Bridges for a More Sustainable Future – Uniting Continents and Societies

16th ERSCP-EMSU Conference: Bridges for a More Sustainable Future – Uniting Continents and Societies. June 4-7, 2013, İstanbul Boğaziçi University.
INTERNATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCES: 16th Conference of the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) & 7th Conference of the Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU)
BRIDGES FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE UNITING CONTINENTS AND SOCIETIES
ERSCP-EMSU İstanbul Boğaziçi University 2013 cordially invites scholars, graduate students, academicians, researchers, professionals, public employees to present their research studies and success stories.
The conferences are offering unique collaboration and exchange of experience opportunities and will be one of the largest gatherings of EMSU and ERSCP groups, providing a broader vision for interdisciplinary research and extended partnership.
Select experts in the fields of ERSCP and EMSU make up the core group of the International Joint Conferences. ERSCP-EMSU joint conferences will focus on the integration of many research efforts in addressing the challenge of sustainable development applications in higher education institutions and also in production and consumption patterns.
The joint conferences will offer a novel bridging approach for a more sustainable future by uniting continents and societies, discussing how to attain the development of sustainable regions within and between different continents and societies. The success of bridging will be highlighted through international collaborations that will enforce synergetic benefits of both ecological and human health together with material welfare.
The presentations are expected to attract representatives of researchers and academicians from many disciplines, policy makers, production and service sector representatives, NGOs, agencies, media who will be the main actors for bridging action plans for a sustainable future.
As ‘Sustainable Life Styles’ is one of the main topics of İstanbul ERSCP-EMSU Joint Conferences, contribution of university graduates who have already succeeded sustainability concern for more sustainable business outcomes will be encouraged within the frame of bridging EMSU in the context of ERSCP.
On the top of that, universities require huge amounts of resources leading to large quantities of waste and emissions, foils in sustainable development.  Universities either campus or city based are one of the important sources of pollution for soil, water and air compartments. The sustainable university life plans will be explored with a thorough understanding of international standardization concept in human health, waste minimization and resource conservation issues. This very successful part of the İstanbul EMSU Conference will create the discussion forum for the continuation of improvements in environmental management systems for more sustainable universities. The international examples of sustainability assessment methodologies/tools applied for evaluation of sustainable green university campus studies will reflect new competencies in this field. This will definitely draw attention of the contributors to the role of universities for promotion of sustainability.
ERSCP İstanbul will cover broad range of core topics on sustainable production and consumption applications including the role of relevant stakeholders and tools.
ERSCP İstanbul aims to build on the success from the previous ERSCP conferences by identifying many areas that warrant further investigation. Following the outcomes of previous ERSCP conferences, ERSCP İstanbul will definitely provide another comprehensive update forum for the exchange of ideas on the latest developments sustainable technology development/modification issues for success case studies.
The changes in the countries’ development, their performance towards environmental targets and the level of their best practices that are required to sustain their population and economic growth will affect the development of their sustainability infrastructure. Within this framework, the impacts of the recent changes in economic and political situations of the countries will be assessed by referring their ecological footprint as the baseline especially for production industries. As an industrial product can be evaluated through eco-design concerns; main drivers, barriers advantages for application of eco-design concept need to be reassessed for the common economic and political problems. The recent changes in industrial eco-design topic will be enlightened by making a thorough analysis of technological innovations / improvements / modifications, socio-economic factors, life cycle assessment applications and dissemination opportunities. The role of consumer behavior, governmental support, economic incentives need to be successfully integrated for defining sustainable consumption and production patterns in long run.
In addition to these, concerning the outcomes of various protocols, conventions and declarations globally based sustainability thresholds and forecasts for ecological degradation and human well-being, governance, energy sources will be discussed through the relevant sessions.     
Moreover, the evaluation of sustainability indicators for regional area development will be handled. The examples need to cover mega cities and rural areas. This will take a leading position in future concerns of wide applications for sustainable production and consumption taking into account cultural and historical impacts. Certain action plans with decision making mechanisms are necessary for the preservation of rural areas especially sensitive areas. The important sectors for rural area need to be improved by focusing on not only their typical market share but also with the environmental costs.  Sustainable rural area development concerns social well-being, renewable energy and resource potentials, and agricultural activities as the basic challenging aspects for encouraging local people to reduce their impact in their regions. The joint conferences will cover the integration of environmentally technical, socio-political models that covers economic values as well.
Assoc. Prof. Nilgün Cılız, Boğaziçi University, Conference Chair.