News

Here at Green Mondays we believe in the ability of the crowd to advance thinking on the big ideas shaping sustainable business strategy. 

Our new Changemaker series is an example of this in action: a unique platform allowing sustainability leaders to drive forward  systemic change by harnessing the collective wisdom of sustainability and business experts across the FTSE350....more...

Yesterday, after much debate and deliberation, the Green Strategy crowd selected the first ever winners of Idea Idol: 

Consumer Winners: BlaBlaCar 

BlaBlaCar is the leading car sharing platform in Europe: connecting drivers with empty seats to passengers looking for a ride. By sharing long-distance, inter-city rides the BlaBlaCar community is increasing the efficiency of road transport, saving money on travel and reducing environmental impact....more...

The inaugural crowdsourced Green Mondays demonstrated the remarkable willingness of experts across sectors to collaborate - in a time-efficient manner - to help Sainsbury's with its sustainability strategy. 220 people admired the breadth and many areas of the programme, but concluded that it needs to make changes if its wants to move from its current rating of "marginally ahead" to being an outright leader....more...

Jeremy Grantham's latest newletter: why we are entering a long-term and politically dangerous food crisis.

Dowload it HERE.

How does one define radical? That was probably the big question to emerge from the March Green Monday. We were grateful to Sandy Smith from PE International for challenging us on whether the solutions we had on stage were genuinely radical, or represented incremental change; because it gets to the heart of the purpose of Green Monday. We continuously look for solutions that have a degree of proven commercial viability, but which with mass adoption can make a significant change....more...

Thanks for participating in our inaugural use of the independent feedback system FEEFO – we can confirm that it has been scary and illuminating experience! The aim is that the transparency created by FEEFO will deliver better and stronger Green Mondays.

How are we using the FEEFO information?  We have already fed back to our March speakers  on what inspires and engages this audience – let’s see what impact that has. Your comments are also being used to shape future plenary topics, formats and roundtables....more...

Here is a list of the confirmed attendees for the ...more...

We have an excellent and diverse audience brewing for the February Green Monday, on "The Big Trends" – see below.

More on the event here, find a full list of the roundtables here and apply for your place ...more...

Many told us that January was the best of Green Monday’s 56 events, and for that we thank Ian Cheshire and the Kingfisher team. He spoke with remarkable candour about Kingfisher’s strategy, and gave an insight into the challenges facing a FSTE100 CEO in balancing traditional stakeholders – particularly investors – with a passion for building a sustainable business....more...

The big trends in sustainability for the next 24 months | London - February 6th - 6.15pm

Our February panellists have been carefully chosen for their ability to represent some of the key trends. Find out more about each of our speakers below:

DR THOMAS BECKER | Vice President of Governmental Affairs, BMW AG

Dr Thomas Becker is Vice President of Governmental Affairs for BMW AG, where he is responsible for overseeing policy activities across the BMW Group....more...

The January Green Monday audience was our most senior yet.

Packed to the rafters the 64% corporate audience, comprising largely of leading figures within the FTSE 350, heard Ian Cheshire, CEO of Kingfisher plc, give an honest, insightful and encouraging account of how sustainability sits with him at Board level....more...

Every era feels like a time of change to those involved, but the sense of impending change feels more acute this year. And if change is an opportunity, 2012 should be an exciting year for those who read the tea leaves correctly. 

By our reckoning, we got 6/10 of our 2011 predictions correct - see here for our analysis.

Below are our 10 predictions for 2012....more...

The December Green Monday looked at the future of sustainability reporting, with a focus on how the digital revolution will impact how companies communicate sustainability. Our four speakers came at the subject from different angles, which made it a comprehensive discussion of a fast-changing topic.

• Rory Sullivan (author and expert on sustainable investing) bravely took a contrarian stance, arguing that organisations that provide a growing level of transparency will be rewarded in the market....more...

On the 7th November, three of the most inspiring global business stories will be told.

