may day may day may day

To the launch party for the new ‘QI’ (Quite Interesting) Annual at the Groucho Club in Soho last night. Usual mix of the great and good of British comedy. QI, which makes the quiz show of the same name on BBC 2, is the brainchild of my old friend John Lloyd (who has won more BAFTAs for the likes of Spitting Image, Blackadder etc than I have bought carbon credits). Enjoyed mingling with old friends and marvelling at John’s capacity to bring a collective IQ of about 8 billion under one roof on a cold London evening. Fortunately I managed to avoid getting into a debate with Jeremy Clarkson, whose crusade against sustainable development continues to ravage the minds of unthinking people with not a care for the one home they have, our planet. The point of QI is that everything is interesting if looked at in the right way. The sustainable development movement could learn much from the approach. After all, how much fun can you have with a press release about sustainable packaging?

I’ve been helping get a big new sustainability expo off the ground. It’s called BASE. A lot of old friends and colleagues are involved. We all believe this could become a watershed event in the debate about making sustainability truly profitable. The plan is to bring together a vast coalition of businesses, NGOs, government agencies and others to show, once and for all, that you do not need to trade profit for a greener, cleaner planet. One of my personal gurus, Tom Burke, is chairing our advisory board, and all manner of companies including Alliance Boots, Oracle, Kraft, and I’m pleased to say Weber Shandwick, are founding partners. Check out their website and see you there!

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Welcome to my blog, which will mainly focus on sustainable development issues and corporate responsibility in general. Having spent many years working in the NGO movement (with varying degrees of success, it must be said) before jumping ship to the business world, I’m struck both by the massive potential of the two communities working together, as well as the challenges such partnerships still face today. Recently I discussed this and other issues on Green.tv, a fantastic new initiative that is gaining real traction, as well as providing a great way for responsible businesses to showcase their sustainability work. Check out the interview and the rest of the green.tv site here.