By bringing together actors from a diverse range of disciplines and sectors, DNC fosters dialogue on how nexus thinking contributes to achieving sustainable development for all. The resources supporting development are finite and global change is impacting their availability and accessibility. By considering the maximisation of synergies, minimisation of trade-offs, and enhancement of resource use efficiency, the Nexus Approach is key for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

DNC is a one-of-a-kind event, bringing together actors from academia, civil society, industry, and government from all over the world to discuss the sustainable management of environmental resources in Dresden. Providing a platform for exchange on this topic is crucial to ensure the findings and good initiatives from the scientific community are communicated to the right actors for implementation – political decision makers as well as local stakeholders and representatives of the business community. DNC provides the scientific community opportunities to inform their initiatives through dialogue about the needs and challenges of political decision makers as well as local stakeholders and representatives of the business community. Across the scientific community itself, this platform is important because the discussion around the Nexus Approach must be inter- and transdisciplinary, involving, for example, the social sciences as well as practitioners.

This cross-sectoral platform for nexus-oriented initiatives, comprising a conference series in Dresden as well as showcasing valuable resources such as the Dresden Nexus Conference Playlist and the State of the Nexus Approach Report.

DNC2020 aims to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable economy by focusing on identifying and discussing the concepts that nexus thinking offers to support the transition towards a circular economy. A Nexus Approach shares many synergies with the concept of a circular economy – a system that eliminates waste, keeps resources in use, and contributes to regenerating natural systems.

URL: www.dresden-nexus-conference.org

Past Conferences

• DNC2015: Global Change, SDGs, and the Nexus Approach
• DNC2017: SDGs and a Nexus Approach – Monitoring and Implementation

Steering Committee

• United Nations University UNU-FLORES The United Nations University aims to develop sustainable solutions for pressing global problems of human survival and development. The Dresden-based Institute for the Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources” (UNU-FLORES) develops strategies to resolve pressing issues in the area of sustainable use and integrated management of environmental resources such as soil, water and waste. Established in December 2012, the institute engages in research, capacity development, advanced teaching and training to advance a Nexus Approach to resources management. http://flores.unu.edu/ Represented by: Edeltraud Guenther (Director), Kai Schwaerzel (Academic Officer, Soil and Land-Use Management), Claudia Seiler (Event Coordinator), Atiqah Fairuz Salleh (Digital Communications Editor)
• Technische Universität Dresden, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Awarded by German government, the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) is one of the eleven Excellence Initiative universities in Germany since 2012, making it one of the eleven best universities in Germany. As well TU Dresden is member of the prestigious TU9 group, the alliance of the leading nine Universities of Technology in Germany. Strong in research and considered first-rate with respect to the range and the quality of the study programmes it offers, it is also closely interconnected with culture, business and society. The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering formed up into the Faculties of Architecture, Civil Engineering Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Transportation and Traffic Sciences and Business and Economics to strengthen their interdisciplinary cooperation and coordination in teaching, research and administration. Based on the strategic research priority areas of TU Dresden the diverse research activities at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering focus on providing solutions to global mega-challenges such as energy, resources, mobility and climatic change. http://tu-dresden.de/en Represented by: Lars Bernard (Dean Faculty of Environmental Sciences), Christina Dornack (Director, Institute for Waste Management and Circular Economy), Niels Schütze (Chair of Hydrology), Marius Müller (Conference Management)
• Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) The Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) is an establishment of the Leibniz Association for Research in the Spatial Sciences. The IOER builds the scientific basis for the sustainable growth of cities and regions in the national and international context, with their research addressing ecological issues of sustainable development. The IOER strives to contribute through innovative research and advice to the compatibility of human action and the development of the natural environment in order to ensure the sustainable basis of life. http://www.ioer.de Represented by: Marc Wolfram (Director), Artem Korzhenevych (Head of Research Area Economic Aspects of Ecological Urban and Regional Development), Andreas Otto (Deputy Director, Head of Research Management), Hendrikje Wehnert (Research Management), Sabine Witschas (Head of Research Infrastructure)

