Bayer - Eco-Minds

About Eco-Minds

Welcome to Eco-Minds

Eco-Minds is a Bayer - UNEP youth program that encourages young people to think of creative and practical solutions to the challenges of Sustainable Development. While the primary focus of Eco-Minds is on scientific and technical innovations, the initiative also includes consideration of socio-economic and cultural factors.

Held every two years in the Asia Pacific region, the Eco-Minds Youth Forum brings together up to 27 students from nine countries: the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, China, and Korea.

This international background of the participants introduces a multi-cultural dimension to the program.

Eco-Minds focuses on Sustainable Development in a unique way by bringing together young scientists, engineers, social scientists, economists, and management experts from different countries to participate in a solution-oriented group work. Students of science or engineering are able to work with social science and management students to solve real-world problems of Sustainable Development. Social science students are able to work with science/engineering and management students to predict the social impacts of the proposed solutions. And commerce or management students can work with science/engineering and social science students to test the viability of the proposed solutions.

The last Eco-Minds Youth Forum was held in New Zealand, May 25 – 29th, 2009. The next host country for the 2011 Eco-Minds forum is still to be determined.

Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director about Eco-Minds

Dr. Wolfgang Plischke,
Member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG, and responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment

Dr. Wolfgang Plischke:
As a research-based enterprise, Bayer places great emphasis on awakening enthusiasm for science among young people. What is even more relevant: Scientific solutions must be put into practice by dedicated people. That is why Bayer and UNEP established the Eco-Minds platform under their partnership in the field of youth and the environment.

The key topic of Eco-Minds 2009, the sustainable use of energy, is one of our biggest challenges in the field of sustainability and is of the highest relevance for tackling climate change successfully.

Science and technology are key factors in promoting sustainable development. However, it is equally clear that socio-economic and cultural factors also play an important role.

Eco-Minds therefore is bringing together young people from various countries in the Asia-Pacific region who represent a wide range of academic disciplines. It provides a fantastic opportunity to meet like-minded people, share knowledge and work together to develop solutions.

A global task such as a sustainable use of energy is not only a challenge to companies like Bayer, it is a challenge to us all. We can all make our own personal contribution.

We all have to make a difference!

Therefore I encourage all students committed to sustainability to take up the Eco-Minds challenge 2009!

Achim Steiner,
UNEP Executive Director

Achim Steiner:

Delivering a resource efficient, low carbon, sustainable Green Economy in the 21st century will require a new generation of bright, creative and enquiring minds.

UNEP recognizes this as does any forward-looking company seeking to deliver solutions and products relevant to the challenges and opportunities of our time.

This is one reason why Bayer and UNEP have established the Eco-Minds platform under their partnership in the field of youth and the environment.

In 2009 Eco-Minds will engage young people from countries in the Asia-Pacific region on the compelling issue of sustainable energy use: it represents perhaps the greatest challenge facing the world right now for two reasons.

These are climate change and the fact that two billion people still do not have access to electricity – both, left unresolved represent a serious hurdle to the UN’s poverty-related Millennium Development Goals.

Science and technology are key factors in promoting sustainable development and fostering enthusiasm among young people in these two critical fields is important.

However, it is equally clear that socio-economic and cultural factors also play an important role in the sustainability agenda.

Eco-Minds is thus bringing together young people representing a wide range of academic disciplines in order to focus the widest possible lens on our common challenges.

Above all it provides a great opportunity to meet like-minded, and perhaps not so-liked minded but nevertheless engaged young people, in order to share knowledge, challenge the status quo and work together to develop innovative solutions.

I would encourage all students, committed to sustainability, to take up the Eco-Minds challenge in 2009 in order to find the sustainable energy solutions for a low carbon world.

Prof. Stuart McCutcheon, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Auckland.

Prof. Stuart McCutcheon,
Vice-Chancellor,
The University of Auckland.

The University of Auckland recognises that addressing the world’s environmental issues will require a concerted effort across all sectors of society.

As New Zealand’s premier university, we have an important role to play and we are committed to contributing towards the transition to sustainability. We are pleased to be able to partner with Bayer, UNEP and the NZ Commission for UNESCO in hosting the Eco-Minds forum in 2009.

As the global community moves away from an era of relatively cheap energy sources, the question of how to secure sustainable energy supplies will become increasingly critical. The forum’s theme of ‘sustainable energy supplies’ is therefore timely.

We look forward to providing a valuable opportunity for young people from across the region to learn about and develop innovative solutions to what will be one of the more important issues of their time.