Nr. 118 - Juli 2012
Insight
SEKEM‘s Journal for Culture, Economy, Society and Ecology in Egypt
Editorial Dear Readers, this last month SEKEM did not travel to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, more commonly known as „Rio +20“. A journey from Egypt to Rio de Janeiro would impose huge costs not only on SEKEM but especially on the environment. 7.5 tonnes of CO2 would be released into the atmosphere by the flight to Brazil only. To that would have to be added the costs for accommodation, travel and attendance at the event site. As important as it is that people come together globally and agree on how they want to implement a new global regulatory framework for the protection of the environment after 2015: SEKEM’s co-workers stay at home. The money they would have spent in Rio they will rather put to better use by financing new development projects locally. New biological sewage treatment plants, for instance, which are as small as you can see on the picture to the right, but highly efficient. They help conserve water in the most natural way possible. Nevertheless, SEKEM has a clear position on „Rio +20“ which we will outline in the following article.
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Rio+20 Conference
Eurythmy
Sustainability
Helmy Abouleish Signs Communiqué
Eurythmy Caravan Reaches Egypt
SEKEM Publishes Fifth Report
SEKEM Urges Action From Governments to Safeguard Global Water On the occasion of the conference „Rio +20“ SEKEM has highlighted the in a press release the importance of international partnerships for the protection of global water resources.
With the help of international funders SEKEM has built several bio-treatment plants for waste water that help to preserve the quality of SEKEM’s most important natural resource.
O
n occasion of the Rio+20 Earth Summit, a group of 45 chief executive officers announced a major commitment to advance corporate water management practices, and called on governments attending the Summit to make global water security a top priority. In a special Communiqué carrying the names of all 45 CEOs, the business leaders highlighted the urgency of the global water crisis, calling on governments to step up their efforts. Helmy
Abouleish signed the document on behalf of the SEKEM Initiative. The CEOs outline a range of public policy actions they believe governments should undertake to make meaningful progress on water and to better leverage the resources and capabilities of the international business community. These include developing policies and incentives to improve water productivity and SEKEM Insight | Juli 2012 | Page 1