BusinessGreen Leaders’ Summit 2017

The conference brought together some of the world’s top sustainable business thinkers to offer unique insights on how the green economy has evolved over the past decade, as well as how it will continue to develop as it enters a new era of sustainable business transformation and navigates a period of historic technological and political disruption.

The idea behind the BusinessGreen Leaders' Summit was to address the many questions faced by the green economy. Green business leaders discussed short term challenges as well as the opportunities they face. They also debated the fundamental trends executives need to understand if they want their organisations to remain competitive in the long term – an aspect our energy team do on a day to day basis through the creation and implementation of their energy strategies.

Both Ewan and Jonny spoke positively about the summit, especially for the high calibre of speakers present, the fascinating discussions held and thought provoking viewpoints. They both said Jonathon Porritt, Co-Founder, Forum for the Future’s discussion titled Our sustainable economy 2027: Reasons to be hopeful, was a highlight. Ewan stated:

“It delivered some great insights into the direction that the green economy could go in and was supported by four knowledgeable speakers from a good spread of backgrounds.”

They also attended a discussion panel titled The risks and opportunities of the transition to a green economy, where there was audience interaction through the submission of questions to the panel. We were delighted to see that Jonny’s question was voted as the top question and was answered by the panel. Jonny asked whether they [the panel] see the UK grid infrastructure as a hurdle. Mark Campanale, Founder and Executive Director, Carbon Tracker Initiative answered by suggesting that he does not see it as a hurdle as the UK has a one in every twenty year opportunity to reform grid policy and if this is done correctly, it could aid the uptake in renewables, EVs, etc.

Other highlights included Dr Emily Shuckburgh, Climate Scientist and Deputy Head of the Polar Oceans Team, British Antarctic Survey’s talk on the science behind climate change, as well as talks from Tetra Pak, Carlsberg and IKEA.