These companies are finding the "holy grail", the link between profitability and Sustainability. And they are entrenching it so deep in core strategy that Sustainability will grow despite the economic condition. It's a great event for people in Strategy, Finance and Operations functions who are looking for commercial opportunities in Sustainability - please forward this email internally as appropriate....more...

The October Green Monday began by asking two experts with opposing views - a Malthusian verses a Cornucopian – to review Jeremy Grantham's theory that we are entering an era of rising resource prices. With 29% of the profit warnings this year being linked to rising resource prices, it’s a core business issue. The debate then moved on to capture the views of an investor and a practitioner in a FTSE100 who is engaged in a resource efficiency strategy....more...

The audience for our next Green Monday on October 3rd reflects those who thinking hard around the issue of resource scarcity.

The majority are FTSE350s who are considering or already building strategies to grow profits despite rising resource prices – the growing challenge for the current era – but there is also a healthy representation from DEFRA, DECC and the investment community....more...

The best theories withstand challenge.

For the October Green Monday, we have asked two experts with opposing views to review Jeremy Grantham's theory that we are entering an era of rising resource prices. With 29% of the profit warnings this year being linked to rising resource prices, your opinion on whether the change is cyclical or structural can have a major impact on corporate strategy....more...

Back in 2008, the CEO Carlos Ghosn announced that Nissan’s R&D programme would focus on electric vehicles, at a time when almost all global automakers were explaining why electric wouldn’t work (infrastructure, range, battery cost etc.) Its competitors were focused on meeting emissions requirements through refining the combustion engine, seeing no need to shift to “high risk” zero emissions vehicles.

But Nissan was seeing the other trends that were more important than emissions requirements....more...

We had more applications for September than the previous 50 plus Green Mondays, which speaks for the high level of interest in Plan A. With a packed house and a senior audience, including many of M&S’ direct competitors, Richard Gillies and Mike Barry combined insight with humour whilst providing some inspiring takeaways. Here’s a few of them;

• Quality target setting lies at the heart of the success of Plan A....more...

As most companies enter the planning period for 2012, knowing how your Sustainability strategy compares with your competitors and the market is of prime importance. We have scratched our collective heads on how we can help, and have come up with the Green Strategy Benchmark Survey, which is completely FREE to use - you just need to give us 15 minutes of your time. 

Here's how it works....more...

Our August Green Monday on “Creative Disruption” had a sense of confidence and optimism which isn’t always associated with the Sustainability space. With the US debt crisis lurking in the background and climate policy moving along at snail’s pace, where did this sense of purpose come from? It probably came down to a number of factors.

1....more...

If you want to judge whether Sustainability has made it into a core business strategy, there is no better litmus test than a company’s shareholder Annual Report. Many companies that produce best-in-class Sustainability or CSR reports give scant mention of Sustainability when it comes to their shareholder communications. If the Board doesn't see it impacting shareholder value, how much time are they really devoting to it in the boardroom?

M&S is an outstanding example of a FTSE100 that communicates the same message across all its mediums....more...

Here's who is coming to the August Green Monday to debate the theme of Creative Disruption. It’s a strategic audience, containing senior members of the Sustainability function but also stretching into senior management, reflecting the growing role that Sustainability is playing in the Board room.  We have a handful of places left for those with strategic remits for what promises to be a fascinating night. Further event details can be found here....more...

If you delve below the surface of the CPI inflation numbers that came out last week, you will see that whilst the broad rate of inflation is running at 4.2%, food and energy price inflation is running at 6.9% and 6.2%, respectively. These numbers are part of a global trend of rising resource prices, and they seem to support arguments from the likes of Jeremy Grantham, that the next major economic paradigm shift is being created by resource scarcity....more...

With resource scarcity starting to take over from policy as the main driver of Sustainability strategies, the July Green Monday looked at the growing importance of sustainable supply chain strategies.  Our panel of experts included senior figures from ASDA, InterfaceFLOR, PUMA, and Verdantix....more...

