Before your well-deserved Christmas vacations, explore this last newsletter of 2012 to find out what the oikos community has been up to lately: Two major events - oikos FutureLab and the oikos conference - concluded last month, we have a new Executive Board, the latest issue of the oikos Case Quarterly is out and we are launching a call for Student Reporters to be published in the Huffington Post! And as the new year approaches, we introduce our new oikos International President Lenka Parkanova. Enjoy!
oikos FutureLab
oikos FutureLab 2012 gathered 113 of our chapter members from across four continents; our alumni in business, government, NGOs, and academia; our faculty members from schools for management and economics worldwide, and a broad array of partners supporting our projects. oikees were invited to share and collaboratively develop their projects, providing for an exciting display of students' projects portfolios all over the world. Our Student Reporter Iftekhar Karim, Sadia Huq and Loic Ruchat offer their insights of the event for your memory and/or those who were unable to participate this year on our blog. You can also view a picture gallery on our facebook page.
oikos Students
Student Reporters at Schwab Foundation and Huffington Post
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, the Huffington Post and Student Reporter have teamed up to invite ten students to form a virtual team starting 1st of February 2013 for six months to contribute to Huffington Post’s Social Entrepreneurship section. Read more and apply until 13 January 2013!
Newly-elected oikos International Executive Board 2013
An exciting campaign culminated in the elections of new EB representatives during the Legislative Meeting prior to the oikos FutureLab. The oikos management team for 2013 is up and running and President Lenka Parkanova will be supported by Kavya Agrawal, Christian Bärtsch, Arush Chandna, Jacek Galiszewski, Nora Locskai, Kate Negacz and Levan Pangani.
Presidents' Kick-Off - meeting of the heads of oikos Chapters For two days the Presidents of oikos Chapters from all around the world gathered in Swiss town Rorschach. They dived into the issues of operational challenges of running their organisations and leveraging the international network. Read more to find out how the meeting was remembered by Arush Chandna, President of oikos Vellore and the Executive Board member of oikos International.
oikos measure University carbon footprint
Students of the oikos sustainability initiative at the University of St.Gallen (HSG) have measured the HSG’s carbon footprint for the first time and presented the results to the President’s Board. The report serves as a basis for the improvement of the HSG's climate balance sheet.
oikos Conference: Commodity Trade - Hotspot Switzerland
Between 15 and 16 November the University of St. Gallen became a platform for insightful speeches, debates and workshops revolving around the controversial issue of the Swiss contribution to global commodity trading and the mining industry. Students had the chance to discuss such issues with high-level participants from the major commodity trading firms and industry associations , as well as representatives of government, international organizations, NGO and faculty. Read more for the World Resources Forum's take on the conference.
The oikos Winter School Kick Started New Great Initiatives!
Students from all over the world met for more than a week in Witten to find sustainable business solutions for current social, environmental and economic problems. Whole event was an incredible mixture of lectures and discussions on economic alternatives and developing the projects while getting feedback from successful social innovators. Read more about the event and winning project.
oikos Academic
oikos Case Quarterly Issue 8
The latest issue of the oikos Case Quarterly has just been published, focusing on sustainability practises in the forestry industry. We present three cases from the oikos online case collection and one case from the SEKN Network. Additionally we count on the collaboration of Professor John Lawrence (University of Idaho, USA) sharing his experiences in the use of sustainability business cases with non-business students. Make sure to subscribe to receive forthcoming issues!
Former oikos PhD Fellow becomes Ashoka Fellow
Lars Stein was our very first oikos PhD Fellow (2007-2010) and his outstanding work with Studienaktie.org has now been rewarded through the award of an Ashoka Fellowship, intended to support the scaling up of his project.
30 seconds with...
