Peter Madden 
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- Name: Peter Madden
Peter Madden’s Posts
Brit's Eye View: A shift in business attitudes?
Six insights on the business trend toward sustainability 2
Posted 1 year, 10 months agoPeter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.
Forum for the Future recently asked a selection of top business and branding folk to give us the lowdown on the recent trend toward sustainable business. The gurus included Rita Clifton of Interbrand, Stuart Hart of Cornell University, William Kramer of the World Resources Institute, and Jonathon Porritt of Forum for the Future. I have distilled their wisdom into six insights.
1. A real sea change is underway. Looking at the current trends and recent announcements,… Read More
Brit's Eye View: Greening our cities
How do U.K. cities stack up in terms of sustainability? 1
Posted 1 year, 11 months agoPeter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.
Every year more and more people live in cities. Globally, we became a majority urban world for the first time last year, while here in the U.K., nine out of 10 of us live in towns and cities.
Cities are clearly important for sustainability. Although the romantic green notion of us all living on small holdings with a goat, a vineyard, and a vegetable patch is seductive, the future is much more likely to be dominated… Read More
Brit's Eye View: The future becomes us
Envisioning possible green futures helps create a greener future 1
Posted 2 years agoPeter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.
There has been much discussion lately of the need to turn the green agenda from a negative to a positive one. I think that an important part of this is developing some more positive visions of what living in a sustainable future might be like. My organization, Forum for the Future, has set itself this task. Partly because we think the green movement needs more credible and aspirational stories of the future if we are… Read More
Brit's Eye View: Capitalism As If the World Matters
New book by Porritt argues that we need to reshape capitalism to deliver a sustainable future 5
Posted 2 years, 1 month agoPeter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.
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We have just published the American paperback version of Capitalism As If the World Matters. The book is written by Jonathon Porritt, one of the foremost environmentalists of his generation and cofounder of my organization, Forum for the Future. The foreword is by Amory Lovins. As well as working with us, Jonathon is chair of the U.K. Government's Sustainable Development Commission. Previously, he was… Read More
Brit's Eye View: Are we too obsessed with climate change?
Other enviro issues are getting less attention 29
Posted 2 years, 2 months agoPeter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.
Are we too obsessed by climate change? Over here, climate change is coming to completely dominate the sustainability agenda. This is true in politics, business, the media, and civil society.
I was talking to our new secretary of state for the environment, Hilary Benn, the other day, about his department's strategy. He argued that all the other issues -- such as air quality, waste, water, and so on… Read More
Peter Madden’s Recent Comments
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stories
JMG - I agree that we need to get much better at telling stories and painting pictures. We greens too often come across as having a managerial answer to every problem. All too often, all I hear is dry technocratic solutions to recondite problems. The public are bombarded with percentages, facts and figures. So, enough about carbon quotas, contraction and convergence and cross-compliance. Instead, we should try to give people some flesh and blood stories, some passion, some real examples.
I can't say I've mastered this yet, but three resources that I've found very useful are:
Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots. A long read, so dip in or read the reviews. He argues that there are basic archetypal stories - rags to riches; the quest; voyage and return; the hero as monster; rebirth and so on - which fulfil psychological needs and which form the basis of much of our literature, films etc.
Steve Denning's stuff on storytelling in organisations or see a related UK site
www.storytellinginorganisations.org.uk/And the work of Chris Rose, who used to be Director of Campaigns at Greenpeace UK and now advises on communication and campaigning. He stresses the need to tell stories of good and evil, with heroes and villains. He has a website www.campaignstrategy.org/ which is full of good tips.
On Learning from masters in other fields: What a concept! posted 2 years, 3 months ago 16 ResponsesClick here to view comment in original post
Response
Great discussion. A couple of points.
I didn't really set out the maths in my piece, but if we need to cut emissions by 60-80% to avoid dangerous climate change, then the massive projected growth in aviation makes that impossible.
On the efficiency of planes, yes, the water vapour makes things worse and trains are generally better. There is quite a good report by a fairly dry bunch of Brit scientists that covers this - the press release is on www.rcep.org.uk/news/02-04.htm
The point about planes being quite efficient in comparative terms is also right. But the problem here is one of sheer distance. The average British motorist drives around 7,000 miles in a year. A single return flight London to New York is also 7,000 miles. Start taking a few long-haul flights a year, and you can see what that does to your personal carbon budget...
And yes, we should get our politicans out of planes and back on old-fashioned campaign buses. On When is it necessary, and what are the alternatives? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 39 Responses
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Valentines gifts
We did a Valentines list too, check it out on our Green Futures website. It even includes some ethical sex toys (sustainable spanking anyone?) for those of you with sex on the brain.
http://www.greenfutures.org.uk/briefings/Valentine_page28 ...
The top recommendation was to give time not things...On It's coming, and it can't be stopped posted 2 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses
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Response
Whiskerfish, Alison and Ivanoats, sorry for the delay in replying.
I'm not claiming that supermarkets are suddenly paragons of virtue, but that there are good reasons to welcome their moves on climate change, which is after all the biggest environmental challenge we face. I won't repeat these.
On packaging - I couldn't agree with you more. And it is particulary annoying when it seems to be organic products fruit and vegetables that are the most over-packaged.
On green beans from Kenya, the issue is not quite so clear cut. Some people in the UK argue that developing countries gain from export horticulture, especially when prices for traditional commodity exports decline. And on the environmental impact assessment, I'm not sure that growing in heated greenhouses in Kent is any more sustainable. The best answer to this one is probably to eat as seasonably as you can. (I can't see any excuse for Israeli avocadoes in S Africa.).
Treatment of producers is also complicated. In the UK we have had decades of farming subsidy, which has led to over-production and over-capacity in some agricultural products - and thus drops in price and quality. But I do agree that there are likley to be problems when you have a handful of very big and powerful retailers. I do think that M&S, for example, are trying to work well with suppliers.
On Labour issues, I suspect that these big UK companies and brands are probably better than many others. I know M&S are using fairtrade cotton now in many mainstream lines. And both have codes of conduct and audits - precisely because they are well know brands.
For me, the big remaining question is to do with the sheer size and continuing growth of the major supermarkets, and what this means for sustainability. If the essence of the business model is to sell ever more stuff to ever more people in ever more places, we will need more than the one planet earth.
Now, I know it is only a start, but the promises of Tesco to restrict air freight to only 1% of all imports, and more importantly, to make big absolute cuts in C02 emissions, are something more businesses could do with following.
Peter On But why? posted 2 years, 9 months ago 8 Responses