Dr. Polina Baranova from the University of Derby opened the conference with a summary of the findings of the 10-year East Midlands Green Growth trends reports.
Green growth is economic growth that is environmentally sustainable. The 2 key factors that stood out to me were both on the negative side but gave food for thought for the future:
Only a very small number of businesses collaborate for green growth:
- If many SMEs have a desire to grow sustainably is there an opportunity to work together to share good practice?
Businesses engaging in Nature Based Solutions are declining:
‘During the space of a single human lifetime, my lifetime, we have changed the planet so much that the BENIGN STABLE CONDITIONS which underpinned both the growth of our civilisations, and the trade and financial systems have ENDED’
UN Climate Change Conference 2020 – David Attenborough
Looking after our eco-system should be a primary focus. How can our business better support our natural surroundings and encourage wildlife diversity?
Becky Valentine from Spenbek talked about ‘Risk’ with relation to Governance. She asked us first to think what Climate Change means to us individually (for me it was drought – having spent the summer walking besides reservoirs which were getting increasingly low!). We need to be less reliant on the grid for our energy costs and think about water harvesting! Companies need to be mindful that insurance premiums are going to continue to increase significantly year on year.
Later in the morning there was an engaging panel debate about how we continue to drive momentum towards Net Zero in a world of increasing economic turbulence. The overwhelming consensus was that it’s essential that a company’s executive board has the passion to integrate sustainability into the organisation’s objectives and plans.
A workshop during the morning reinforced the value of local businesses supporting local communities and the benefits this creates for both. Rachel Grimes from Foundation Derbyshire talked about the power of local and the power of small! National charities do a fantastic job but the top 4 get 85% of all funding and don’t necessarily reach our local communities. This really brought home to me how important it is that as a business we continue to look how we can make the most impact as locally as possible with the skills and resources that we have!
Blog by Jo Lloyd