Base ~ How to do business in the 21st century ~ 16-17 March 2010
ProLogis
What does a low carbon future look like for business?
Session time slot
  • Session TU1 | Tuesday 16 March | 09:45-10:30
Synopsis
Businesses are in a unique position to work collaboratively, as well as in their industry sectors and as standalone organizations, to lead the UK towards a sustainable future. To accelerate the process, and bring their suppliers, employees and customers along with them, businesses need to understand what a low carbon future looks like.

The Prince’s Mayday Network is the collaborative movement of businesses committed to taking action on climate change. WSP Environment & Energy is one of the companies represented on its leadership team. They recently commissioned a joint piece of research into opinions on a low carbon future. They felt strongly that in order to move quickly, it was essential that we have a clear, achievable and positive ‘destination’ for businesses on the low carbon journey. Survey respondents agreed – nearly 75% said that if they were presented with a positive view of a low carbon future, they would feel inspired to help achieve it.

In this session, we will explore the essential components of being a low carbon business:

• what are the key areas within a business that need to be involved in the change
• how can what starts as a low carbon journey progress to being a totally new way of doing business
• what tools do we need to demonstrate and communicate a progressive sustainable vision and motivate more businesses to action?

This will be an interactive learning session. We will draw on examples of inspiring businesses of all sizes who have achieved success, either by reducing their carbon, skilling their staff and creating green jobs, or by creating innovative low carbon products and services. We will highlight existing resources which can help businesses at all stages, whether they are starting out on their journey or wanting to accelerate their progress.
Themes
  • Carbon management
  • Climate change
  • Education
  • Sustainable business
Mr Stuart McLachlan
Managing Director – Global Operations
WSP Environment & Energy
Biography
Stuart joined WSP in 1995 to start the environmental business within WSP. Stuart is now the Managing Director of award winning global sustainability consultancy WSP Environment & Energy, now a 900 strong firm with 65 offices around the world. Stuart is also a Board Director for WSP Group plc, the design and engineering consultancy, and is the Director of Sustainability for WSP Group globally. Stuart is also part of the Environmental Leadership Team for Business in the Community (BITC), an organisation with 800 member companies committed to taking action in climate change.

This round table will also have a second moderator:

Katie Webber
Mayday Campaign Director
Business in the Community

Katie is responsible for overseeing the strategic development and implementation of the Prince’s Mayday campaign in the UK and internationally. Prior to taking on this role in July 2009, she was responsible for the production of the annual Prince’s Mayday Summit. Before joining Business in the Community in 2008 Katie was based in Sydney, where she worked for a variety of non profit and environmental organisations; these included Easy Being Green; leading their consumer education campaign post the Stern Report and Perpetual Water’s activities around the re-use of household water. She also worked with Planet Ark founder Jon Dee on communications and corporate responsibility programmes for businesses including Australian Paper and The National Trust.
Company activities
  • All
Company size
  • All
Job functions
  • All