Advisory Committee

• Sonja Akter National University of Singapore Sonja Akter Sonia Akter is Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. Previously she was a scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) where she led the Gender Research Team and was the Coordinator for Gender Research of the Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) Program of the CGIAR (2014−2015). Prior to that, she was Senior Researcher at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ in Leipzig, Germany (2011−2013). She graduated with a PhD in Environmental Management and Development from the Australian National University in 2010. Her three key research interests are climate change mitigation and adaptation policy, agriculture and food security and gender equity and the empowerment of women.
• Raimund Bleischwitz University College London Raimund Bleischwitz Raimund Bleischwitz is Chair in Sustainable Global Resources at the University College London (UCL) and Director of the UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources (UCL BSEER). He has been Principal Investigator of an international collaborative project on the circular economy in China (SINCERE), and he participates in a number of EU projects on eco-innovation and raw minerals. He was Deputy Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (UCL ISR) until July 2018. Raimund has a PhD and a ‘Habilitation’ in economics and more than 250 publications – most recently the Routledge Handbook of the Resource Nexus.
• Robert Brears Our Future Water Robert Brears Robert Brears is the author of Urban Water Security (Wiley), The Green Economy and the Water-Energy-Food Nexus (Palgrave Macmillan), Blue and Green Cities: The Role of Blue-Green Infrastructure in Managing Urban Water Resources (Palgrave Macmillan), Natural Resource Management and the Circular Economy (Palgrave Macmillan), and Climate Resilient Water Resources Management (Palgrave Macmillan). He is editor of the Climate Resilient Societies book series with Palgrave Macmillan. Robert is a contributing author for the World Bank’s Water Blog, Asian Development Bank’s Blog, United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s Making It Magazine, and Green Growth Knowledge Platform. He has published widely on water security, water resources management, and related issues, and has conducted field research around the world, including Antarctica. He is Founder of Mitidaption, Mark and Focus, and Our Future Water.
• Stefan Bringezu Center for Environmental Systems Research Stefan Bringezu Stefan Bringezu is Professor for Sustainable Resource Management and director at the Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR) at University of Kassel, and heads the Sustainable Resource Futures (SURF) group. He is a member of the International Resource Panel. His main research subject is the multi-scale analysis of the socio-industrial metabolism and related land use, the indicators of sustainability and the implementation of the SDGs, modelling the bioeconomy, assessing innovative technologies such as CCU, urban mining and life-cycle-based assessments of infrastructures. Professor Bringezu is a pioneer in the field of material flow analysis and contributed to the formation of scholarly institutions such as the International Society for Industrial Ecology.
• Fatima Denton United Nations University Fatima Denton Dr Denton is the Director of the UNU Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, and an accomplished and widely respected senior leader in the UN system. She has depth of expertise in natural resource management, as well as deep knowledge of research and policy development, and the African region. Prior to joining UNU-INRA, Dr. Denton had worked with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Ethiopia since 2012 as Director of the Natural Resource Management Division and Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre. Dr Denton is a lead author for several special report and working groups regarding climate change, land and renewable energy. She has served on numerous scientific committees and boards and is a current member of the advisory board of Future Earth and a trustee of UK-based International Institute on Environment and Development. Dr Denton has written more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, reports, and books. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Birmingham (UK).
• Ines Dombrowsky German Development Institute Ines Dombrowsky Dr. Ines Dombrowsky holds a PhD in Economics and an MSc in Environmental Engineering and heads the Research Programme ‘Environmental Governance and Transformation to Sustainability’ at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). Her research, which is grounded in institutional economics and political sciences, focuses on natural resources and multi-level environmental governance, with an emphasis on water and the water-energy-food-climate nexus. She has published widely on water governance issues from transboundary to local scales. Prior employers include the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ (2001-2010), the World Bank (1997-2001) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) (1995-1997).
• Bruno Gerard International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center Bruno Gerard Bruno Gérard is the Director of the Sustainable Intensification Program at CIMMYT. He leads a team of 45 international scientists focusing on sustainable intensification of maize and wheat-based systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America. Before joining CIMMYT in September 2011, Dr Gérard worked as a Principal Scientist at ICRISAT in Niger and as a System-wide Livestock (SLP) Program coordinator at ILRI in Ethiopia. He was trained as an agricultural and irrigation engineer and holds M.Sc. degrees from the University Catholique de Louvain (1987) and Utah State University (1990), along with a Ph.D. from the Plant Nutrition department at the University of Hohenheim (2000). His research interests include geo-spatial farming system analysis, research design, soil fertility management at farm and landscape levels, crop-livestock integration in smallholder farming systems and participatory methods.
