Notes from Selsdon


Theo the Dragon is brilliantly silly. In real life, he’s just silly


Day One of Siemens’ splendidly-organised Answers for the Environment exhibition at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry culminated in an interesting panel debate that hosted Dragon’s Den star Theo Paphitis. If you’re unfamiliar with the show – where petrified, hopeful entre- preneurs pitch their (usually awful) ideas to five incredibly rich, arrogant and, largely, annoying people in suits in a bid to get investment for their product/idea – then you might know Paphitis as the face of those Carbon Trust ads that have been splashed all over the nationals. Keen to tell the audience that he’s not a san- dal-wearing, hair-shirted environmentalist – in fact, his chauffeur-driven, gas-guzzling Maybach was chugging away outside waiting for him, he bragged – Paphitis took to the podium to tell us a thing or two about sustain- ability. What came out was a patronising splurge of chatter about the need to be more energy efficient – and why everybody should sign up to an interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust (I think he’s on commission). I haven’t got a problem with the sentiment of his address,


more the manner in which it was delivered: shouty, antagonistic and embarrassing. Did he not realise that he was talking to a group of business people, not naughty schoolchildren? Talk about not knowing your audience: the large majority of those present are already committed to sustainability and understand the concept better than he ever will. As a ‘dragon’ on the telly, he is no doubt encouraged to play up to his on-screen persona as a no-nonsense business guru who ‘tells it like it is’. And some of the hopefuls that face him deserve his vitriol at times; it’s good clean fun. But in the real world, he just looks a bit silly.


Over at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, ACCA’s new breakfast meetings provide an insight into the way accountants view sustainability reporting. This coming month, the Friday Forum – orchestrated by the charismatic Dane, Henning Drager, the body’s new head of sustainability – tackles integrated reporting. It’s something CSR and accountants have been dabbling in for a while now, with limited success. From what


THE TEAM Editor Tom Idle 0208 651 7070 tom.idle@fav-house.com Sub-editor Richard Sharpe richard.sharpe@fav-house.com Production Sharon Miller 0208 651 7104 Design and production manager Luana Marca 0208 651 7142 Publisher


Angela Himus 0208 651 7164 angela.himus@fav-house.com Corporate partnerships Robert Barton 0208 651 7065 robert.barton@fav-house.com Group advertisement manager Ella Westaway 0208 651 7077 ella.westaway@fav-house.com Subscriptions 0208 651 7060 Administration Clare Klos 0208 651 7121 clare.klos@fav-house.com


Dragon Theo Paphitis in full flow at Siemens’ Answers for the Environment event in Coventry


I’ve heard, there’s no real interest from the cor- porates, so it will be interesting to see how long integrated reporting is promoted in this space.


On top of the Museum of London I was treated to an advance peek at the new green roof. As part of the museum’s £20M facelift, the £200,000 project is an impressive hard land- scaping effort, which includes the installation of a beehive. But with the current fashion to save cash, it’s not the sort of thing that is likely to be repeated any time soon and the museum will have to fight hard if it wants to green the rest of its vast roof space.


THE EDITORIAL PANEL John Alker UK Green Building Council Mark Barthel WRAP Charlie Browne UK environment manager, Ikea David Crowhurst BRE Environment Anya Ledwith ESHCon Liz Parkes Environment Agency Tim Pollard head of sustainability, Wolesley Amita Vaux Business in the Community Bruno Zago UK & Ireland environment manager, Hewlett Packard


MAGAZINE INFORMATION ISSN 1756-8633 © Faversham House Group Subscription rates


Annual UK: £97; Outside UK: £112 Single copy price: £10 Printed by Buxton Press Limited


FAVERSHAM HOUSE GROUP LIMITED Tel 0208 651 7100 Fax 0208 651 7117 ISDN 0208 651 1471 Address Faversham House, 232a Addington Road, Selsdon, South Croydon, Surrey CR2 8LE FHG is a member of the Periodical Publishers Association


OTHER INFORMATION The Faversham House Group portfolio also includes edie.net and Sustainabilitylive!


This magazine is printed on PEFC-accredited paper For more info see pefc.org. Licence number PEFC/16-33-141


Sustainable Business | August/September 2010 | 43


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44