Economist Sustainability Summit

February 25th 2010

On the 25th February the Economist held their third annual Sustainability Summit – “After Copenhagen: How can business face the climate change challenge?”.

The Carbon Trust, in association with IBM and Hitachi, sponsored both a major piece of international research by the Economist Intelligence Unit as well as the summit. The research looks at the impact of Copenhagen on business and will be launched at the end of March. Details will be available here shortly afterwards.

Prior to the Summit, The Economist and the Carbon Trust hosted a breakfast briefing for around 20 business leaders. Bruce Duguid, Head of Investor Engagement and Ian Cheshire, CEO Kingfisher joined James Watson, Managing Editor EIU to discuss how the outcome from Copenhagen will directly impact their businesses and how they are changing the way they operate to build workable strategies for sustainability.

To get a flavour of how business has viewed the outcome of Copenhagen we also commissioned an online poll with the Economist asking the question “After Copenhagen do you think that it’s now up to big business to make the low carbon world a reality?”

Results to date show that the vast majority or respondents still believe that the only way to combat climate change is for large business and government to work together.

Yes - big business can and should take the lead	31%
No - its up to governments to plan and deliver it	9%
No - Climate change isn’t a man made issue	6%
Both - we all need to work together	54%

More details can be found on the Economist Conference site .

Videos of how some key business leaders view the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change:


	A - Ulrike Sapiro, Coca Cola Ulrike Sapiro, Corporate Responsibility Director, Environment, Coca Cola talks about how they have been able to reduce their worldwide carbon footprint.

	B - Ian Cheshire, Kingfisher Ian Cheshire, Group CEO, Kingfisher looks at how they have invested in both the business and engaged their team to reduce their carbon emissions.
	C - Richard Tarboton, BT Richard Tarboton, Director of Energy and Carbon Programme, BT talks about how BT has been able to dramatically improve their energy efficiency and the impact on their bottom line.
	D - Stefano Pessina, Alliance Boots Stefano Pessina, Executive Chairman, Alliance Boots describes how they have been able to integrate carbon into their overall business strategy.
	E -Paul Polman, Unilever Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever explains how they have been able to reduce their CO2 emissions by over 40%.
	F - Alan Parker, Whitbread Alan Parker, CEO of Whitbread talks about how they have introduced their "Good Together" programme focusing employees on both corporate responsibility and good business sense.