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A thousand of the country’s top businesses will come together to create a single action plan on climate change at an event on 1 May 2007. It will mark the beginning of a business-led campaign for increased action on climate change.
Companies attending will be asked to make firm commitments on what they will do to tackle their contributions to climate change. Those that are already working on and developing carbon reduction strategies will be encouraged to do more and share their knowledge. Companies will be offered on-going support to achieve these aims by Business in the Community and the Carbon Trust.
The Summit brings together 1,000 Chief Executives and Board level Directors in a unique network of nine simultaneous linked events throughout England. Those invited to the event will include FTSE 100 companies and a range of other businesses from across the country.
 The Prince of Wales, as President of Business in the Community, is hosting this first May Day Business Summit on Climate Change supported by the Carbon Trust working with Opinion Leader Research and with BT as the technology partner. The Summit is sponsored nationally by Alliance-Boots, Barclays, B&Q, DLA Piper, EDF Energy and Sky. Regional events are being supported by England’s Regional Development Agencies alongside a number of Business in the Community member companies.
The business leaders attending the Summit will consider how companies impact on climate change, discuss practical solutions supported by sustainability experts and share their responses to the issue.
Julia Cleverdon, CEO Business in the Community said:
“In many ways business has been at the forefront of the efforts to tackle climate change. But the issue is so serious that we need more than the efforts of individual companies and the personal commitment of individual business leaders. The Summit will provide a focus for collective business action on climate change – harnessing the power of business to change their operating practices and use their positive influence with their suppliers and customers”
Tom Delay, CEO of the Carbon Trust adds:
“The May Day Summit will be a major step in engaging leaders from across all business sectors and companies of all sizes, to help accelerate the UK's move to a low carbon economy. To be a global leader on climate change we must work closely with and support businesses of all sizes. “The Summit is a fantastic opportunity to communicate to business that from action and through developing solutions, new markets and commercial opportunities will emerge.”
Jonathon Porritt, Co-Director of The Prince of Wales's Business and the Environment Programme, said:
"A number of progressive companies here in the UK have taken a lead on managing their carbon footprint, but we urgently need to spread that good practice across the business community as a whole - especially through the supply chain. “Small and medium-sized companies often complain that this is so much harder for them than for bigger companies. But the money to be saved (through increased energy efficiency) still makes this a win-win agenda: better for business and better for the planet."
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