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This year’s Sustainability- live! echoed a familiar theme that has emerged in the past six months; that big businesses seem to be concerning them- selves less with carbon and focusing more on raw materials and resources. Issues like water, waste
and biodiversity are finally getting a look in. Of course, energy efficiency is still important, but there has been a move away from carbon-centric strategies and the sustainability leaders are adopting a holistic approach that factors in more than just emissions – and rightly so. What has also disappeared is the general obsession with global climate change deals. ‘Will it or won’t it happen?’ ‘Who’s keeping a check on China?’ ‘Should we aim for a 80% 2050 cut, or go further?’ All of this stuff has taken a backseat in favour of a localised view of the problem. The relative failures of the last two UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen and Cancun have derailed attention and summit-fatigue has set in. “Forget global climate change deals that may or may not be realised,” I said in my opening address at this year’s SB – The Event, “the current economic climate will force compa- nies to adopt more efficient processes, reduce their energy bills and adopt risk management strategies – all of the things that ideologically make up a truly sustainable business.” But this lethargy towards achieving a globally- agreed deal on averting the worst effects of climate change is dangerous.
As we returned from Birmingham, The Guardian’s Fiona Harvey was busy penning that Saturday’s front page article: Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink. “The economic recession has failed to curb rising emissions, undermining hope of keeping global warming to safe levels,” she wrote, citing the fact that greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year to the “high-
Get back on the wagon. We can’t afford another damp UN squib
est carbon output in history”. The target of prevent- ing a temperature rise of more than two degrees Celsius, which UN negotiators have all agreed is the threshold for potentially dangerous climate change is likely to be just “a nice Utopia”, according to Faith Birol, a chief economist at the International Energy Agency. We are doomed and if the UN is our best hope of effectively regulating carbon emis- sions it had better get its act together, and quick. The whole process has been hugely frustrating – so many political barriers lie in the way. And so it has to fall on powerful businesses to get back on the wagon and demand action now. Groups like the Aldersgate Group and the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change can be hugely effective tools in pushing the agenda for- ward and make things happen.
Hopes may not be high for this year’s get- together in Durban, but can we really afford another damp squib?
I often hear that small business doesn’t have time for sustainability; that the pressures of merely staying afloat in these tough economic times over- shadow any opportunities offered by the green agenda. Well, turn to page 19 and read about Seacourt, a small printing business in Oxford which has just won its second Queen’s Award for Sustainable Development. It is a fantastic example of how the cost of being responsible can pay divi- dends beyond your wildest imagination.
TOM IDLE EDITOR
www.sbtheevent.com 24-26 May 2011 NEC Birmingham, UK
part of Sustainabilitylive!
Hope you enjoyed it See you in 2012
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY NEXT YEAR’S SUSTAINABILITYLIVE! TAKES PLACE ON 22-24 MAY 2012
22-24 MAY 2012
WELL, THAT’S IT FOLKS. WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS YEAR’S SB – THE EVENT – IT WAS GOOD TO SEE SO MANY ENGAGED BUSINESS LEADERS COME THROUGH THE DOORS. LET’S DO IT ALL AGAIN IN 2012...
www.sustainablebusinessonline.com
Sustainable Business | June 2011 | 3
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