Impact Economy holds Sustainable Capitalism Retreat on ‘Finding Grounding, Leading Change’ in the Lake of Constance Region

From June 1-3, 2012 a select group of 40 philanthropists and impact investors gathered for the Sustainable Capitalism Retreat in the serene setting of Greifenstein Castle in the Lake of Constance region in Switzerland. Hosted by Christian Krüger, Chairman of Krüger & Co. AG, organized by Impact Economy, and co-hosted by TEN - The European Network, the Clinton Global Initiative member activity was themed ‘Finding Grounding, Leading Change’. The participants looked into how to make the much-needed transition to a sustainable capitalism happen, both at a project and a personal level.

Next to case studies on scalable ventures with disproportionate positive impact, over the course of three days the participants also had the chance to share experiences on how each individual can find and activate their inner motivation to drive change, and how we can harness this motivation to achieve sustainable capitalism.

From the inspiring opening key note from Paul Schervish, the director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, about how to use wealth responsibly, to the reflection of Jeffrey Snell, special advisor to the president of Marquette University, about the mechanics of social innovation, the focus of the retreat was explicitly put on emerging solutions, rather than yet another diagnosis of the current global challenges.

In intimate workshops, we learned from ventures and organizations that create scalable impact, namely:

•    How to build large-scale sustainable energy supply in a developing country with Bio Energy Resources Ltd, a Malawian biofuels company based on smallholder farming, and;

•     How to drive economic empowerment through technology and jobs with Francis J. Brochon, founder of the Foundation for Technical Education, a Swiss-based foundation that has pioneered an effective model of advanced technical education in Tanzania.

The flagship panel discussion explored how to  ‘change ourselves to change the world’, with inputs from speakers including Kim Samuel-Johnson, President of the Samuel Family Foundation, Daniel Schwartz, Executive Director of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, and Peter Wuffli, Founder of the elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization and former CEO of UBS.  

The action-oriented working sessions were complemented with intensive time for reflection and meditation. 16^th century Greifenstein castle with its view over the Lake of Constance and the beautiful weather provided the ideal setting to connect participants to history and significance. We very much enjoyed a fruitful, insights- and action packed weekend together, driving everyone’s motivation to actively shape change together. At Impact Economy, we are looking forward to further developing this emerging community over the coming year until the next Sustainable Capitalism Retreat in June 2013.

The videos of the retreat are online and the program can be downloaded below (Please login to download).