New writing… My latest piece for The Hub – the award-winning content platform curated by Mitsubishi Electric – tackles the herd-of-elephants-in-the-room subject of global warming. In the wake of the sobering, yet alarming, assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), most of us will be aware of the target limit of 2°C, or better still, 1.5°C, for planetary temperature increase. However, I am not convinced that many in business and society are necessarily aligned on the timeframes for this ambitious endeavour. My contention, put simply, is that if we take too long to achieve these goals, then, in fact, we fail. Climate change is a call to action, that cannot wait. This is why, now is the ‘Time for science, before it’s too late!‘
New writing…. Pleased to say I have had another couple of articles published in The Times newspaper, as part of a special Raconteur report on the Future of Packaging.
Ocean plastic is not a new problem, however it took David Attenborough and Blue Planet II to turn the tide of public opinion. My opening article investigates how prime-time endorsement of the core sustainability message proved a public gamechanger, but there is still a long way to go before we reach peak plastic in our waste streams. From high-street retail and global brands, to entrepreneurial start-ups and consumer activism, I am sharing smart insights of key influencers and seeking out sustainable solutions to the problems of a packaging sector under intense pressure. Issues are complex and commercial realities a challenge, but the question remains:
The first step towards fixing something is often to admit it is actually broken. Well, the plastics system is broken. So, since the problem is big, the fix must be even bigger, right? My second piece for the report explores how society must move away from the ‘take, make, dispose’ mindset that has long-informed linear consumption patterns and business models, towards a win-win scenario that simultaneously keeps plastics in the economy, but out of the environment. This discussion of proposals and prospects for the New Plastics Economy and UK Plastics Pact includes interviews with project leads at both the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WRAP UK:
New writing… My first piece for The Hub – the award-winning content platform curated by Mitsubishi Electric – explores the idea of the user experience (UX) driving the design of the built environment, particularly our workplaces. It discusses how differently commercial developers and their clients might do things if tenants and employees were to start rating the likes of their office environment in the same way as they rank hotels, or restaurants – scoring with stars and posting reviews. It considers what the implications would be for sustainability if happiness and wellbeing provided the prime metrics for post-occupancy evaluation and the key performance question to ask was simply: ‘How does your workplace make you feel?’
New writing…. Pleased to say I have had another article published in The Times newspaper, as part of a special Raconteur report on the Future of Procurement.
Reconciling best-value procurement and sustainability need not be a problem, since the two carry the promise of a real win-win. The potential synergy is clear, at least in principle. In practice, however, is where the challenge starts. Exploring how best to track and target supply-chain performance, my article takes us beyond the old backside-covering box-ticking and bare-minimum compliance of yesteryear, into the brave new world of holistic and proactive procurement, that is smart, balanced and sustainable. It is not easy, especially in an industry like construction, notorious for its aggressive contracting model and adversarial business culture. However, times are changing and so too is the sector, albeit slowly. The future of procurement will be different, and better:
New writing…. Pleased to say I have had another article published in The Times newspaper, as part of a special Raconteur report on Asset Management.
Good or bad, asset management has an effect on the environment and is also affected by it. The impacts and implications are inescapable – the risk is real. So too is the opportunity real, however. There are clear potential gains and benefits to come from business and industry adopting a more systemic approach to environmental issues. From climate change and ESG, via circular economy and whole-life logic, to locking-in carbon, my article looks at the drivers of change in the asset management field and the trends shaping its sustainability, now and in the future:
