Think Locally, Act Globally: Bhutan Leading Natural Solutions

In the first session the audience will go through a design sprint and learn how to coordinate health and environmental responses to Lead exposure in a single village, an endemic public health issue throughout South and SoutheastAsia.

​We will go over how to test people, households, soil, water, train personnel, educate communities, manage data, build long-term monitoring systems as well as go over the latest tech, governance, and cost. We will focus on:

• SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, and specifically 3.9: reducing deaths and illnesses from hazardous exposure to lead
• SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, specifically 12.4: environmentally sound chemical and waste management.
• SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation removing lead leaching pipes and solder to ensure safe hydration
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities to support housing renewal, lead remediation and soil bioremediation.

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​In the second session we will hear from His Excellency the Prime Minister of Bhutan, the Honorable Ambassador of Bhutan to the UN, and the Natural Capital Alliance from Stanford University about the Kingdom’s adoption of the Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) and its potential to support new financing mechanisms, market opportunities, and public investment pathways.

​GEP, already tried in other countries to incentivize and target meaningful, nature and people-smart investments, can complement Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH), and aligns with the UN’s “Beyond GDP” initiative. Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative country, will become the first country to adopt a national GEP account.