This year the following youth groups are actively participating in the World Resources Forum:

1. Students from the YES Course

The Youth Encounter on Sustainability (YES) will run in parallel to the World Resources Forum, bringing together 40 young leaders from 30 different countries to discuss the challenges of sustainable development.

The YES delegates will provide valuable contributions to the WRF, which will include organizing intergenerational dialogue workshops, providing reflections in the plenary summary sessions and interviewing participants. The YES course aims to equip young leaders from around the world with the knowledge and skills necessary to address the challenges of sustainable development. A typical course runs for 17 days, led by world class faculty and facilitators, and includes workshops, lectures, project work, case studies, field trips and unique social, cultural and creative activities. The YES course was developed by the Alliance for Global Sustainability (a university partnership of the ETH Zurich, MIT, Chalmers and the University of Tokyo) and is run through ACTIS, a specially created ETH spin-off organization.

Contact persons: Roger Baud and Michel Grant

2. Student Reporters and Bloggers

Around fifteen selected international students will be blogging live from the event to a global audience, providing summaries, background stories, interviews and impressions. The blog seeks to engage the resource efficiency expert community and the interested general public and actively invites external comments. They hope to host engaged discussions during the WRF 2011 event, but also during the preparation and follow-up phase. Ad hoc answers and contributions by interviewed participants will be highly appreciated.

The WRF 2011 Student Reporters are selected from the fellows of the Swiss Study Foundation and the members of oikos International. The project was initiated by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland, who is a partner of the World Resources Forum.

Contact person: Tim Lehmann

3. High School Students from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein

A group of students from high schools from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein will be present at the Congress. They will be encouraged to explore areas such as resource efficiency, renewable resources and sustainability. Some of the high-school students will also be involved in filming the keynote speeches and in cutting and preparing the video clips to be put on the WRF website. They will gather first-hand experience while associating with experts from all over the world. Project manager Markus Keller reports that the students will subsequently present their results at project days organised by their respective high schools. „We are curious to find out what effects the WRF will have on our students and schools“ he says. We would highly appreciate your welcoming support to the students for instance when you are approached for interviews and answering questions.

Contact person: Markus Keller

4. StEP E-Waste Summer School

A group of 20 advance level graduate students have come from all over the world to explore the most pressing issues and recent findings pertaining to the management of end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste). The StEP E-Waste Summer School lasts ten days and is hosted in Eindhoven (Netherlands), Antwerp (Belgium) and Davos. This year, the students discussions, study tours and group work focus on Closing resource loops: Complexities and solution in managing e-waste. As participants of the WRF, the students are organising a presentation and workshop discussing the potential role of labelling schemes to increase material recovery from e-waste.

Contact person: Stephanie Leclerc

Further information: www.step-initiative.org