Sustainable growth and competitiveness are fundamental goals that contemporary societies and organizations are urged to achieve in the short and long term. The growing disparities across societies and the recent financial crisis have led many analysts and observers to describe the global economic system as busted and to identify in business and finance the major causes of social, environmental, and economic problems.

This leads to a number of questions. Can society and business organizations cooperate to achieve sustainable growth and competitiveness? How can value be defined, managed and measured? For whom are our Societies and Businesses creating value?
Such questions are of interest to social analysts, businessmen, investors and citizens.

Within the public debate, there is significant demand for a move beyond GDP measures. GDP –  it is maintained – ignores social costs, environmental impacts and income inequality. We need a better understanding of what sustainable well-being means, how to measure it and how to achieve it.

Businesses are also called to contribute to a more sustainable society. This can be achieved only through an integrated perspective, able to combine multiple dimensions of analysis and to ensure competitiveness. Integrated Thinking and Reporting seem to provide a useful answer to this requirement. Integrated Thinking marks a change in the way companies conceive and report business models and the creation of sustainable value in the short and long term. Integrated Reporting provides a holistic assessment of the organization in terms of its operations, risks and opportunities to enable a more sustainable management and to enhance value creation in the future.

This new approach is in line with the need for civil society and business organizations to cooperate for the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – a set of objectives for fighting poverty, promoting sustainable development and improving the global well-being, to be released in 2015.

The workshop "Practicing Integrated Thinking & Reporting: how business and Societies search for competitiveness and sustainable growth" organized in Milan on June 19, 2014 within the Borsa Italiana Congress Center will aim at investigating how "integrated thinking" might enhance competitiveness and ensure sustainable growth for business.

Keynote speakers will include:

  • Lara Birkes, Director Global Policy & Strategic Partnerships, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
  • Paul Druckman, CEO, International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC)
  • Enrico Giovannini, Full Professor of Economic Statistics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", ISTAT – CNEL Project "BES" founder and former Minister of Labour and Social Policies
  • Angelo Riccaboni, Rector, University of Siena


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Working languages English and Italian.