On Friday May 30, the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network (CBERN) will host a one day workshop on “The ethics of resource extraction” at UBC in Vancouver, BC.  This workshop is the first day of a two day Annual CBERN Conference and Annual Meeting.  The workshop agenda will address a number of topics including: 

• Corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, human rights, and other ethical issues related to the extractive sector;  
• The role of ethics codes, voluntary self regulation, accountability mechanisms, and legal and regulatory frameworks in establishing sound standards of corporate performance;  
• Progress on the implementation of the report of the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries;
• Resource extraction, strategic commodities and national and human security; and
• The evolving profile of ethics, CSR and sustainability in Canadian Engineering Faculties. 

The Workshop will bring together university based researchers, including PhD students from a variety of disciplines, and business leaders, government officials, and NGO representatives from across Canada to share insights on the ethical dimensions of resource extraction.

One output of the workshop will be the identification of the most productive role for the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network over the next two years with respect to the extractive sector,  with respect to supporting and mobilizing research and transferring research findings and insights effectively between and among resource extraction related constituencies, stakeholders and economic sectors.

The workshop is being convened by Wesley Cragg, CBERN Project Director; Jim Cooney, formerly Vice President of International Affairs, Placer Dome; Joy Kennedy, Program Coordinator, Poverty, Wealth and Ecological Justice for the United Church of Canada; and Yolanda Banks, Senior Corporate Social Responsibility Advisor, Export Development Canada and with the active involvement of Malcolm Scoble, Head, UBC Institute of Mining Engineering.

For further information on this event, visit:
http://www.businessethicscanada.ca/about/cbern2008meeting/workshop/index.html