IBM is to lead a nine-day business and industry sustainability summit in London as part of Start, an initiative established by HRH The Prince of Wales to promote and celebrate sustainable living. The September Summit will consider the next steps that should be taken to enable economic, environmental and societal sustainability.
Whilst the IBM Summit forms the business-to-business engagement for Start, other partners in the programme will focus on various events and initiatives taking place across the country throughout the year. The goal is to help people across the UK take clear, simple, positive and practical steps towards a more sustainable future.
Start is also working closely with The Prince of Wales' Mayday Network, which was established in 2007 to encourage businesses to address climate change.
Opening on 8th September at Lancaster House, the IBM Summit will be a series of one-day events running consecutively over the nine days. Each of the day will focus on a different theme and bring together daily around 120 business and public sector leaders with subject matter experts to discuss the issues and opportunities for working together to build a sustainable and smarter planet. The focus will be on dialogue and discussion across the influential audience with peer interaction being key to the success of the Summit.
Themes to be discussed include the future of cities; energy; transport; skill; future smarter supply chains, financing sustainability and the information revolution. The final day will bring together the key issues and ideas coming out of the prior eight days of discussion and debate, with the audience challenged to review and refine these outputs, and identify new ways to collaborate to turn these outputs into recommendations for British business.
Inevitability of climate change
Sir Tom Shebbeare, who leads the Start initiative for The Prince of Wales, said: "Faced with the inevitability of climate change we all need to be thinking of simple, practical ways to live more sustainably. These need not be painful but we must all try to embrace them. With the help of some of Britain's most respected companies and charities we hope to demonstrate how we can all make a start — and have fun doing so."
And Stephen Leonard, IBM CEO UK and Ireland, said: "As we begin the decade of Smart, the business imperative for sustainability action is strong, whether from regulatory, stakeholder, or simply cost efficiency pressures. IBM will convene the thought leaders and subject matter experts to discuss 'what' business can do and 'how' we can do it together.
"Right across our client base and from conversations we have with industry peers we've learned that there is enormous hunger to learn how to make the planet smarter and more sustainable."
further information is available at www.ibm.com/uk/start/.