Last month we produced our first White Paper on the theme of Energy Efficiency. The White Paper reflects the opinions of around 150 people through Case Studies, Strategy Insights and a Survey. 

An idea of what’s inside:

• Case Studies from 3M, Barts and The London NHS Trust, Danone, Empire State Building, Imperial Tobacco & Danfoss, McDonald's, Royal Free & MITIE, SAP, Siemens and Sony. Find out how much they are investing, the returns they are getting, and what has worked well for them....more...

We had an excellent Green Corporate Energy event on 28th June - 150 attendees and 22 speakers debated the latest in Energy Efficiency strategies: a full day and two roundtable sessions. A number of interesting themes emerged, including;

• Energy Efficiency is an attractive investment class. We looked at 7 companies who between them invested £156m to achieve annual energy savings of £89m. That’s a payback of 1.8 years, which is substantially below the average company’s investment threshold, and with rising energy prices the risks are low....more...

If you are not seriously looking at your supply chain from a sustainability perspective, you may be taking a major commercial risk - The Green Monday July Survey

With the prospect of resource scarcity taking over from policy as the main driver of Sustainability strategies, the July Green Monday looks at supply chains as a strategic issue. Just 12 months ago, few would have argued its case as a strategic issue....more...

As part of the Green Monday's deep dive into Energy Efficiency, we invite you to participate in our Green Corporate Energy 2011 survey: the most in-depth examination of corporate Energy Efficiency strategies undertaken in the UK....more...

What will be the trigger for taking Sustainability out of a silo and into the organisation's core business strategy? That question sits at the back of the minds of most Sustainability strategists. There are signs that Institutional Investors are starting to wake up, and they may be the most important driver group to watch. If the environment enters the conversation between the CEO, Investor Relations and their shareholders, it will quickly enter core strategy....more...

Much had pointed towards “TO CSO or not to CSO” being a contentious topic, as it gets to the point of whether it is more important for the lead Sustainability function to have business or environmental experience. We had deliberately split our panel equally between environmental and broader business careers, and we were interested that the panel found a lot to agree on - not least that they preferred a Sustainability advisor to the CEO over a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO)....more...

What will be the trigger for taking Sustainability out of a silo and into the organisation's core business strategy? That question sits at the back of the minds of most Sustainability strategists. There are signs that Institutional Investors are starting to wake up, and they may be the most important driver group to watch. If the environment enters the conversation between the CEO, Investor Relations and their shareholders, it will quickly enter core strategy. 

The...more...

The appointment of a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) can be a game changer. It elevates Sustainability to a new level, in some instances to main board level, which can have a major impact on strategy execution. But it isn't a universal solution, and there are other structures that can work as well, or better....more...

On the 28^th June 2011, we are bringing together the industry’s most thought-provoking speakers, influential players and the best case studies in a packed one-day event designed to precipitate a breakthrough in the corporate Energy Efficiency investment market.

There has never been a better time to focus on Energy Efficiency....more...

Edinburgh’s April Green Monday focussed on how to successfully communicate Sustainability strategies. Having a good Sustainability strategy is obviously the most important step, but companies can fail if they do not communicate this strategy effectively to their various stakeholders. In our survey of 90 Heads of Sustainability this came out as a top three topic, so it is still an area where sustainability functions are looking to become more effective – and critical to building momentum into sustainability strategies....more...

Three tables, led by speakers Professor David Strong, Richard Tarboton and Marcel Brinkman, continued from the plenary theme into whether Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) curves are the best way of aggregating and visualizing opportunities and if they can be used as an on-going investment tool. 

Summary

A number of interesting questions were raised and topics discussed across all three tables....more...

April’s Green Monday opened with the proposition from Chairman Jim Woods that 15% of direct emissions of the largest 2,000 companies in the UK could be removed with a £25bn investment that has an IRR of 16%. For the average FTSE350 company this translates into a £12 million investment opportunity, which has the same rate of return as their core business....more...

