The seminar is a debate on core achievements in corporate sustainability, and on future options for business to drive green transition and social change.
The seminar is arranged by BI Norwegian Business School in collaboration with Rethinking Economics. The seminar is a part of the activity in WP6 in AFINO.

Date: Thursday 15th September, 15:00-19:30.
Venue: BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo.
Enrolment deadline for physical attendance: 12th September
The seminar can also be followed digitally via this link: https://bi.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=bc4bc728-abd8-4107-ab7f-af0a01224ff7

The debate at BI features leading academics, The Green Party, E24 -media, Global Compact, Rethinking Economics, Transparency international, Finance industry, and Multiconsult.

Core questions will be:

  • Asymmetric globalization, with politics lagging behind – can corporate responsibility fill the gap?
  • Corporate sustainability is challenged by ecology, but what about fairness?
  • Do we need to bring the state back in? Is there a case for partnered governance?
  • Is sustainability primarily for front-runners? What about the rest?
  • There is much greenwashing in politics and business, but is there virtue in hypocrisy?
  • Business is in a squeeze between democratic and autocratic states. What are the ways out?
Guests at BI seminar September 2022
Some of the panelists/participants at the seminar “A quarter century of corporate sustainability” at BI in Oslo 15th September. From left, top: Torbjørn Røe Isaksen (photo: Marte Garmann), Rasmus Hansson (photo: Stortinget), Christian Borch (photo: Tore Skaar), Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen, Kim Gabrielli (photo: Moment Studio) and Atle Midttun.

Professor Atle Midttun, leader of WP6 in AFINO, will be setting the scene, and his interventions are partly based on his latest book: Governance and business models for sustainable capitalism (open access at:  https://www.routledge.com/Governance-and-Business-Models-for-Sustainable-Capitalism/Midttun/p/book/9781138210592.

Comments from panelists (in alphabetical order): Ebba Boye and Olav Soldal, Rethinking Economics; Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen, BI; Kim Gabrielli, Global Compact Norway; Rasmus Hansson, Stortinget – MDG; Heikki Eidsvoll Holmås, Multiconsult; Marianne Groth, Eika gruppen; Petter Nore, Nord Universitet; Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, E 24; Guro Slettemark, Transparency International Norway; Arild Vatn, NMBU.

The seminar will be moderated by Christian Borch, journalist and former NRK News anchor.

Link to full programme and registration.

Featured image: Outside BI (Norwegian Business School) in Oslo. Photo: BI.

Profile photo of Atle Midttun
Atle Midttun
Professor emeritus at BI Norwegian Business School | Website

Atle Midttun is project associate in AFINO's research group Illustrative Nordic Cases on Sustainability. Read more about Atle on AFINO's webpage.