Business and the Earth CharterTowards responsible business

Roundtable12 October 2010

London

The event brought together nine companies that are working with the Earth Charter, or considering doing so, as well as education and community representatives.

In addition to working with Earth Charter principles, issues and stories were shared and ideas pooled for taking the project forward.

The event was held at the Athenaeum Hotel in London and was facilitated by Peter Martin.

Jeffrey Newman gave an introduction to the Earth Charter, and its birthing in the UK.

Antony Turner introduced the project and outlined the aims of the day:

• to introduce the Earth Charter and the project; • to explore ways in which the Earth Charter

could be used by businesses;• to find five or six businesses to work with us in

ways that help them.

Participants then had an opportunity to ‘dive in’to the project by picking from a set of images depicting Earth Charter sub-principles and explaining to their small group why their chosen image touched a chord.

Lively discussions on each table showed that this visual approach to exploration of the principles worked well.

Project team beside the Green Wall at the Athenaeum Hotel. From left: Bill Rigby, Jeffrey Newman, Antony Turner, Shan Oakes and Peter Martin

Debbie Godfrey-Phaure of Avonbourne School shared with us the benefits of using the Earth Charter to inform a school’s core purpose and activities. Her stories of how this is working in practice helped us explore ways in which the Earth Charter might be useful too for businesses.

Peter Head of Arup inspired us with his story of the seriousness with which the Chinese are taking sustainability. He said that they have embarked on a formal ‘transition to an ecological civilisation’, and are developing metrics to help them achieve ambitious goals.

Peter gave three examples of hope that illustrate the power of thinking holistically and ‘out of the box’.

Peter takes inspiration and learning from natural ecosystems.His stories together with details of his Brunel Lecture can be seen atwww.resilient-futures.com

• use of Earth Charter to explore and inform values in a business• difficulty of finding ‘space’ in a business to discuss values• to say “we can’t do this – it’s wrong!” is OK• the difficulty of implementing worthy values in the ‘real world’ of business• challenge of working in businesses where the people are treated like machines• difficulty of using words like ‘peace’ and ‘spirituality’ in a business context• importance of ‘right language’ (but can be painful to learn!)• the difference between Earth Charter (values & principles) and GRI (reporting) • ecosystems as model for business - the balance between competition and collaboration• how to ‘change the wheels on the car’ when we’re still driving it• benefits of ‘just doing it’ (recycling, bikes to work, keeping bees etc)• challenges that face an employee-owned business in an economic downturn• the challenge of getting people to act on their own values• how to get everyone in a business to be an advocate• challenges resulting from government policies predicated on economic growth

Key topics and issues discussed during the day included:

Next steps:The project now needs five or six additional companies to agree to work with us in some way. We are not asking businesses to ‘sign up’ to the

Earth Charter. The work we do together should benefit company and staff. The purpose and type of work will vary from business to business but must include Earth Charter exploration at the core. Please contact us if you have

ideas for collaboration.

Earth Charter in Business

Antony Turner01626 777274antony@carbonsense.org

Bill Rigby0207 183 1847billrigby@earthcharteruk.org

For more information contact: