Speakers
John Blackwell
Chief Executive JBA
John Blackwell is a globally recognised thought-leader in the field of sustainable, effective workplaces and author of several bestselling books on transforming business performance and the economics of corporate sustainability.
Having spent nearly a decade as Chief Executive of International Operations at telco MCI and five years heading IBM’s strategy practice, today John is Chief Executive of research-based business consultancy, JBA and is CEO of the not-for-profit MWM foundation that he founded with Noel Edmonds.
John regularly lectures on emerging corporate social responsibility and business performance issues, is a Visiting Fellow at three universities, on the advisory council of Surrey University, and is a Director of Research at Henley Management College.
John’s pre-eminence is the science of how people, space, and technology interact – a discipline that can swiftly overhaul the competitive, fiscal, and environmental performance of any business.
His organisation, JBA has worked with some of the world’s leading organisations including; Allied Domecq, BBC, British Airways, Coca Cola, Ford, France Telecom, Hewlett Packard, HSBC, Motorola, Orange, Royal Mail, Unilever, Vodafone and countless mid-sized businesses. For these clients, John has delivered £10’s of millions in financial gains.
Ian Barnes
Sustainable Development Manager
Boots the Chemists
Ian Barnes, Sustainable Development Manager (Waste Minimisation, Recycling and Transport) is responsible for ensuring compliance with environmental legislation across the Boots the Chemists operations the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
Ian’s key accountabilities include:-
- the management of disposal and recycling processes and contracts to achieve optimum cost/ revenue and reducing environmental impacts
- leading cross functional teams working to ensure that the business considers environmental impacts during the design of transit packaging and in store advertising material and the companies supply chain project.
- Managing the groups compliance obligations under UK and ROI packaging legislation - Ian has been actively involved in the consultation process and implementation of the WEEE Regulations in the Republic of Ireland.
Ian also sits on the British Retail Consortium Waste Working Group
Martin Gibson
Envirowise
Envirowise delivers a valuable government-funded programme of free, confidential advice to UK businesses. This assistance enables companies to increase profitability and reduce environmental impact. Envirowise solutions are driven by the specific needs of individual firms, to genuinely improve their business practices, profitability and competitiveness. Since 1994, Envirowise has helped UK industry save more than £1 billion. The Envirowise programme is available to any UK business, completely free of charge. Envirowise is managed on behalf of UK Government (DTI and DEFRA) by Momenta, an operating division of AEA Technology plc, and Technology Transfer and Innovation Ltd (TTI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Serco Limited.
Martin Gibson is a Director of Envirowise and has helped to formulate many of our key approaches. He is a keen advocate of the programme, which helps companies to be more resource efficient. He is also very interested in how to influence behaviour change and feels this is usually more important than technology in improving environmental performance. His book- Environmental Sustainability: a Framework for Company Action- was published in 2000.
Martin works for AEA Technology Environment, where he a member of the Board of the Momenta operating division. He has acted as director of a number of programmes, including Bio-Wise and the English Regional Cycling Development Team.
Martin sits on the Welsh Assembly Government's Expert Panel on Resources Management and was a member of the UK delegation for the G8 Environmental Futures Forum in France in 2003. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and the Institute of Biology.
Professor Alan Knight OBE
Alan Knight has 15 years experience of understanding the impact and opportunities CSR and sustainable development provide to global retail.
He works with top level management and policy makers involved in the global retail and consumer products arena to help then develop the confidence, tools and inspiration to embed Sustainable Development within their product range and brand. He is the founder of “Single Planet Living” Limited, a company that offers coaching and presentations on SD in retailing and commerce.
He is currently the Independent Sustainable Development Advisor to SABMiller where until recently he was their Head of Corporate Accountability. SABMiller is the world’s second largest brewery. He joined in December 2004 and is responsible for creating a group wide framework for sustainable development. This includes issues as diverse as water and climate change to HIV and the issues associated with small scale farmers. His work takes him across Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. He is also the Independent Advisor on Sustainable Development to Fortnum and Mason and Wyevale Garden Centres and writes for Organic Life.
