The event "Sustainable Revolution" organised by These Young Minds took place at the Senior Common room, London School of Economics between 5.00 and 8.30pm on Tuesday 8th of February. It had an impressive array of speakers at hand who identified opportunities in the green economy and proffered practical solutions to societal challenges such as climate change and biodiversity.

From Harnessing the Opportunities of the Government's 'Green Deal' that was delivered by Mark Williams and Caroline McGill, (Associate Partner Deloitte) to Innovation as key to solving sustainability challenges delivered by Nick Heller and Benjamin Kott (Head of Green business operations, Google EMEA), 'Taking a Consumption Based Approach to Tackle Climate Change' by Sue Ridddlestone (CEO of BioRegional) and Managing Strategically for a Sustainable Economy by Martin Chilcott (CEO of 2degrees) all agreeing that a sustainable revolution is the necessary foundation that the world needs towards attaining an enduring future.

Martin Chilcott, of 2degrees said "Over the last 50 years the world's population has exploded and over the next 30 years it will continue to accelerate. Well before it reaches 9bn it will have wreaked profound changes upon our global society, economy and environment. This fourth economic revolution will transform our processes of production and consumption. Businesses will have to change with this shift in order to survive and flourish. It will require them to develop a new type of Sustainable Competitive Advantage which will demand the acquisition of new competences from an ability to measure report and reduce waste of all kinds; to building climate resilience in their assets and supply chains; to driving top line growth mainly through dematerialised service innovation; to developing zero waste value chains; and finally developing an ability to collaborate to innovate and drive efficiencies. Sustainable Competitive Advantage across the entire value chain involves growing revenue, reducing risks and creating operational efficiencies."

Alim Abubakre Founding Director, These Young Minds, said that for the world to solve important societal challenges such as biodiversity and climate change a strategic approach to sustainability has to be taken. Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial businesses with strategic approaches to sustainability will easily harness the huge windows of opportunities that services for the ageing, cloud computing and fast internet broadband, the growth of the middle class in the emerging market as well as providing infrastructure for them and resource scarcity offers.

Dimitri Zhengelis Senior Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science who was chair of the event said "the topics discussed were perfectly pitched with the right people talking about the right issues at the right time. The result was a powerful discussion which clearly identified the challenges ahead and the necessary response."

The audience and the panel of speakers were able to agree that exploring a "Sustainable Revolution" cannot be more appropriate than now, with the world on the brink of recovering from a recession and the corresponding problems associated with this, the shift of economic growth from the west to the east and the potential threat to existence of our future and those of later generation due to issues such as climate change and problems of biodiversity. Thus, underscoring now as the turning point, certainly at this time, innovation that is sustainable has to be explored.

This event was sponsored by Manpower Inc and the Environmental Office of the London School of Economics Student Union and Base 2011 conference. Media sponsors include CSRWire USA, Policy Review TV, EAUC, Lowcarbon.com, 2degrees and Start Your Business.

NOTES FOR EDITORS
These Young Minds is a service based social enterprise that provides an all inclusive platform for all stakeholders to learn about corporate responsibility issues through research, partnerships and high profile conferences. Please visit www.theseyoungminds.co.uk.

These Young Minds

These Young Minds

These Young Minds is a service based social enterprise that provides an all inclusive platform for all stakeholders in the area of corporate responsibility through high powered conferences which will explore areas of partnership and achieve innovation.

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