Our meddling Prince? 

On Monday I got out my somewhat dishevelled dinner jacket (it didn’t appreciate being slept in) for a second time in a week, this time to go the 25^th gala celebration of the work of Prince Charles at Business in the Community. 

The whole event was hosted by Stephen Fry who clearly has a huge amount of respect for the work of the Prince, and it all soon became a bit of a mutual adoration society. 

However, Stephen Fry did reveal his mischievous side with his totally incongruous opening joke. Musing on the joys of Wimbledon, he wondered why it had been possible to put a man on the moon but not on Martina Navratilova. Only he could get away with it.

The Prince was warmly thanked by a variety of business leaders for getting sustainability high on their agenda.

In his speech he acknowledged that he does meddle and irritate but it is obviously driven with a passion for doing something that he believes is absolutely essential and he vowed to continue unchanged into the future.

Most of his speech was devoted to Project Start, which he clearly feels is a hugely important initiative. Before the main event, I went to the Project Start drinks reception. I usually dread these receptions as my small talk bores even me. This one was different.

I had a really good chat with the CEO of Adnams and will be meeting him to discuss taking forward the concept of rebuilding pubs as the hub of the community. I also met Ellen MacArthur who is just about to launch her own Foundation which I am sure will be a massive success due to her energy and complete passion for sustainability.

Heading back to the tube, I wondered whether UK businesses will truly lead us to a more sustainable future. I have a feeling it will be a long haul as I dodged past the chauffeurs guarding their over-sized limos.

Green prisons 

With a surprisingly clear head on Tuesday morning I was off on an early train to Rugby to give a keynote speech at a conference for what I knew of as the prison service but is now known as the National Offender Management Service (NOMs). 

The amazingly opulent conference surroundings were a strange place to find rooms containing prison riot gear, and I wasn’t too sure about how best to pitch my presentation as it is not an audience we have worked with in the past.

The conference agenda itself showed how seriously NOMs is taking the environmental agenda, which is incredibly heartening. There were around 100 delegates attending discussions on a whole variety of subjects including combined heat and power plants and even green roofs.

What did surprise me, however, was how few of them were aware of the introduction of the CRC Energy Efficiency initiative fuelling my suspicion that public sector organisations are going to do badly in the league tables compared to their private sector counterparts.

I also think that the Department could start to think more about how it could rehabilitate offenders with the skills that will be required in the low carbon economy. 

We are going to need many more people capable of insulating homes, helping to revamp the national grid and putting in place the infrastructure needed for electrified transport. Training offenders in these skills could give them work and benefit society.

Leadership skills for a sustainable economy 

I have been participating on a small steering committee which has been conducting an inquiry into the skills that businesses believe will be needed for the transition to a sustainable economy. 

The inquiry findings have just been released and they show that businesses appreciate the importance of this issue, in fact 70% agree that these skill gaps will be one of the most pressing challenges they face in the next five years.

The report also highlighted that businesses acknowledge that not enough is currently being done, with only 15% thinking that developing the skills needed is well or even partly established in UK businesses.

Encouragingly 93% say that their business is likely to do more to incorporate sustainability into business strategy over the next five years. Whilst, intriguingly, 91% say that Government needs to do more, and 84% feel that third parties such as universities and charities should be helping.

Whilst overall the results are encouraging, change will only occur if businesses and universities take a lead on this agenda. Government is gradually dismantling most of their sustainable support systems for companies and charities can only provide support with resources from businesses.

Hopefully the report will provide the catalyst for businesses to collaborate in this area and will start to build a better dialogue between companies and education providers.

Tweeting 

After a ridiculous amount of cajoling by Hannah, my Head of Marketing, I have now decided to venture into the world of tweeting. I have no idea why she wants me to do this as it creates another risk that I will put a digital foot into my mouth, but the plunge has been taken. 

At least tweeting has the massive benefit of brevity although it also creates another source of insecurity – how many followers do you need to be deemed socially acceptable?

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Trewin has been blogging for Global Action Plan for the past few years. If you enjoyed this week's blog you can find more here.

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