Happy New Year! 2010 was a year of good progress for the corporate community in sustainability. Whilst probably only 5% of major global companies have genuinely embedded sustainability in their operations, we now have some examples of leadership which will inspire others to follow in the coming years. Examples include Siemens and GE reporting environmental revenues of $27bn and $18bn respectively, and M&S showing how a CEO-led sustainability strategy can account for 10% of profit at a FTSE100 retailer....more...

The evening opened with discussion  by Chair Jim Woods of the complex views coming out of the survey on the consumer, namely that the audience has a broad confidence that companies with sustainable products and services will outperform their competition in the market place, and at the same time they have little faith in the consumer paying a premium for these goods....more...

A groundswell in business interest in the government’s forthcoming energy security and green economy bill was discussed at Green Monday in London on 1st November. 

Patrick Erwin, Head of the Energy Bill team in the Energy and Climate Department (DECC), briefed the session on how the legislation is shaping up, focusing on the bill’s flagship ‘Green Deal’. This will finance energy efficiency measures in buildings by creating a mechanism that links financing to energy bills so owners can upgrade properties without up-front costs....more...

Steps to improve energy efficiency are too often ignored despite good evidence they are among the cheapest ways to cut carbon emissions, and very often save money. Business experts debated the issues at a seminar in London on Monday, 11 October.

Energy efficiency is inevitably a “complex picture”, Peter Cunningham, managing director of energy and climate strategy at Rio Tinto, told the Green Monday event, which was co-presented by ENDS. Outside of key investment decisions, energy efficiency “is about a myriad of different projects,” he said....more...

At the outset Alan Knight reminded us what a successful piece of policy the feed-in-tariff (FIT) has been worldwide – operating in 50 countries. And we were honoured to welcome Hans-Josef Fell, the architect of the feed-in-tariff scheme in Germany to fill us in on the reasons why. After arriving a little late negotiating the intricacies of black cab etiquette in the middle of a tube strike and armed only with Euros, Hans-Josef made a very compelling case for the FIT as a policy instrument....more...

At this week's Green Monday event, 86% said that the FIT scheme represents an opportunity for business. Not everyone is pursuing a scheme - the main problems cited by delegates were concerns about policy: a potential policy change (28%) and a lack of clarity on the policy (17%). Raising funds was also a major stumbling block (28%) as were internal winning internal business buy-in (11%0. Nobody had concerns about the technology. 

Owing to another tube strike scheduled for October the 4th, we have decided to move this event to the 11th to avoid the chaos of a depleted London transport system again. We will also be meeting at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Canary Wharf office in October. Please see below for the full address and directions:

Bank of America Merrill Lynch
5 Canada Square 
Canary Wharf 
E14 5AQ

On arrival
In the main atrium go to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch reception desk....more...

This month’s speakers where challenged with looking at green and clean-tech technology, how it is being used and the benefits that people are getting from it, with an eye on our September session on feed-in tariffs. They also shared some of their thoughts on the long-term future on the new way of using these various technologies.

John Ashford (Sainsbury’s) set out the 3 principles that Sainsbury’s want to see and how they assess the long-term future of any green or clean technologies....more...

At the inaugural Green Monday in the North West, the panel reflected on foremost points within the sustainability agenda and how these topics are currently playing out. They also reflected on their companies more pioneering initiatives and the emerging trends in this space. 

The evening was kicked off by Paul Turner from Lloyds TSB. Paul gave insights into why the agenda is now core business strategy, pointing out that sustainable development touches on all the levers of value creation within any business....more...

For the June London event the panel contemplated Sustainability and Growth, and how business can achieve decoupling. The three speakers on the panel shared their thoughts on the subject, and debate focused on whether decoupling is either realistic or sufficient in the long-term....more...

The plenary for the May event in London looked at “Green Innovation and Disruption”. The three speakers offered their own interpretations and experiences of devising and introducing new sustainable models.

Ian Cheshire, the CEO of Kingfisher, (the third largest home improvement retail group globally), began proceedings. In his time as CEO the company have tried to approach sustainability as a worldwide agenda embracing all operating companies....more...

