The Canadian Society for Ecological Economics (CANSEE) held its 2013 biennial conference ‘Sustaining the Commons: Ideas and Actions for a Green Economy‘ October 31st to November 2nd at York University in Toronto. The event was a great success. It brought in a great number of interesting speakers, attracted nearly 150 registrants, and generated considerable student interest. Click here for a conference program or see the links below for summaries, presentation slides and videos from some of the presentations.

Plenary Presentations

Bill Rees – Ecological Economics, Degrowth and Denial: The Role of Social Engineering
Ellie Perkins– Building Commons Governance for a Greener Economy
Andrea Levy – Economic Degrowth and Work
Tim Jackson and Peter Victor – Towards an Ecological Macroeconomics
Bob Willard – The Business Case for the Sustainability Imperative
Alan Richardson – Integrated Reporting for Sustainability: What to Integrate and How?
Jon Erickson – The Dogma of Ecological Economics

Sessions

Putting Ecological Economics in Cosmic, Ethical, and Policy Context

Peter Brown – The Unfinished Journey of Ecological Economics
Steven Quilley – Cosmic History and Ecological Economics
Manjana Milkoreit – Fear of Dystopia

Community Level Sustainability

Stephane Tremblay – Understanding Social Values of Ecosystem Services through Perceptions at the Community Level in the Rio Tapajajos Region in the Brazilian Amazon
Michelle Molnar – Valuing the Aquatic Benefits of BC’s Lower Mainland
Jeff Wilson – Drivers and Distribution of Direct GHG Emissions at an Urban and Sub-regional Scale

Sustaining the Commons

Asghedom Ghebremichael – Promoting the Synergetic Nexus between Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management and Technological Progress
Jan Inglis – Commons: A Metasystems Approach to the Unsustainable Market State Regime
Alexandra Belaskie and Julie Mallette – From Watersheds to Well-being: A Preliminary Look at Ecosystem Based Indicators of Well-being and their Applications

Biophysical Economics

Robert Ayres – Crossing the Energy Divide: The Economic Imperative of Energy Efficiency

Canadian Energy and Climate Policy

Peter Love – Canadian Energy Policy Issues
Christina Hoicka – Low Carbon Pathways: Insights to Improve Residential Energy Retrofits and Avoid a 4 to 6 Degree Future
Nathan Lemphers – How Oilsands Development is Reshaping Canada’s Economy
Question and Answer Session

Ecosystem Services Valuation

Maria Nijnik – Valuation of Ecosystem Services: to Value or Not to Value
Tania Briceno – Value Lost in Translation: Integrating Ecological Principles into Environmental Valuations

Towards a Green Economy

Keith Brooks – Campaigning for Green Jobs and a Green Economy
James Law – Community Power Perspectives: Putting People (and climate) at the Centre of Canada’s Energy Future
Question and Answer Session

Methods and Modelling

Takuro Uehara (presented by Jeffrey Weih) – An I/O Systems Dynamic Approach to Ecological Economic Modelling
Eric Miller – The Ecological Economics of Canada’s Ageing Population
Brett Dolter – Casting a Long Shadow: Demand-Based Accounting of Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Ecological Economic Foundations

Peter Timmerman – Boundary Conditions: Models of the Human for a Finite World
Janice Harvey – A New Economics, A New Discourse”
Marisa Beck – Less Can be More: Explaining the Diminishing Marginal Return on Social Complexity

Valuation and Biodiversity

Tatiana Koveshnikova – Valuing Wetlands in the Credit River Watershed: Implications for Wetland Restoration
Jerome Dupras – Using Contingent Valuation and Choice Experiment to Value Agricultural Beneficial Management Practices in Quebec
Paul Shrivastava – Alternative Arts-based Business Models for Improving Biodiversity

Money, Degrowth and Governance

George Crowell – Confronting Unsustainable Growth and Overcoming Austerity Through Monetary Reform
Blair Fix – Energy and Money: Integrating Social Metabolism into Economic Analysis
Sherman Farhad and Miguel A. Gual Font – Socio-ecological Systems Governance

National Accounts and Green Indicators

Stephanie Uhde – Land Accounting in Quebec: A Pilot Project for a Sub-Provincial Area
Weimin Wang and Patrick Adams – Accounting for Subsoil Mineral and Energy Resources in National Accounts
Laurel Besco – Productivity and Natural Capital

Partners and Sponsors:

CANSEE wishes to thank all of the partners and sponsors who made this successful event possible (listed below), as well as the conference volunteers, attendees and presenters, York Faculty of Environmental Studies professors and staff, and our conference caterer Michaelanelo’s.