|
 SPEECH
IN CROATIA FOR AISE (Jun08)
AISE
- the European Soaps & Detergents Manufacturer's trade
association invited me to speak at the annual conference,
which this year was held in Croatia, near Dubrovnik. I
was asked to be provocative and the feedback was that my speech was 'well
appreciated' and that 'it was good to have some challenging
views". See
Blog for more.
"Julia
Hailes is an inspiring speaker who really brought our seminar
alive with her pithy personal insights, and funny stories, which
she uses to push home important points. Her talk was
well liked by our audience". Jeffrey
Hyman, Chairman, The Food and
Drink Innovation Network, Food
Ethics Seminar, April 2008
 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...
 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.
  ISTANBUL
FOR UNILEVER
Unilever
fabric conditioners hosted a pan-European conference on
fabric conditioners. My speech on sustainability issues
followed the life cycle of a cotton t-shirt from the huge
amounts of water and pesticides used in cotton production,
through buying, wearing, washing and ultimately discarding
it. Did you know that you can cut the environmental
footprint of a t-shirt in half if you wash it at 30C and
don't use a dryer?
  MCDONALDS
IN CHICAGO (Apr07)
As part of a panel of
external experts, I was invited to talk to an international audience of
McDonalds restaurant owners and other employees, in Chicago. We were
told to be provocative and give our honest views of the organisation,
which I enjoyed! See My
Blog for a detailed description of the trip.
 MCDONALDS
EUROPEAN MANAGEMENT PRESENTATION
(Mar07)
I haven't been the greatest
fan of McDonalds in the past but was impressed with their response to
Greenpeace's campaign in 2006 on soya used in chicken feed coming from
newly cleared rainforest. (See
more about this in my Blog). So I went to Naples to give a
presentation to McDonalds European Management Team on sustainability
issues. This trip was covered in the Financial
Times. And I've agreed to go to Chicago at the end of April to sit
on a panel debate on the same theme to an audience of McDonalds
international management.
 PROCTER
& GAMBLE - WHAT'S THE FUTURE OF GREEN WASHING? (Jun
2007)
An internal presentation to
Procter & Gamble staff on issues around green detergents. I
firmly believe that the biggest issue in relation to clothes washing is
reducing the temperature of your wash. Procter & Gamble's Turn
to 30C campaign promoted on Ariel washing powder is a step in the right
direction. Also
see My Blog.
I also chaired a session at
Procter & Gambles Consumer Association day, attended by consumer
organisations from around Europe.
PROCTER & GAMBLE
ADVISORY PANEL 
Procter & Gamble have
set up an External Advisory Panel on sustainability issues for their
Fabric & Home Care business - essentially focusing on detergents and
cleaning products. The idea is to provide an external perspective
and help identify emerging environmental tends. Our first meeting
took place in March 2007 at a splendid location outside Brussels (see
my Blog for more details). Further activities are planned.
Procter & Gamble have a website, called Science
in the Box, which provides information on their safety and
sustainability approach.
|
"Just a quick note to thank you for your talk yesterday.
It hit just the right note! Have had some great feedback from
several attendees." (Nov07)
|
 SELF
STORAGE ASSOCIATION SPEECH
The 2007 Self
Storage Association meeting had a distinct sailing theme. Tracy
Edwards, of sailing fame, kicked off with a speech about her life
surviving both the physical and financial perils of being a top class
sailor. And I followed with a story about my time crewing on a
luxury racing yacht in the Carribbean, where all the rubbish - including
plastics - was being thrown straight into the sea. The next speaker,
Michael Pawlyn from Exploration
Architecture, brought us back on land explaining how many of his ideas
for buildings and design come from nature. Out speeches were meant
to both entertain and inform. Given the rather gruesome buildings
that are predominantly used for self storage, the hope is that we also
inspired them to greater things!
ESTATES
GAZETTE
RETAIL SUMMIT
(May 2007)
 Developers
of shops and shopping centres aren't very keen on internet shopping, I
discovered - it could mean less people on the streets. In my speech
at Claridges to the property retail sector, I pointed out that it
would be no bad thing if there was less development - certainly of the bog
standard kind that predominates today. If a new supermarket comes to
town wouldn't it be far more popular if it was state of the art
green. That doesn't just mean wind mills on the roof or even solar
power. It means it should be super energy efficient, have day light
lighting, green roofs (plants on the roof), less construction waste,
innovative recycling systems and many other green features... Other
speakers included directors from the UK's largest retail developers, Land
Securities and Hammerson, as well as the property director at Sainsbury
and the architect of the Blue Water Shopping Centre.
