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 RECENT
HIGHLIGHTS
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 SPEECH
IN CROATIA FOR AISE (Jun08)
Where bombs and missiles fell in the early 1990s, I stood
looking at washing lines and cats. Swallows were diving over the
rooftops of Dubrovnik in the evening sun - it was a magical
experience, perhaps all the more so because I was there for such a
short time.
My trip to Croatia was arranged by AISE - the European Soaps and
Detergents Manufacturing trade association. They invited me to
speak at their annual conference for executives in the
industry. Their feedback was that my speech was 'well
appreciated' and that 'it was good to have some challenging
views". See
Blog...
 GREEN
FAIR & SCYTHING FESTIVAL - SOMERSET (Jun08)
This is the
first time I've made a milk shake through bike power! The
photo was taken at the Green Fair and Scything Festival, near
Muchelney in Somerset. I was invited to make a speech
alongside two other local authors, Rosie Boycott and Paul
Kingsnorth. Rosie was talking about food issues and
promoting the paperback edition of her book, which has been
re-named 'Spotted
pigs and green tomatoes' . And Peter Kingsnorth was
talking about - Real
England - the battle agains the bland, which is a well
written rant against the homogenisation of our society. Paul is
concerned that we're losing our quintessentially English
institutions along with small farms, rural post offices and many
traditional English pastimes, such as scything!
SEA
KAYAKING IN SCOTLAND (May08)
I
took the night sleeper from London to Glasgow and then transferred
to the Fort William line and beyond that towards Mallaig.
Joining a group of environmentalists we had a couple of days to
talk and share our different perspectives on the most pressing
issues of today. Meanwhile we learnt sea kayaking in the
most breathtakingly beautiful setting - with the islands of Sky,
Eigg and Rhum as blue shadows across the water - and seals bobbing
and splashing around us. Read
more on my blog.
 MAY
2008
M&S launch carrier bag charging
scheme with a leaflet
written by me and a
video of why I think they're right to charge for their bags
and make them from recycled plastic. And why biodegradable
or paper bags
are not the answer !
 M&S
CARRIER BAGS
On May 6th
M&S are launching their initiative to charge for bags in all
their food stores across the UK. To coincide with this I
have written a leaflet for them carrier bags and why we want to
reduce the number we use but any we do make should be made of
recycled plastic. !
RECOUP - RECYCLING
PLASTICS....
Most
plastics can be recycled but that doesn't mean they
are. Recoup have been campaigning for more plastics
recycling - particularly of bottles - since the early 1990s.
A long time ago I went to open their 100th bottle bank but haven't
really been involved since. So attending their conference
brought back memories, as well as getting me up to speed on the
current state of plastics recycling in the UK - much better than
it was but a long way short of where it should be. Here's
an article I wrote about the Recoup conference and plastics
recycling for Telegraph online. Click
here.
 RECENT
FOOD RELATED EVENTS (mar
& apr 08)
I've
been to a lot of food ethics events recently - being a member of
the Food Ethics
Council (FEC) is keeping me busy! I've chaired three of their Business
Forum meetings - on food miles, meat consumption and ethical
labelling; attended a working group meeting on the conflict
between limiting air-freight food and fair trade; spoken at a food
ethics conference in Birmingham co-hosted by the Food
& Drink Innovation Network; and the FEC's most recent
meeting was discussion GM food - that's going to be a feature for
their September newsletter.
 MERRILL
LYNCH SPEECHES (mar
& apr 08)
The Forward
Planning seminar at Merrill Lynch for Global Wealth Management
clients focused on entrepreneurship and women. The panel
discussion included Dr Rebecca Harding a founding partner of Delta
Economics, Karen Darby the founder of SimplySwitch and Caroline
Plumb the CEO of a rather inspiring research company called Fresh
Minds. I gave the key note presentation on my environmental
career - but I was also able to talk about my entrepreneurial
ventures which included selling daffodils and mushrooms
as a child and inventing magnetic L plates! The
second Merrill Lynch event I spoke at included a key note speech
by Marjorie Scardino, in place of Anita Roddick - I've
written about it in my blog...
 MORRISONS
(Mar08)
I've
started working with Morrisons advising them on sustainability
issues. Their newly built Bradford headquarters is state of
the art. I spent a couple of days there finding out what
they have done to date. This included visiting a local
Morrisons store, a fruit and veg packing and distribution centre
and Farmer's
Boy, their meat processing factory.
 SHELL
INTERNATIONAL (Feb08)
The
speaker for a meeting of Shell communications executives cancelled
at the last minute because she had lost her voice. I was
contacted by the speaking agency and replaced her. My brief
was to talk about energy issues. This included a 20 minute talk,
followed by a Q&A session, further discussions over dinner,
where I table hopped for each course and finally a summary to give
feedback. Shell's feedback
was that they were surprised and impressed by my knowledge of
environmental issues.
RECYCLING
PLEDGE
I've signed a recycling
pledge to support the Somerset
Waste Partnership - see picture.
 BOTTLED
WATER - EAU NO!
Article for
Earth Telegraph about the perils of bottled water - and why we
should all be drinking eau de tap. Click
here to read article.
 Radio
5 Live, Richard Bacon Show on bottled water (feb08)
 MORGAN
STANLEY GREAT
BRITONS AWARDS DINNER
(Jan08)
I really appreciate
'can do' people and you can't get much more 'can do' than Tim Smit
(see photo), founder of the Eden Project - and the Lost Gardens of
Heligan. So I was rather delighted to be on the judging panel that
selected him for the short-list 0f three for the Environment
section of Morgan Stanley's Great Briton Awards.
The other finalists
for the Environment Great Briton 2007 were Jonathon Porritt, who
has so many green ventures behind him it's difficult to choose
which one to mention and Jeremy Leggett, who set up the UK's
largest solar company - Solar Century - but is also a leading
speaker and writer on peak oil. Luckily I didn't have to select
the overall winner because any one of them could have come out on
top.
  PROCTER
& GAMBLE EXPERT ADVISORY GROUPS
(Jan&Feb08)
I've been
to both Germany and Switzerland to sit on expert panels advising
Procter & Gamble on sustainability issues to do with their
baby care, laundry and cleaning products. The sessions give
a fascinating insight into the how the corporate giant behind
brands like Ariel, Fairy and Pampers is serious about reducing
it's global footprint.
 TELEGRAPH
ARTICLE ON ENERGY MONITORS
Energy
monitors don't directly save you energy - but they should help you
work out where you're wasting it around the house and so cut back.
I reduced my
electricity bill by at least a quarter, when I got one - which
more than paid back the cost of the monitor. Setting them up isn't
too difficult - actually, if you keep calm, it's quite
easy........
Click
here to read more......
 M&S
PLAN A BRIEFING (Jan08)
One year on from launch Plan A, M&S hosted
a briefing to give us a progress report. With Stuart Rose, heading
the team, there was an impressive list of actions and initiatives
- some achieved and others still on the drawing board. I
wrote an article about the event for Earth
Telegraph Online.
   NUMIS
- INVESTMENT BANK
I'm working
with Numis investment bank helping identify potential
opportunities in renewable and clean technologies for them to
raise capital for. I'm particularly interested in looking at
opportunities in anaerobic digestion (AD) systems.
 CARBON
TRUST WINTER LECTURE
Putin apparently
joked that 'climate change is good for Russians because they won't
have to wear fur coats'. But listening to Dr Pachauri, Chairman of
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) wasn't very
funny. His Winter Lecture, hosted by the Carbon Trust, was held,
rather incongruously at Claridges.... Click
here for more....
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