UPJ’s Annual Conference & 25th Anniversary

 
 

UPJ’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The goal of sustainable development has been under pressure, not only since the war in Ukraine. Already during the pandemic, priorities have shifted, and social change has accelerated.

Against this backdrop, the UPJ Annual Conference on the 24th of June 2022 will explore possibilities of how companies, civil society, together with politics and administration, can inform and shape this transformation socially and ecologically. UPJ, the network for corporate citizenship and CSR, will host the UPJ Annual Conference on 24 June as an established platform for knowledge transfer, networking, and an open and collegial exchange in workshops, panels, and lectures. The conference will be held at the Baden-Württemberg State Representation in Berlin.

The event will kick off with a keynote address by Georg Kell, Founding Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, followed by a panel discussion on the topic of "Sustainability under Pressure" and presentations from a municipal, economic and business ethics perspective.

In various sessions in the afternoon, examples will be presented, and debates will be held on the following topics, a. o.:

  • Social cohesion in crisis?

  • Corporate commitment for social change.

  • Long breath required – what can companies do for Ukraine after the initial emergency aid?

  • What actually is sustainability?

  • Supply chains: security first, sustainability second?

  • Sustainability reporting as a driver for sustainable transformation?

 

UPJ’S 25th Anniversary

On 23 June – in the evening before the conference – UPJ's 25th anniversary will be celebrated under the hashtag #UPJ25plus1.

Dr Bernhard von Mutius, one of UPJ's co-founders, will give the keynote address at the evening reception. The concept of "social cooperation," which he developed together with Dr. Diethelm Damm, was central to UPJ from the very beginning in 1996 when it was founded as the federal initiative "Unternehmen: Partner der Jugend" (Businesses: Partners for Youth). Already then, one of the central challenges of sustainable development was set as a goal: how can businesses, in view of the oftentimes precarious living conditions of children and young people, contribute to their successful upbringing through involvement in the community and in cooperation with non[1]profit organisations and administration.

That was 26 years ago: UPJ has continued to develop with its network of businesses and intermediary organisations, always keeping in mind the contribution of companies to a sustainable development. With this network and a grown, committed, and multidisciplinary team, UPJ is today one of the most important players in Germany in the field of corporate citizenship and CSR.

Together with long-standing partners and invited guests, UPJ uses the occasion of its 25th anniversary as an opportunity to "look back towards the future."

 

For more information