The Resource Revolution Trainer

Coupling Sustainability with Excellence. An online self-training guide for business.

ABOUT

The Resource Revolution Trainer has been developed under auspices of the World Resources Forum (WRF). Its aim is to promote use of the scientific findings of the International Resource Panel (IRP) among the business community. In doing this, the online trainer also features related business publications and encourages business action towards products, services and systems for a more resource efficient and resilient future.

The target audience of this self-training platform is middle and senior level managers hoping to get a better understanding of the publicly available scientific knowledge on the global resource challenge, and implications of its findings for how their businesses operate and generate value. Having done the online course, managers should be able to conduct a strategic discussion internally on action plans for their companies to become true Resource Revolution enterprises.

The main sources of content for the online course are the Decoupling I (2011) and Decoupling II (2014) reports of the IRP, as well as the book Resource Revolution (Amazon 2014) by Stefan Heck of Stanford University and Matt Rogers of McKinsey & Company. The IRP content provides the public science foundation. Building on this, content from the Resource Revolution, The Zeronauts (Routledge 2012) by John Elkington and other leading business publications are employed to turn the implications of the science into an action plan for any business.

The training content structure has six main parts. Each session is introduced with a video presentation. The additional course content includes reading material, case examples and exercises to facilitate optimal learning value for the business reader. Managers can do the online course at their own pace.

The course presenters bring a wealth of international experience in global resource use science, policy and business. Former Vice President at Holcim and secondee to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Dr Barbara Dubach is Managing Director of the consulting firm engageability in Switzerland (Zurich).  Former Resource Efficiency Subprogramme Coordinator at the United Nations Environment Programme and MBA graduate of HEC business school in France, Dr Cornis van der Lugt is a Business Analyst and External Senior Lecturer with Stellenbosch University Business School in South Africa (Cape Town).

The online course host is the World Resources Forum (WRF). Headquartered in St Gallen, Switzerland, the WRF is an independent non-profit international organization that serves as a platform connecting and fostering knowledge exchange on resources management amongst business leaders, policy-makers, NGOs, scientists and the public. See www.wrforum.org