Business leaders for sustainability

By Sally Treeby

This article was published in Living Ethics: issue 80 winter 2010

The 11th National Business Leaders’ Forum on Sustainable Development was held at Parliament House, Canberra on 27 and 28 May 2010. A group of over 200 sustainability and business leaders gathered to discuss the theme of this year’s conference – Achieving the great transition: growing the low-carbon economy in the Asia Pacific. Sally Treeby gives us an overview.

Kicking off the conference, the first keynote speaker via video link, Amory Lovins, Founder and CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, demonstrated how to save energy profitably and feasibly: this is by transforming the energy sector to view coal as the least effective energy source, rather than the dependent one. Lovins believes that while technological ways to displace oil exist, not all players at the table are listening. In the energy sector, “ … not all the fossils are in the fuel” he says.

Day one

Professor Tim Flannery (2007 Australian of the Year) then set the scene by challenging the political leadership of our country about Australia’s deferral of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

According to Professor Flannery, Australia still occupies a ‘wooden spoon’ position as one of the worst carbon-emitting countries in the world. He says we are faced with massive inertia due to a lack of understanding and environmental education for many of those older men in positions of power and decision-making.

Four concurrent workshops explored different aspects of sustainable development, each led by industry experts:

• Ploughing through soil carbon: the potential, the roadblocks and the solutions
• The capacity for appropriately-managed soils to sequester atmospheric carbon is enormous and can have important collateral socio-economic and environmental benefits, including increases in biodiversity and land productivity.
• Where global vision meets local action: leadership in low-carbon cities
• The cities of tomorrow present both challenges and opportunities. C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group says: “Home to half the world’s population and growing rapidly, cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and account for more than 70% global CO2 emissions.” As a major part of the problem of climate change, cities must be a key part of its solution.
• The collaboration challenge: research and sustainability outcomes
• There are over fifty sustainability institutes and research centres within Australian universities. This workshop examined the aims of such research programs and how research is connecting to sustainable outcomes for Australian business, government and society.
• Community transformation: the role of business in poverty alleviation and sustainable economic development
• The Millennium Development Goals and the UN Global Compact help business to support international action for sustainable development in some of the least developed nations. What is the next big idea to solve global poverty and the private sector’s role in this?

A session followed on ‘Decarbonising the global economy’ that provided great hope for Australia to achieve 25% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (from 2000 levels) by 2020, even with the technology we have today – low cost low carbon growth if we act now.

The first day ended with a session entitled ‘The humanitarian side of sustainability’ that explored the inter-relationsips between humanitarianism and sustainability.

The Reverend Tim Costello described climate change as a profoundly humanitarian issue. The panel then highlighted that while developing countries may be a low-cost option economically for global companies, with neither environmental nor emissions policies and practices, the climate cost is high.

Day two

A hypothetical on the second morning woke everyone up to the real possibilities of a ‘Katrina’-like climate catastrophe being a potential reality for Australia.

A panel of experts described different views of Australia’s readiness to cope with such a catastrophe and what policies and practices need to be put in place now to minimise the impact of any such occurrence.

The conference finished with a call to action: some called for policy certainty from (bipartisan) government to allow low-carbon investment to be made.

Dame Julia Clevedon, DCVO, OBE (Vice President, Business in the Community, the UK-based charity that founded the Corporate Responsibility Index), called on business in Australia to build partnerships with the 70%+ of Australians who want action on climate change: “Don’t just wait, find the leaders who will get us to the tipping point, and those leaders are in this room.”

In summary

Many issues were raised, debated and discussed over the two days of this influential sustainability Forum, all focussing on making real, positive change for our environment and our communities by tackling climate change effectively.

The take home messages for me were:

• The concern that without a price on carbon, significant business and economic opportunities will be lost as this policy vacuum creates significant investment uncertainty;
• The evidence that while policy uncertainty stifles new energy investment, 25% reductions by 2020 (minimum reductions recommended by most climate scientists to avoid dangerous climate change) IS possible based on today’s here and now solutions at low-cost;
• Australia has the opportunity to lead in this low-carbon future climate change solution; and
• Early action is less expensive than later action – so the time is now.

Further information about the Forum is available on the NBLF website.