Montenegro hosts Reporting for Sustainability conference

The international science conference "Reporting for Sustainability" took place from May 7 to May 10, 2013, in Becici, Montenegro, at the Hotel Mediteran Congress Centre. Almost 200 delegates from the international academic, business and political community created a unique platform for networking and exchanging experience and research results in four main areas: environmental management; integrated pollution prevention and control; reporting for sustainability (practice and experiences in the EU and the SEE region); and reporting for sustainability (software solutions and modelling).

The conference was organised within the project "Setting up the Environmental Management Center in Serbia", which was implemented by the REC. Funding for the event was provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway through the Serbian Environmental Protection Agency as contractor and main beneficiary.

Distinguished invited speakers included top officials from the ministries and agencies responsible for environmental issues from the SEE region, as well as university professors, senior researchers and industry representatives, who stressed that sustainability reporting involves far more than generating reports and collecting data in compliance with legislation. Conference participants agreed that organisations now require more comprehensive methods to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable development in transparent and traceable ways, both to internal and external stakeholders.

 

Conference participants focused on:

• strengthening the transparent and traceable monitoring and reporting of environmental issues;
• road-mapping technology to open pathways to important and sustainable solutions;
• contributing to raising general public awareness through outreach and dissemination activities;
• raising awareness about the impacts of environmental pollution on public health; and
• translating technical findings into policy development, implementation and subsequent enforcement.

The event also offered ample opportunity for interaction and exchange between academics, government officials and sustainability practitioners, including discussion on newly developed tools for environmental management and integrated reporting on sustainability and the environment.

Key outcomes of the conference included:

• a launchpad for new collaboration;
• a capacity-building framework;
• a knowledge-based platform; and
• a common platform for cooperation among policy makers, the scientific community and the business community.

Conference participants welcomed the availability of conference papers published in various formats on the conference website, and also expressed their hope that the proceedings will serve as a valuable reference point for professionals across the world.