• Marion Huber-Humer The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna Marion Huber-Humer Marion Huber-Humer is Full Professor for Global Waste Management and Head of the Institute of Waste Management at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU). She is managing board member of the International Waste Working Group (IWWG), board member of the ÖVA (Austrian Association for Management of Contaminated Sites), and vice president of ISWA-Austria. She teaches bachelor and master courses in the study programs “Environment and Bio-Resources Management”, Civil Engineering and Water Management, and she is faculty member in the Doctoral School “Transition to Sustainability” at BOKU. Her current research focuses on the investigation of sustainable global waste management concepts and circular economy approaches, biological waste processing, nano-waste treatment, sustainable landfill technologies, process and emission monitoring.
• Yaseen Khayyat The El Hassan Science City Yaseen Khayyat H.E Dr Yaseen Khayyat holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Cambridge University. As of this year, he is CEO of the El Hassan Science City, and previously served as Minister of Environment in Jordan from June 2016 to February 2018, and as a Member of the Senate Committees for Environment and Health, Energy, Water and Agriculture and Tourism from October 2013 to June 2016. Prior to his work in the Ministry of Jordan, Dr Khayyat held the title of Director at both the Jordan Standards and Metrology Organisation (JSMO) and the Industrial Chemistry Centre at the Royal Scientific Society. Dr. Khayyat possesses substantive practical experience in Quality Management supplementing his mastery of technical specialties revolving on today’s most pressing environmental challenges such as Climate Change, The Green Economy, Marine Plastics, Waste Management & Recycling and Environmental Legislation.
• Sasha Koo-Oshima UN Food & Agriculture Organisation Sasha Koo-Oshima Sasha Koo-Oshima is currently the Deputy Director and Head of Water at the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO); leading programs on agricultural water development and governance, data, and integrated water resources management with linkages to climate, energy, health and nutrition. She has over 25 years of experience in international assistance and policy development and is currently the Governing Board Member of the World Water Council. A former Director at the U.S. EPA and Secretariat of the OECD, she directed and managed international water programs/compacts with donor agencies on various programs covering public-private-partnerships, climate resilience, multi-stakeholder and multi-jurisdictional policy engagements, blended financing/resource mobilization, and effective policy governance in sustainable water and natural resource-agriculture management.
• Pedro Kraemer BORDA e.V. Pedro Kraemer Holds a Master on Agricultural Sciences and a Diploma in Anthropology both from the University of Göttingen, Germany. For 2 years Head of the GIZ Biogas Dissemination Program in Belize; 10 years, planner and manager of projects related with biogas systems and decentralized wastewater treatment plants at a German environmental technology company. Since 2001, with the Bremen Overseas and Development Association (BORDA), focusing on the development and implementation of integrated, small-scale water and sanitation service concepts, especially for marginalized areas. Country focus: India, Nepal, Mexico, Nicaragua and Cuba. Current location is Mexico.
• Reid Lifset Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Reid Lifset Mr. Lifset’s research and teaching focus on the field of industrial ecology. He is a Research Scholar, Resident Fellow in Industrial Ecology, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology, an international peer-reviewed bi-monthly headquartered at the Center for Industrial Ecology of the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and owned by Yale University. In addition, he is Associate Director of the Industrial Environmental Management Program. Mr. Lifset’s research focuses on the application of industrial ecology to novel problems and research areas, the evolution of extended producer responsibility (EPR), the environmental impact of the digital economy, and the development of the circular economy. He is a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel and the governing council of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE). He is a member of the editorial board of the journal, Waste and Biomass Valorisation.In 2015, he was awarded the Society Prize from the ISIE and has chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Industrial Ecology. He has served on the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board and has advised organizations including the U.S. EPA, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Coalition of Northeast Governors, the Luce Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
• Ivo Matser GISMA Business School Ivo Matser Ivo Matser (Netherlands, 1961) is a specialist in managing and leading organizational change in the professional corporate world and private academic institutions. Ivo is an economist, a leadership expert and certified Expert Marketing Professional (EMP). He started his career in Business and has been leading academic institutions from 2001. He was CEO/Dean of TSM Business School (NL), CEO of ISM University of Management and Economics (LT). Currently, he is President of GISMA Business School (D) and CEO of ABIS, the Academy of Business in Society. He has represented academic institutions at ABIS for more than 10 years.
• Rachel McDonnell The International Water Management Institute Rachel McDonnell Dr Rachael McDonnell is Strategic Program Director for Water, Climate Change and Resilience at the International Water Management Institute (Rome Office) and a Global Fellow at the Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska. She leads a team of researchers working on innovative data, technology, policy and governance solutions to support countries adapting to the challenges of drought, water and food insecurity under a changing climate. This includes introducing ideas on the Circular Economy into disaster risk responses as well as during times of more normal climate conditions. She received her Doctorate from the University of Oxford.
• Prof Tran Viet Nga National University of Civil Engineering Prof Tran Viet Nga Prof Tran Viet Nga is Associate Professor and Dean of the Department of Environmental Engineering of the National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE). Her research focuses on wastewater and sludge treatment. She is a member of the board of the Vietnamese Water and Wastewater Association (VWSA) and is thus closely connected with hundreds companies involved in the municipal and industrial community. In teaching and training Prof Nga has been cooperating with TU Dresden for 4 years.
