Distinguished Social Entrepreneur To Deliver Keynote Address At National Environment Conference
23rd July 2010
Dorjee Sun, a renowned social entrepreneur-CEO of Carbon Conservation and Time’s Magazine Heroes of the Environment 2009 will share his multi award winning documentary “The Burning Season” at the National Environment Conference 2010 on 1st July at the Empire Hotel.
The 32-year-old Australian born Sun founded Carbon Conservation out of the concern for the millions of hectares of rain forest destroyed each year in Indonesia. Realizing that nonprofits alone were not going to stop tropical deforestation, Dorjee Sun saw the need to make protecting rainforests a business and hence started to work on his mission to establish a cutting-edge carbon trading scheme which effectively re-values forests. Using expertise gained during the dot-com boom, Dorjee developed a scheme based on ‘avoided deforestation’ through projects that incentivize the preservation of tropical rainforests by helping forest owners and local communities generate alternative revenues through the carbon finance market. In April 2008 he brokered the world’s first commercial avoided-deforestation project, in the war-torn Indonesian province of Aceh, with investment bank Merrill Lynch paying to protect 1.9 million acres (770,000 hectares) of pristine jungle in exchange for the value of the carbon locked inside the trees, carbon that can later be sold on the emerging international market. That same year he helped bring the governor of Aceh to California, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the first state-to-state agreement on reducing deforestation. Since then, Carbon Conservation has been engaging in ongoing projects to protect global rainforests and biodiversity.
Dorjee Sun’s project in Aceh, Indonesia won the Carbon Finance Deal of the Year award 2008 and was also the subject to an award winning documentary “The Burning Season”. The documentary tackles one aspect of global warming and introduces people trying to make a difference which portrayed how orang-utan conservation and avoided deforestation could be tied in to generate alternative monetary incentives. The documentary has won various awards namely Best Documentary Film Awards 2008, Audience Choice Awards Brisbane International Film Festival 2008and Rising Star Award for Excellence Canada International Film Festival 2010.
Recently the African Rainforest Conservancy named a newly discovered Tanzanian chameleon after him ”kinyongia dorjeesuni” for his work.
Under the theme “Sustainability and Growth: Can we have both?,” this year’s National Environment Conference will bring together over 250 delegates from the public and private sector to address questions around environmental sustainability, resource stewardship and individual lifestyle. The conference will also highlight the presentation of the Go Green Sustainability Awards which aspire to elevate achievements by individuals, institutions and businesses in developing unique and creative solutions to improve our environment for future generations.
Alongside the conference and the awards, a green showcase open to the public will also take place. The exhibition will feature CSR initiatives on environmental sustainability of corporate partners; showcase initiatives and programmes by government agencies; green lifestyle products, services and technologies.
The 2010 National Environment Conference is convened by Asia Inc Forum in collaboration with TOTAL, HSBC, Alcoa, Butra Heidelberg and ST Engineering and supported by ITOCHU Corporation and the Borneo Bulletin and Media Permata.
To register for the Forum or get more information, please contact Ms Nanette Ramos at 2226555 or email conference@asiaincforum.com.