
- University of Lausanne and Anthropos scientific committee, http://www.unil.ch/anthropos/page11872.html
- University of Neuchâtel
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Lausanne)
The Kurt Bosch University Institute (IUKB)
The World Knowledge Dialogue Foundation (WKD), created by Rector André Hurst and Professor Francis Waldvogel, and currently presided by Jean-Dominique Vassalli, Rector of the University of Geneva.

Secretariat and logistics