See
my Blog for more information.
 
LUXEMBOURG
INVESTMENT FUND INDUSTRY CONFERENCE
(Mar07)
ALFI is the official trade
body of the Luxembourg Investment Fund Industry - Europe's biggest fund
centre in terms of assets under management. I gave the key note
speech at their
conference, attended by 780 delegates. The title of
my speech was: Is the investment community making money at the
expense of the planet? The answer has to be 'yes' but my hope is
that there more of them are beginning to see that the environment should
be far higher up their list of priorities. See
more about this on my Blog.
 KEY
NOTE SPEAKER AT THE GREEN FUNERALS EXHIBITION
(Apr07)
Bizarrely,
one of the most interesting subjects I researched for The New Green
Consumer Guide was 'green death'. On Saturday April 28th made
the key note speech at the Green Funeral Exhibition organised by the Natural
Death Centre. On
display were a range of coffins from plain cardboard to ones made from
banana leaves and water hyacinth. And key points for discussion
included the horrors of embalming, mercury emissions from crematoria and
why we bury bodies too deep in the ground for worms and bacteria to break
them down.
If you want information on 'green death' and burial you
couldn't do better than to buy The
Natural Death Handbook. Find
out more in my Blog.
 TRIODOS
BANK AGM (Jun
2007)
Triodos
is the greenest bank in Britain! The theme of their
AGM this year was 'Ethical Consumption - are we kidding
ourselves we're changing the world?'. Although I
opposed the debate, my views were not so far apart from
Andrew Simms, policy director of the New
Economics Foundation and author of 'Tescopoly'
published this year. Also
see My Blog...
NATIONAL
TRUST QUESTION-TIME STYLE PUBLIC DEBATE -
NEVER MIND THE ICE CAPS! WHO CAN
SAVE BRITAIN'S BACKYARD? (Mar07)
 Rosie
Boycott chaired an audience led debate
with a
panel of personalities from business, media and politics at the Royal
Geographical Society (RGS), London. I was on the panel
alongside David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment;
Professor Philip Stott from the University of London; Steve Howard, the
CEO of the Climate Group (www.theclimategroup.org); and Alex James, best
known as bass player in the band Blur.
The debate was staged by
the National Trust to mark the launch of their photographic exhibition
'Exposed: Climate Change in Britain's Backyard'. Highlights of the
exhibition are on show at the RGS
See more about this on my Blog.
 
 
PRESENTATION
TO THE RESOURCE RECOVERY FORUM (Jun
2007)
"I am very sorry
that the floods stood between me and the meeting..... I have already heard
that the meeting was good and your presentation was described as
brilliant, so I am doubly disappointed I was not
there...."
Kit Strange, Resources
Recovery Forum.
The
Resources Recovery Forum, set up in 1997, is a network of
organisations promoting more sustainable waste management. They
invited me to speak at their June meeting on waste issues.
 EDEN
PROJECT'S WASTE NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
Walking
down the hill towards the biomes I never cease to be
impressed - the vast bubble structures now have greenery
around them as well as inside, where once they were set in
what looked like barren earth and rock. Unfortunately
I missed the day-time talks for Eden's
Waste Neutral campaign, arriving in time for a supper
before giving my presentation. Tim Smit's introduction
to my talk made me laugh so much that I found it difficult
to get going - he read out my 'death
tips' from The New
Green Consumer Guide.
BATTLE OF
IDEAS
Yes it was a
battle. When I agreed to oppose the motion that ‘Recycling is a
waste of time’ it didn’t occur to me that most of the audience would
be actively hostile to my position and that of my fellow panelist, Julie
Hill, author of A
Zero Waste. Set up by the Institute of Ideas, the Battle
of Ideas was a whole weekend of debates covering topics as diverse as
‘What’s the point of exams’ to ‘Why do people hate America’ and
‘Demonising parents’. Read
more on my Blog.
 FOOD
ETHICS COUNCIL - BUSINESS FORUM MEETING (June
2007)
The topic
for the first Business Forum meeting of the Food Ethics Council was 'Food
Miles or Food Minutes - Is sustainability all in the timing?