Lenka Parkanova, oikos International President 2013
After two incredible months spent in St. Gallen learning and getting to know oikos better, followed by another two months of helping from Prague, I am about to start officially my Presidency. Big thank to Dawid (oikos International President 2012) for being so kind and patient with me during this handover! One would say, fun is over, it’s time to take all the responsibility and act! We need good oikos action mapping, quality websites, efficient communication, promotion, innovative fundraising strategies, good projects with impact and of course a proper organizational structure and management that allows us to do all this. Big challenges are waiting for us! However, I believe that challenges move people forward. I hope to learn a lot during this Presidency and want to give it back to oikos. Collaboration makes individuals more capable and stronger, especially when you have a chance to work with smart and wise people. I am lucky to have great minds around. Not only the newly elected Executive Board members, Arush, Christian, Jacek, Kate, Kavya, Levan and Nora, oikos senior advisers, but also Adriana - the Brazilian sun shining in our office and source of inspiration, PhD fellows – Shailee, Jordi and Tim and of course Alex, the President of oikos Foundation. The presence of these people makes me confident that we have great potential to be a strong network. The Presidents’ Kick Off, the oikos Legislative Meeting and the FutureLab just confirmed this feeling. All these events were a great opportunity to meet, talk in person and shape our future together. Thank you, all participants, for being active, introducing great projects and giving constructive feedback. Dear oikees, please wish me luck and please, do not hesitate to get back to me with your insights, observations, ideas. Looking forward to seeing you soon at the oikos Spring Meeting in Maastricht!
Cheers,
Lenka
Outlook:
13 January 2013: Call for Student Reporters
Together with Schwab Foundation and Huffington Post
Contribute
Let people know what you are up to and submit your oikos News for the next newsletter to: update@oikosinternational.org
Meet oikos...
oikos PhD Fellow Shailee Pradhan will be at the Santiago Workshop on Institutional Analysis, organized by the Ronald Coase Institute, from December 9-15, 2012 in Santiago, Chile.
oikos PhD Fellow Jordi Vives Gabriel will be at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights Geneva, 4-5 December 2012
oikos FutureLab 2012 gathered 113 of our chapter members from across four continents; our alumni in business, government, NGOs, and academia; our faculty members from schools for management and economics worldwide, and a broad array of partners supporting our projects. oikees were invited to share and collaboratively develop their projects, providing for an exciting display of students' projects portfolios all over the world. Our Student Reporter Iftekhar Karim, Sadia Huq and Loic Ruchat offer their insights of the event for your memory and/or those who were unable to participate this year 
Newly-elected oikos International Executive Board 2013 
oikos measure University carbon footprint
Former oikos PhD Fellow becomes Ashoka Fellow
After two incredible months spent in St. Gallen learning and getting to know oikos better, followed by another two months of helping from Prague, I am about to start officially my Presidency. Big thank to Dawid (oikos International President 2012) for being so kind and patient with me during this handover! One would say, fun is over, it’s time to take all the responsibility and act! We need good oikos action mapping, quality websites, efficient communication, promotion, innovative fundraising strategies, good projects with impact and of course a proper organizational structure and management that allows us to do all this. Big challenges are waiting for us! However, I believe that challenges move people forward. I hope to learn a lot during this Presidency and want to give it back to oikos. Collaboration makes individuals more capable and stronger, especially when you have a chance to work with smart and wise people. I am lucky to have great minds around. Not only the newly elected Executive Board members, Arush, Christian, Jacek, Kate, Kavya, Levan and Nora, oikos senior advisers, but also Adriana - the Brazilian sun shining in our office and source of inspiration, PhD fellows – Shailee, Jordi and Tim and of course Alex, the President of oikos Foundation. The presence of these people makes me confident that we have great potential to be a strong network. The Presidents’ Kick Off, the oikos Legislative Meeting and the FutureLab just confirmed this feeling. All these events were a great opportunity to meet, talk in person and shape our future together. Thank you, all participants, for being active, introducing great projects and giving constructive feedback. Dear oikees, please wish me luck and please, do not hesitate to get back to me with your insights, observations, ideas. Looking forward to seeing you soon at the oikos Spring Meeting in Maastricht!