The Next Great Transformation: Sustainable Enterprise - A Conversation About The Future took place at the Eden Project in Cornwall, England in October 2007. The conversation brought together people from around the world and across sectors, industries and issues, to explore new models, new systems, new policies and new strategies for the transformation towards sustainable enterprise.
Organised by The Applied Research Centre in Human Security at Coventry University (ARCHS), Boston College's Winston Centre for Ethics and Leadership, the Eden Project and the UN Global Compact, the conversation is sponsored by Shell International and supported by the Journal of Corporate Citizenship, Business as an Agent for World Benefit, and the European Academy for Business In Society (EABIS).
The event was a huge success attended by over 130 people from 18 different countries and well-known corporations such as CISCO, BA, HP, and Novo Nordisk among others. We heard not only from the big corporations, but also from the smallest of sustainable enterprise pioneers and social entrepreneurs about innovative ways and opportunities to go beyond the responsibility to 'do no harm'. Success stories were told of British Airways; Wal-Mart; the Ethical Fashion Forum; Norwood Organic Farm; National Oil Recycling Association, South Africa; Go Zero; the Eden Project and the Lynedoch Sustainability Institute in South Africa.
Over two and a half days, we heard from a wide range of plenary speakers and took part in parallel conversation sessions covering topics from Leadership, Supply Chain Management, Financial Markets, and Climate Change to Spirituality & Integration (perhaps better called 'The Search for Meaning') in the transition to a Sustainable Enterprise Economy.
The feedback we received from participants spoke to the inspiration they got from the speakers; the power and excitement of the parallel sessions given their conversational format and the breadth of interests and approaches represented as well as the range of topics covered.
One of the aims of the conference was to bring people together to discuss and identify action that they could take together. We've already heard of collaborations that have flowed from the conference, so if you've got a story to tell about what happened after the conference, then please get in touch.
Details and reports can be found in the tabs above.