From 1990 to 2000 he served as Head of Sustainable Development at B&Q, the UK's market leader in home improvement and part of the Kingfisher Group. Alan also works with Government. He co-chaired the UK Government's Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption; he serves on the UK Sustainable Development Commission and was for 6 years chair of the Government's Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment (ACCPE). He chairs DEFRA’s Food Industry Ethical Trading Champions Group and DTI’s Retail Innovation and Sustainability group. He sits on the technical advisory panel for Duchy Originals, is an Ambassador to WWF UK and serves on the International board of the Forest Stewardship Council. He is former director of the Tropical Forest Trust.
He was awarded the OBE in June 1998 and in 2005 received a life long award from the US based Rainforest Alliance for his contribution to findings solutions to rainforest destruction caused by timber industry.
Richard Barrington,
Head of Corporate Affairs and Public Policy - Sun Microsystems
Richard Barrington is head of Public Policy for Sun UK and Ireland. He represents Sun on the UK's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change; the DTI's Information Age Partnership; is a board member of PITCOM, the UK Parliamentary IT Committee and has just been asked to join the UK Government's 'Business Task force on Sustainable Consumption and Production'. Richard has also recently accepted a position on the CBI Environmental Affairs Committee and will be active in setting the organisations strategy on environmental and sustainability issues. He is also an active alumni of the Business and the Environment programme and is an independent trustee of eduserv.
Prior to joining Sun, Richard spend three years seconded to the Office of the E-Envoy, part of the Cabinet Office, as it's director for industry.
Richard has substantial media experience and has recently provided comment on the UK Government's budget announcement with regard to sustainable computing. Richard has also spoken recently at the Westminster eForum as well as Sun Microsystems' Forum for the Future event and SunLIVE 06.
Richard's area of expertise is Sun's sustainable computing strategy and the political issues surrounding this topic.
Stuart Laidlaw
National Technical Facilities Manager - The Mall
Utilising over 10 years of valuable experience in operating shopping malls, Stuart Laidlaw has been instrumental in the launch of EnviroMall, the UK’s first accreditation scheme specifically designed for the shopping centre industry to minimise its environmental impact. EnviroMall is a partnership made up of leading environmental organisations; each bringing knowledge and skills in their areas of expertise, which will be pooled to devise the shopping centre specific accreditation.
Stuart’s involvement in this groundbreaking scheme follows on from him spending the past eight years setting up and refining an environmental management system for The Mall’s shopping centres to control and continually improve their performance. Since 1999 this system has encouraged an increase in recycling from 10% to 50%, whilst reducing energy consumption by over 30% across all 23 malls. The Mall is now recognised by the industry as a leader in its field, and this standard paves the way for an holistic approach to tackling climate change across the shopping centre and retail industries.
Stuart began his career as an apprentice in 1979 and spent 12 years studying building services and mechanical engineering, since then he has gained vast experience in design, maintenance, problem solving and FM strategy. As an engineer, Stuart is a pragmatist with a very ‘hands on’ approach.
The Mall is the UK’s leading shopping mall operator with 23 shopping malls, 8 million sq ft of retail, 2100 retail units and in excess of 1000 retailer
Jenny Dawkins
Jenny Dawkins is a Research Director and Head of Corporate Responsibility Research at Ipsos MORI. Jenny has extensive experience in stakeholder opinion research on the topics of corporate responsibility and the environment, and is a regular speaker and writer on related subjects. Jenny has worked with a wide range of corporate and not-for-profit clients, including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, the Co-operative Group, Vodafone, BAT, Business in the Community and Amnesty International. Jenny has a background in both consumer and local government research and graduated from Durham University with a first class degree in English Literature.
Ipsos MORI has pioneered opinion research in the area of corporate responsibility, helping clients consult their stakeholders about how companies should respond to these issues. We cover the full range of audiences including opinion formers, customers, employees and local communities. Ipsos and MORI merged in 2005 to form the third largest UK market research group (by 2004 revenue).