According to a study of Siemens the city of Copenhagen is the “greenest” major cities.

№	City	Score	№	City	Score
1	Copenhagen	87,31	16	Warsaw	59,04
2	Stockholm	86,65	17	Budapest	57,55
3	Oslo	83,98	18	Lisbon	57,25
4	Vienna	83,34	19	Ljubljana	56,39
5	Amsterdam	83,03	20	Bratislava	56,09
6	Zurich	82,31	21	Dublin	53,98
7	Helsinki	79,29	22	Athens	53,09
8	Berlin	79,01	23	Tallinn	52,98
9	Brussels	78,01	24	Prague	49,78
10	Paris	73,21	25	Istanbul	45,20
11	London	71,56	26	Zagreb	42,36
12	Madrid	67,08	27	Belgrade	40,03
13	Vilnius	62,77	28	Bucharest	39,14
14	Rome	62,58	29	Sofia	36,85
15	Riga	59,57	30	Kiev	32,33

Analysing the environmental sustainability of major cities in 30 European Countries Scandinavian cities are ranking very high while Eastern Europe is still at the low end.
 

During the last years more and more companies realize the necessity to create concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and to reflect the topic of Sustainability. Both can be merged to a new dimension “Corporate Sustainability” as defined by Prof. Dr. Zentes and his team published in “HandelsMonitor 2010” by Deutscher Fachverlag/Frankfurt.

The fight against global warming, the creation of an integrated energy market and the interest in securing energy supply have been the paradigms of European energy policy for some years. A sustainable energy policy should deliver answers on all of these aspects, while, at the same time, being sustainable with a view on future generations. In recent years, some topics have turned out to be crucial for a sustainable energy concept: Energy efficiency, the deployment of renewable energies and the support of energy technology and research. Improving performance on all these aspects could finally lead to the decarbonisation of the power sector and a better use of finite resources. Nevertheless, the preconditions for such a energy revolution are enormous. It requires massive grid extensions, the use of information and communication technologies in energy supply and public incentives for research in new technologies, just to name a few.

The 3rd International Summer School on Sustainable Development at the European Academy Otzenhausen in Nonnweiler/Germany will discuss these questions in detail. In a first step, the requirements for such a new energy policy will be analysed. Which reforms are needed, in order to reach a sustainable energy policy? In a second step, participants will go deeper into detail, look at the different aspects of a new energy concept and analyse the implications of such a policy reform on different levels. It will be supported by field trips in order to understand the local implications of major policy changes on the European level. During the whole Summer School, participants will be asked to contribute to the debate and invited to develop a common understanding of what measures are possible, required and promising, in order to make Europe ready for a new energy policy. ( Programme )
 

On Cyprus the Intercollege Larnaca and the Friends of Nature Cyprus organized the 1st International Conference on Biodiversity.The Conference was opened by Dr. Lola Sanchez from the Intercollege supported by Dr. A. Djoghlaf/Executive-Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Mr. Ch. Theopemptou/Cypriot Commissioner for the Environment and the Spanish Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Juan Jose Urtasun Erro in his function for the EU-presidency.

More than 150 participants followed the 30 speaker-slots. The origin of the speakers ranged from Costa Rica, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, Ukraine to the USA. Prof. Dr. B. Hallier represented the EHI Retail Institute with the topic “From Crisis Management to proactive Corporate Social Responsibility”. The papers will become available as a book.(more via E-Mail)
 

The German Packaging Institute (dvi) is a recognized platform for packaging innovations since 1964. Nowadays dvi is linking its German Packaging Award to the Nuremberg exhibition FachPack. Packaging designers, packaging developers, packaging manufactures, engineers and suppliers of packaging machines as well as students, trainees and pupils can participate in a competition that seeks for innovative and independent packaging solutions driving the future of the packaging market.