Rio+20: the Earth Summit diaries, Wednesday 20 June

Rio+20: the Earth Summit diaries, Wednesday 20 June

From Rio de Janeiro, Jo Confino provides behind the scenes insight of all that's going on from a business perspective at the Earth Summit
A tale of two conferences
Jo Confino, in Rio de Janeiro
Guardian Professional, Wednesday 20 June 2012

Wednesday June 20 07.30am

Would businesses have a better chance of saving the world if they had more fun?

Progressive companies have recognised that it is no longer true that the business of business is not business.

Now they could do with learning that the art of life is to enjoy yourself and not to take everything so seriously. Paradoxically you get far more done if you don't suck lemons all day.



The reason I write this is because I attended two major events at Rio yesterday in the same posh beachfront hotel.

On the second floor in a spacious and airy conference hall was the Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD), a coalition of business groups, while in the darker basement was a social media conference, Rio+Social.

While the social media conference was fast and furious and based on innovation and challenging the status quo, with speakers such as Richard Branson and Mohammad Yunus, BASD spent the day looking sector by sector at how to scale up change.

While Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace International, was downstairs calling the Rio+20 outline agreement a betrayal of humanity, upstairs the head of the negotiations described it as a triumph.

If I had unlimited powers, what I would have done is mix up the two conferences, because they could both learn so much from each other.

The more youthful and energised audience in the basement could learn that most change comes, not from having a vision, but from the grunt end work of making things happen one step at a time.

What the suits could learn is to challenge their ingrained thinking and recognise the power of inspiration and of dreams.

There was just one business leader who attended both conferences and looked at home in either setting and that is Jochen Zeitz, the chief sustainability officer of the luxury goods brand PPR.

At Rio+Social, he talked about the dream of what the perfect world would look like to him, regarding the role of business, and to his credit he did the same upstairs.

"Let me just say that it is a world in which business is inclusive and holistic by working with nature and society combined in peace" he told the BASD. "Call it paradise or a perfect word. It's certainly a world I would love to be a part of and live in."

Ray of hope in Rio as UK government gives the go-ahead for mandatory corporate carbon reporting

Tuesday June 19 23.30

News that the government is to require public companies listed in the UK to publish full details of the greenhouse gases they produce from April 2013 has been welcomed at Rio +20.

Ony last month, the Aldersgate Group, an alliance of some the UK's largest businesses and green groups, wrote to the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to complain about the fact that the government had missed a four-year deadline to introduce mandatory carbon reporting.

The letter was signed by a number of big companies including Asda, Cable&Wireless, Cisco, Jupiter, Aviva Investors, Marks & Spencer, Philips, Sky, Thames Water, the Co-operative and PepsiCo.

Christian Aid's Director of Policy and Public Affairs Christine Allen said about the planned announcement by Clegg at the Rio +20 conference: "This is a very encouraging breakthrough which will make UK plc more sustainable and accountable.

'This is welcome news to the thousands of Christian Aid supporters who have been campaigning for mandatory carbon reporting for many years. We also welcome the fact that the scheme can be reviewed in 2015 to make it more ambitious.

'We know that the world's poorest people are hit first and worst by the changing climate and this decision provides some hope that the UK government is serious about tackling the crisis.

'As political leaders arrive at the Rio Summit in the middle of difficult negotiations, we hope the Deputy Prime Minister uses his announcement to signal to the world that the UK is determined to show leadership and is prepared to seek a more ambitious outcome to the conference.'

Andrew Reingold, who head up the Aldersgate Group, said mandatory carbon reporting will ensure that all large listed companies disclose their emissions in their annual report, thereby ensuring greater accountability and transparency, creating a level playing field and helping enable investors and the media to make more meaningful comparisons. He said: "It would certainly be an improvement on the crude performance metrics of the carbon reduction commitment energy efficiency scheme league table.

"Above all, it would further encourage business, which is responsible for nearly a third of all UK greenhouse gas emissions, to manage and reduce its carbon footprint, leading to reduced energy costs and a greater understanding of material climate risks and opportunities."

Alan McGill, partner, PwC sustainability and climate change, says the decision is not unexpected as companies had already been showing support for such a move.

He said: "Our analysis of the FTSE shows it has the highest levels of board oversight and engagement on climate change strategy, compared to other global business indices. There might be slight surprise that it's not all large companies, just listed ones. But it's a bit early to see the government going much further than listed companies at this stage. There may be fears that extending it beyond large listed companies, into small or medium sized enterprises could be too much of a burden.