In a lecture at the end of December, Lord Stern reiterated his message that the business community and politicians need to act, and act now, on carbon emissions if we are to avoid, what he termed, a catastrophe by the next century.

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Recent reports are highlighting the growing involvement of the trade union movement in driving a greener economy. In a reversal of traditional allegiances, the union movement is growing more vocal in holding the government to account for the promised delivery of green jobs in the economy.
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Reform, a right-leaning think tank, has published a report arguing that the billions spent on subsidising the green agenda would be better spent on the UK’s basic infrastructure.
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In a week that marks the one year anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ announcement of bankruptcy and the start of the collapse of the global financial house of cards, it is appropriate to reflect on the implications of this event and what the wider business community can, and should, learn from this.
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The camel’s back has finally broken; nine years after being appointed by Tony Blair to the post of chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), Sir Jonathon Porritt has finally had to accept that Gordon Brown has as little understanding of the importance of sustainability and its key role in the future viability of business in the UK (and globally) now, as he had when he was chancellor.
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A conversation the other day with the head of a media agency raises a subject that was touched upon at the beginning of the year and is now becoming more of an issue with the incoming CSR clauses in the Companies Act 2006. This is namely the disjoin between doing the right thing(s) and publicising the fact that you are doing the right thing(s).

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Well, the G8 summit meeting, taking place this week in Italy, has moved on to L’Aguila, spawning fears that, being so close to the epicentre of the recent earthquake site, there might be a risk from tremors.
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Speaking recently at Sustainabilitylive!, Vanessa Harvard-Williams, global head of environment with legal firm Linklaters, discussed the 2020 and 2050 targets of reducing carbon emissions by (eventually) 80% and stated that she wants to see governments cascade their commitments down as hard regulations in order to help business.
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The news this week has been full of SustainabilityLive!, or at least the green press has and the mainstream will follow once the MP expenses scandal no longer sells copy. Some good came out of it but, regrettably, a lot of outdated and misinformed truisms were paraded for the sake of making a splash.
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An article in The Economist last week (“A stress test for good intentions”) provides a ray of hope that big business is finally ‘getting it’; CSR initiatives are worthy of consideration on cost grounds… and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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