Early bird registration opens today! The Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency featuring the GRI Readers’ Choice Awards offers you a great value and stimulating program with outstanding speakers. Click here to register now.

Visit the conference website to read more about the keynote sessions, speakers, arena debates, and workshops. Among other events the program also includes an Academic Conference; Dinners to informally network with other conference participants; site visits to sustainable development projects around Amsterdam; and a chance to see how integrated technology tools can streamline sustainability reporting at the TechFair.

Nobel Peace Prize 2007 winner confirmed as speaker
Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize 2007 winning IPCC, will be a keynote speaker at the second GRI Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency. The conference will be held 7-9 May 2008 and registration opens today.

Former US Vice President Al Gore who jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with the IPCC spoke at the first GRI Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency in October 2006.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Al Gore and the IPCC "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".

GRI Readers’ Choice Awards
What is your view on sustainability reporting today? To have your say score sustainability reports from 1 October until 31 December in the GRI Readers’ Choice Awards and participate in the online survey. One month into the Awards scheme over 25,000 people from 191 countries have already visited the GRI Readers’ Choice Awards website.

You could be the lucky winner of one of eight all expenses paid trips to the GRI Conference by participating in the GRI Readers’ Choice Awards. If you have not already participated, you can do so by registering and scoring sustainability reports online at http://awards.globalreporting.org.

If you have already scored reports, thank you for your participation! You are invited to score more reports – The more reports you score, the higher the chance you have of winning one of these trips!

Plenary sessions with leaders from business and society

The following speakers are confirmed for the conference:

HRH The Prince of Orange, The Netherlands;
Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam, The Netherlands ;
Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive Officer Anglo American plc, UK ;
Mary Robinson, Founder and Chair Realizing Rights Ethical Globalization Initiative, former High Commissioner for Human Rights, USA;
Mervyn E. King, Chairman Brait South Africa Ltd. and Chair, GRI Board of Directors, South Africa;
Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2007, India’
Guy Ryder, General Secretary International Trade Union Confederation, Belgium
Russell Loubser, Chief Executive Officer JSE Limited, South Africa; and
Achim Steiner, Executive Director United Nations Environment Program, Kenya.

Workshops
The following topics will be discussed in the conference workshop sessions:

Implications of the Readers’ Choice Award Survey Results;
Human Rights;
Climate Change;
Sustainability and Materiality;
Application Levels & Assurance;
New Reporting Formats;
Employee Motivation and Commitment;
Sustainable City Management & Reporting;
The Value of Sustainability Reporting for Investors;
SMEs & Supply Chain Reporting; and
The Role of Governments: Policy and Accountability.

Amsterdam in the spring
Apart from to attend The Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency, what other reasons are there to visit Amsterdam?
Amsterdam is a city of unique impressions, often gracefully reflected off the surfaces of its waterways. Comprising some 200 canals and over a 1,000 bridges, this engineering system was an absolute necessity for a city built on precarious marsh lands some 800 years ago. The canals are crowded by numerous boats offering visitors an enchanted view of this tightly-knit city.

On land, over 600,000 inhabitants of Amsterdam travel through the city by bike – surely the most popular and wisest choice of city transport. Visit this beautiful city to see the museums, canals, parks, and the historical houses built in the Golden Age, but also to experience the city’s relaxed atmosphere, where everything can be found at an easy distance. The whole of Amsterdam is one big tourist attraction.

Visiting Amsterdam in May, in the middle of the spring and tulip season is a fantastic opportunity that you should not miss!