• Taikan Oki United Nations University and The University of Tokyo Taikan Oki Professor Oki is currently appointed as a Special Advisor to the President and a Professor (Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science) of The University of Tokyo. He has received many awards, including the Biwako Prize for Ecology in 2011, and was the first Japanese AGU Fellow in its Hydrology Section (2014). Professor Oki’s areas of expertise are global hydrology and the sustainability of world water resources, including the virtual water trade and water footprint. He was one of the coordinating lead authors for the chapter “Freshwater Resources” of the IPCC WGII AR5.
• Elke Pahl-Weber TU Berlin Elke Pahl-Weber Elke Pahl-Weber is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning at the Technical University of Berlin. Professor Pahl-Weber has served as Head of Department for Urban Regeneration and Sustainable Development at TU Berlin since 2004, and was Director and Professor of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affair and Spatial Development from 2009-2011. Her research fields include Smart Cities (integrative urban planning processes and interactive modulation for cities in climate change), megacities, conducting and moderation of planning processes, energetic urban regeneration and spatial focus on Europe as well as India and the MENA (Middle-East-North-Africa) region.
• Julienne Roux Global Water Partnership Julienne Roux Julienne Roux works at the Global Water Partnership as a Senior network specialist, focusing on GWP global programmes regarding the ‘Water – Energy – Food – Ecosystems Nexus’ and youth engagement, along with supporting the Regional Water Partnerships in West Africa and Central Africa. Julienne Roux has 15 years of experience working in water resources management and on the interconnections between agriculture and water – as a Public Policy Practitioner in France and as a contributor to World Bank projects.
• Luk Van Wassenhove INSEAD Business School Luk Van Wassenhove Professor Van Wassenhove is Fellow of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS 2005). In 2006, he received EURO’s Gold Medal. He is Distinguished Fellow of the Manufacturing and Services Operations Management Society (MSOM 2009), and Honorary Fellow of the European Operations Management Association (EUROMA 2013). In 2018 he was elected Fellow of INFORMS. At INSEAD, Professor Van Wassenhove holds the Henry Ford Chair in Manufacturing. He created the INSEAD Social Innovation Center and acted as Academic Director until 2010. He currently leads INSEAD’s Humanitarian Research Group and its Sustainable Operations Initiative. Professor Van Wassenhove’s current research focuses on business models and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, e.g. closed-loop supply chains, circular economy, and disaster and health logistics. He recently co-edited special issues on humanitarian operations for the Journal of Operations Management, the Production and Operations Management Journal and the European Journal of Operational Research.
• Benjamin Warr INSEAD Business School Benjamin Warr Dr Benjamin Warr is a sustainability analyst and strategist, whose area of interest has gradually shifted from academic to practical; namely regarding land restoration (both for the mining sector’s use of incipient novel agroforestry ecosystems, and across small farmer landscapes using holistic management systems) and innovation in soil (environment) analytics and first mile business models to support intelligent sustainable intensification, better M&E and improved access to finance based on sustainability performance. He trained as an environmental soil scientist (University of Reading) and geospatial analyst (Centre de Géostatistique, Fontainebleau). He worked for over 12 years at INSEAD Business School, Fontainebleau, France researching ecological economics and sustainability innovations in business. Dr Warr is Executive in Residence, INSEAD Social Innovation Centre and Research Fellow at Stellenbosch University, Department of Soil Science.
• Ken Webster University of Exeter Ken Webster Ken Webster is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter’s Centre for the Circular Economy (UK) and was formerly Head of Innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. His book, The Circular Economy: A Wealth of Flows (2nd Edition 2017), discusses the connections between systems-thinking, economic and business opportunity and the transition to a circular economy. He is a guest lecturer at the University of Linköping, Sweden and Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University. He makes regular contributions to conferences, workshops and seminars around the world.
• Henning Wilts Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy Henning Wilts Dr. Henning Wilts, Director Division Circular Economy at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. He has a master’s degree in Economics, a PhD in Waste Infrastructure Planning and currently lectures in Resource Economics at the Schumpeter School of Economics in Wuppertal. Dr Wilts also coordinates a PhD group on waste prevention and several research projects on the transition processes towards a Circular Economy, inter alia for the European Commission, the European Environment Agency and the OECD. He is responsible for the contributions of the Wuppertal Institute to the European Topic Centre on Waste and Materials in a Green Economy for which he coordinates the working group on waste prevention.
• Kai Schwaerzel Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems Kai Schwaerzel
• Hoon Chang KACCC/KEI (Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change/Korean Environment Institute) Hoon Chang Hoon Chang is a senior research fellow and Director of KACCC (Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change) in the Korea Environment Institute (KEI), a public think-tank under the Office of Prime Minister in Korea. As head of Office of Global Cooperation & Outreach he formally led international cooperation and capacity building programmes with the UN and other institutions. Hoon’s background research areas range from Sustainable Urban Development to Climate Change Adaptive Development in urban areas. He has been involved and leading international development projects with UN bodies and other institutions on developing countries, mainly Southeast Asian countries. Hoon holds a doctoral degree in City & Regional Planning from Cornell University.