The talks at the April event looked at why and how you improve the sustainability of your supply chain. With this being such a broad and difficult area to engage in, the panel discussed the business case, the complexity of the challenge and how it is set to develop, giving specific insight into the work they each do in this area at ASDA, Pepsi Co and the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Paul Kelly (ASDA) began by highlighting the scale of ASDA, or more accurately Wal-Mart with its 176 million customers per week and 61,000 suppliers globally....more...

We would be really grateful if you could take 5 minutes to complete our survey. As ever we want to be constantly innovating and making sure we have the best speakers, topics and tables. You can fill in the survey here - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/greenmonday20102011 - Many thanks for your help!

All commentators agree that the green agenda brings with it a great deal of disruption. And for any well established large corporate it always goes against the grain to change a formula that works. This poses a quandary for all incumbents, who know that their modus operandi will one day be successfully challenged. Do you rip up the rule book, wait and follow or resist.

In this session we are delighted to be hearing from Ian Cheshire (CEO of Kingfisher, who own B&Q and others) on the opportunity he sees for his business and how it will be grasped....more...

The plenary at the March event was a “Pre-Election Special”. With all the 3 major parties on the panel the discussion included their latest thoughts on the climate change agenda, the agenda of their own party in the run up to the election and the specific role they see business playing.

Shortly before the event Joan Ruddock MP (Labour Party) was called in for an important Parliamentary vote and therefore was unable to attend the event....more...

Wal Mart's ambitious announcements last week (and M&S's new targets this week) show the growing trend towards greening the supply chain. While M&S have stressed that they want to see their whole industry drive down emissions (and related environmental impacts), they have acknowledged that they want to "outgreen" the competition. Lee Scott (CEO, Wal Mart) is very clear that he sees this as a key differentiator for his company. And for their suppliers that is already a reality....more...

[Tom Idle, Editor, Sustainable Business - www.sustainablebusinessnetwork.net]

The focus of February’s Green Monday session centred on the potential of brands to effect behavioural change among consumers to help them reduce their environmental impacts – and the role of marketeers in communicating encouraging and inspiring messages....more...

[Tom Idle, Editor, Sustainable Business - www.sustainablebusinessnetwork.net]

Delegates and speakers at this month’s Green Monday event reflected on what did and didn’t happen in Copenhagen. Kingfisher’s director of social responsibility, Ray Baker, was baffled by the negative language to come out of COP15 – “meaningful agreement”, for example....more...

To ensure the correct ratio of the different types of attendees we will be making a small charge for "Suppliers". Please note this is for "Suppliers" only! This will help us support Green Monday at a new level and fund our regional activities. We hope you can understand our need to charge this fee - and we hope that you will have benefitted greatly from your previous attendance of the event. Please do get in touch if you have any questions about this.

Green Monday is teaming up with the business world's biggest social networking platform - Linked In. Initially this will simply be a high level community for you to interact with, but quite soon we will be creating more depth to it. This will consist of new sub-groups that will relate to the tables and allow you to find communities focused on specific challenges or topics (e.g. Supply Chains, Transport, Built Environment). Please join here now - http://www.linkedin....more...

We are delighted to announce that Joan Ruddock MP, Greg Barker MP and Simon Hughes MP will make up our March plenary. The idea is to establish their views on what role they see for business in ushering in the low carbon economy and the wider energy and sustainability agendas.

We will be looking at the lessons we can all draw from a successful relationship between marketing and sustainability functions. And learning how to create the right conditions for succesful and truly sustainable innovation.

The FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) community have long been the most sophisticated readers of consumer demand. And, as with most consumer aspirations, there is often a disconnect between their stated sustainability intentions and their purchasing habits....more...

To help us understand what has happened and what the implications are for business we are delighted to welcome Ian Cheshire (CEO, Kingfisher plc), Steve Howard (CEO, The Climate Group), Peter Betts (Director of International Climate Change, DECC) and Abyd Karmali (President, CMIA)....more...

