The International School of Luxembourg (ISL) has announced that Camille Gira, Luxembourg's Secretary of State for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure, will open the European Global Issues Network (GIN) annual conference at the Chambre de Commerce on Thursday 8 March 2018, featuring high-profile activists and students from around the world.

GIN was founded 15 years ago at the International School of Luxembourg and has since become a global phenomenon with over 100,000 members spanning five continents. Its purpose is to empower young people to collaborate locally, regionally, and globally in order to create sustainable solutions for global issues.

The conference's title this year is 'Facilitating Sustainable Change with Environmental and Social Initiatives'. It will be run entirely by students, for students, over three days from 8 to 10 March.

Due to its success, the annual conference attracts a whole host of people; this year it includes visiting students from China, America and Europe, high-profile keynote speakers, community leaders, educators, subject experts, and not for profit organisations (NGOs).

Over 500 GIN projects have already been implemented thanks to the grassroots idea and enthusiasm of students around the world.

This year eight Luxembourgish organisations with a strong focus on sustainability and social initiatives will attend, with many of them also presenting. They include:

- OUNI - Luxembourg's first grocery store selling unpackaged organic, local and fair-trade food and household products.
- Inspiring More Sustainability (IMS) - A leading network on corporate social responsibility.
- Open Home - An initiative encouraging people to open their homes to refugees.
- TechnoGreen SA - A developer and distributor of eco-innovative products including waterless urinals. (The Techno Green waterless urinal installations saved over 13 million liters of water in Luxembourg in 2017)
- Time for Equality - An NGO dedicated to promoting equality, inclusion and social justice.
- Innpact - An organisation providing finance for sustainable projects.
- PwC and Banque de Luxembourg - Financial organisations encouraging sustainability and social initiatives.

The high-profile keynote speakers include:

- Zach Ingrasci - an award-winning humanitarian, activist and filmmaker who directed, produced and featured in 'Living on One Dollar' (http://livingonone.org/livingonone/film/) He also produced the documentary 'Salam Neigbor' and was the first filmmaker given a tent and registered inside a Syrian refugee camp. More recently he has been working with Google and the UN Refugee Agency to create Searching for Syria, an immersive online hub that answers the worlds most searched questions about Syria. It featured on the homepage of Google and reached over 5 million people in two weeks. Zach has shared his expertise via Tedx, the United Nations, the World Humanitarian Summit, CBS This Morning, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

- Zoe Tabary of Thomson Reuters Foundation - a journalist and editor who runs www.braced.org<http://www.braced.org> - a news site on climate extremes and disasters and reports on climate adaptation in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, migration, and women's rights, amongst other topics.

- Nancy Thomas and Armelle Duvieusart from Inspiring More Sustainability (IMS) Luxembourg. A leading network on corporate social responsibility. Nancy has worked on corporate social responsibility for 15 years. Armelle is a University graduate and former ISL student, she is currently leading a Food Waste Zero programme for IMS in Luxembourg.

- Susanna Worth of United World Schools, who is dedicated to improving education for some of the world's poorest children by building schools, training teachers, and delivering a free basic education to children living in remote and marginalised communities.

- Zak Kaufman, Cofounder and CEO of Vera Solutions, who works with social impact organisations to create affordable, powerful and flexible technology solutions that put real-time health information in the hands of the people who need it.

Time and time again this conference highlights Luxembourg as not only a platform for driving the discussion on global issues, but as a place for devising real plans on paper that are then implemented by students who want to make positive sustainable changes.