I chaired the event, which was attended by a diverse mix of people in
the food industry including Raymond
Blanc from Manoir
aux Quat' Saisons and Peter Bradnock, Chief Executive of the British
Poultry Council. Raymond
Blanc, Manoir aux Quat' Saisons
 GREEN
ALLIANCE SUMMER RECEPTION DEBATE
(Summer 2007)
I spoke at the Green
Alliance Summer Reception debate opposing the motion 'Is it up to politicians to save
us?' alongside Mathew Taylor, ex No 10 and now Chief Executive of the
RSA - see
blog.
Giles
Chitty and Julia Hailes at Green Alliance Summer Reception
CIVIL
SOCIETY AND CLIMATE CHANGE (May 2007)
The European Economic and
Social Committee (EESC) invited me to make the key note speech at their conference on 'Civil Society responding
to Climate Change' in Brussels. See My
Blog about this - it was a bureaucratic nightmare.
 SHEFFIELD
HALLAM - CENTRE FOR
SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION
Sheffield
Hallam University organised a series of seminars on
Sustainable Consumption and Production. I spoke at the
fifth in the series called Changing the way we buy and
sell. I thought the most interesting presentation
was about trading in the virtual world - it's like a
parallel universe with share prices, commodity stocks,
minerals and metals all fluctuating in value.
And, it appears that there are some super-rich people in the
cyberspace who in reality are pretty poor.
Intriguingly, they may be able trade their virtual richesse
for real money, blurring the lines between the two
worlds.... From an environmental perspective, I rather like
the idea of people becoming extremely wealthy without real
consumption of resources - piling up gold and diamonds in
games like Runescape has far less impact that digging them
out of the ground in Rwanda or Lesotho...
 SPEECHES
FOR SCHOOL
Although I
don't encourage schools to ask me to do speeches, some of
them have managed to persuade me - and I have to admit that
it can be very inspiring. At Dauntsey's
School in Wiltshire, for example there were some
very challenging questions from one pupil in particular
about how capitalism and environmentalism could possibly
work together. And handing out prizes at Colyton
School in Devon, who regularly lead the league
tables, there were some very impressive results and an
inspiring headmaster. I also got a great welcome from Downe
House from a very enthusiastic team of girls who were
intent on greening their school.
Pupils
at Colyton Grammar School
LOCAL
EVENTS
The
town of Frome in Somerset has a lot of green activity.
The Frome Green Festival held in July was introduced by Kevin McCloud and
was well attended. I had a stall selling copies of The
New Green Consumer Guide and was kept very busy
throughout the day. See
Also My Blog. I also spoke at a Green
Cafe event organised by the Yeovil
Community Arts Association, at the Octagon Theatre in
Yeovil. Also see below for events organised by South
Somerset Climate Action.
BOOK
SIGNINGS - BRIGHTON, BATH, PLYMOUTH
The City Book Shop in Hove
(near Brighton), Mr B's Emporium in Bath and Waterstones in Plymouth
organised evening events for me to come and talk. In Brighton they
hired a hall but at Mr B's and Waterstones, the audience sat amongst the
books. What struck me was the immense enthusiasm of the people who
came - they were keen to know more and there was a feeling that we could
have gone on talking well into the night.
 HOMES
FOR GOOD 2007
Organised by the Somerset
Trust for Sustainable Development (currently being re-named the Ecos
Trust), the Homes for Good Exhibition was held in Weston Super-Mare in
February. It showed people how buildings can be designed, built,
refurbished, decorated and furnished in an ecologically sensitive way with
demos and talks on sustainable building and lifestyle. I spoke about
The New Green Consumer Guide with
ideas on what people do in their homes.
 AN
INCONVENIENT TRUTH - SHOWING IN SOMERSET!
I've now led the
discussion following two screenings of An Inconvenient Truth in
Ilminster, Somerset, the first time alongside Rosie Boycott.
Organised by South Somerset Climate Action, the theatre was packed both
times. On March 13th I held a question and answer session following
another screening, this time in
Halstock, Dorset, organised by the Renewable Energy Group (Dorset based)
Quoting from the Guardian -
"with wit, intelligence, passion and hope, Al Gore's film, plainly
shows that climate change is the biggest moral challenge facing our
civilisation..... the film gets right to your gut. Using graphics,
photographs and computer animation, the former US Vice-President sets out
the case that the climate is changing. By the time he's done, you
accept that we're facing a planetary emergency...... and you desperately
want to do something about it.... a model of political communication."
For further information
about South Somerset
Climate Action email Joe Burlington - joe@jburlington.co.uk.
They organise regular meetings and events. For further
information on the Renewable Energy Group contact Richard Smith - bucheron.smithy@virgin.net
|
RECENT
SPEECH HIGHLIGHTS