Thanks to all our speakers at Monday night's event. (You can find the podcast in "Downloads"). SMART grids is definitely at the more technical end of the scale for Green Monday. It is a topic beset with semantic problems around language (not least what is meant by a SMART grid), but they will play an enormous role in helping harness renewables, increasing distribution efficiencies and increasing end-user efficiencies....more...

Many of you who were present at the last Green Monday witnessed a heartfelt plea from Catalina McGregor, Government Deputy Champion Green ICT to Chris Dodwell from DECC to assist the Cabinet Office in obtaining a slot for Green ICT at COP 15 in Copenhagen. Due to a series of timelines and deadlines DECC had said that it would not be possible....more...

There is a big opportunity with SMART grid plans to make a telling contribution to the climate change agenda through infrastructure optimisation, getting renewables online, and better end-user energy management. However it requires the subtle melding of many different parties who have not historically collaborated and with varying agendas. This event will look at the priorities for business and how those aims might be positively applied to climate targets....more...

We are very sorry to say that we are unable to accept any more applications for the November event. We apologise for this and would urge people to apply as far in advance as they can (for future events) if they wish for their application to be successful.

We haven't confirmed every last detail yet, but this is the general thrust for November's event. Jonathon Porritt will look at he thinks the impact of the talks will be on UK plc and how ready we are. James Cameron will be reflecting on the likely outcomes, (drawing on his experience representing the Alliance of Small Island States), and the financial world’s attitudes to those outcomes....more...

Thank you to those of you who completed our questionnaire following the September Green Monday. We have used your feedback regarding the events sustainability and aim to implement new initiatives for future events. We have also passed on suggestions to the venue so that Green Monday will become a more sustainable event month by month....more...

Thanks to those of you who completed our questionnaire following the September Green Monday. We have used your feedback regarding the events sustainability and aim to implement new initiatives into the setup of the next event. We have also passed on suggestions to the venue to help improve their sustainability as well....more...

Fill in our survey to win a free Green Strategy 2009 ticket

We really value your input, so please do get through this quick survey. We have some free tickets to give away for Green Strategy 2009 and we hope to find out a bit more about how to make Green Monday even better – and how we take it to other parts of the UK. The survey is here....more...

We want to consider corporate risk – how you assess it, how you communicate it and how you reduce it. David Lawrence, Head of Global Risk, Procurement & Governance at Diageo, will be reflecting on the various strategic risks one should associate with climate change – and some of the more immediate strains he is seeing in their supply chain. Mark Andrew, Chief Executive at NG Bailey, will reflect on how he sees companies starting to respond – and the specific risks of failing to adapt....more...

We hope you have had a good summer break and are raring to go for what will be a defining six months for this agenda. Copenhagen and the first shoots of recovery (dare we say it) could really galvanise things - but it might not all be good news, so we must prepare for everything. There are also more prosaic duties around CRC compliance and other "must-do" work....more...

We are delighted to welcome Mark Elborne, CEO and president of GE in the UK. GE are one corporate who quickly spotted their place in the environmentally sustainable future and it will be fascinating to hear how they are building on their well known initiative, "ecomagination", and what advice they have for others. Joining Mark are EDF (Robert will not be able to join us now, but we expect to find someone else) and Mark Shorrock, who has been identifying business solutions to climate change since 2001....more...

Although we have plans afoot to take Green Monday over the pond we are also conscious that we need to create a UK network of events. These events are quite tough to finance and so we will be looking for organisations willing to host Green Mondays in the regions. We have not finalised which cities these will take place in, but please let us know if you think your city would attract enough interest and whether you might play host.

After much work and the appreciated efforts of DUNK we now have a very tidy content management system. Not only will this help us better manage things our end, but it will also help you get more out of the event and make the evenings more productive.

The main things to look out for are in the application process. We will now be asking you to tell us what your profile is - leader, influencer or supplier. You may be both in which case you decide what you would prefer to be known to others as....more...