Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

Last week I attended the Institute of Directors Conference at the Royal Albert Hall. It was a really interesting event with a truly outstanding array of speakers including international business leaders and entrepreneurs. Guest speakers included Bob Geldof, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Dame Fiona Reynolds, CEO of the National Trust, BA’s Willie Walsh and actor/director Kevin Spacey who all gave inspirational leadership messages for the 3,000 delegates.

It was fascinating to see that sustainability was one of the main themes throughout the conference and the fact that we need to move towards working, and of course, living in a more sustainable way. People weren’t talking merely about business, but about the basic building blocks of life, they were stirring emotions with their speeches and making people think. Yes, it was a conference for Directors of Businesses, but there was a real theme of ‘doing the right thing’ which I found both surprising and refreshing.

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to speak to business leaders about my own passion to tackle sustainability. I was wondering just how to address such an audience full of CEO’s and influential people, and I drew to the conclusion that ‘stories work’ so decided to tell a few stories from my life which I feel have taught me a lot. From the absolute necessity of managing your resources at sea, to talking about my first hand experiences of seeing the old abandoned whaling stations and the mis-management of resources on the island of South Georgia in the Southern Ocean. Ultimately, what had been a flourishing whaling industry on South Georgia became unsustainable as whales were killed in such large numbers that the population disappeared completely. The lesson from this is that it is only sensible that all businesses become sustainable as the very meaning of the word ‘sustainable’ implies that the business can continue to exist.

We all have a stake in the planet on which we live, and it’s time for employers to give their staff a stake in energy efficiency measures they’re being asked to implement. If a business is to be sustainable, keeping and motivating its employees is a key element of that. Employers and employees must work together as a team to share the dream of the future of the business so that everyone is an integral part of it and takes responsibility for their own management of resources.

Ellen