Agenda

11:00   Welcome and introduction

Prof. Mary-Lee Rhodes, Co-founder and Director, Trinity Centre for Social Innovation

 

11:05     Building back better with nature-based solutions

Hazel Chu, Lord Mayor of Dublin & Chair of Green Party

 

11:15      Nature-based enterprises: delivering the Green Deal for Europe

John Bell, Director Healthy Planet, DG Research & Innovation at European Commission (recording)

 

11.20     Tour of the platform and water management community                              

Isobel Fletcher, Director R&I, Horizon Nua & Antonia Lorenzo, R&D Director & CEO, Bioazul

 

11.30     Growing the nature-based economy: Panel discussion engaging politicians, policymakers, problem-owners in cities, nature-based enterprises and sustainable financing bodies on a discussion on the challenges and opportunities to growing the nature-based economy

Moderated by Siobhan McQuaid, Associate Director of Innovation, Centre for Social Innovation, TCD 

 

Panellists:

  • Hans Mueller (Helix Pflanzen, Germany)
  • Nadina Galle (Green City Watch, The Netherlands)
  • Guilherme Castagna (Fluxus, Brazil)
  • Andres Alcantara (IUCN-MED & City of Malaga, Spain)
  • Eleni Malekkidou (City of Nicosia & Adopt a Park project, Cyprus)
  • Tamara Trumbic (H2020 REGREEN project, Austria)
  • Mark Sweeney (Enterprise Ireland)
  • Councillor Anna Richardson (City of Glasgow)

               

12.25     Closing Remarks

Dr. Marcus Collier, Co-ordinator, Connecting Nature Project, TCD

Registration for the Webinar and Launch is now closed.

 

Demand for nature-based solutions to climate change has increased exponentially in line with recognition that they could provide around 30% of the mitigation required to stabilise global warming to below 2oC (Seddon et al 2019). The concept of nature-based solutions has now been mainstreamed by policy makers from the UN to the EC and in July 2020 the IUCN published the first global standard for nature-based solutions to further increase take-up. 

However, as cities and regions all over the world demand more nature-based solutions, a new challenge has emerged. Recent reports have shown that cities are having problems finding skilled and experienced suppliers to meet the burgeoning demand (UnaLab 2020). To address this roadblock Connecting Nature has been pioneering a new field of research into the capacity of nature-based enterprises to meet this demand. Nature-based enterprises from landscape architects to ecosystem restoration experts play a vital role in helping cities, regions and companies in the private sector design, deliver, manage and monitor nature-based solutions. 

To support the development of this new sustainable economic sector, Connecting Nature has developed a new global platform which directly connects market demand (cities and private sector ‘buyers’ of nature-based solutions) with supply (innovative enterprises supplying sustainable nature-based solutions).

This new platform will be launched by John Bell, the Director of the EC’s Healthy Planet, and Hazel Chu, Lord Mayor of Dublin, strategy as part of a webinar event on the nature-based economy on 21st October 2020.

Mayors, environment agencies, economic developers and of course businesses will join the discussion in this webinar on the role of nature-based enterprises in contributing to the sustainable, net-zero emissions economy of 2050.

The Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform is open to everyone. We encourage you to visit the website and get involved:

To visit the Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform, click here

For more information on this webinar or the Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform, email us at info@connectingnature.eu

For more information on nature-based enterprises research and support guidebook, click here