1. Who am I? CEO of:
In its 21st year as the Midlands business network with a focus on
sustainable development as a key business issue.
Skanska - MEBC Board member
The only branch in the UK of the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development.
Skanska – BCSD-UK Board member
© David Middleton BCSD-UK/MEBC 2012

2. Statistics
Our home Diameter
12,753 km (7,926 miles)
Rotation Period with respect to
Sun (Length of Day)
24 hrs
Mass: 5.98x10^24
kilograms(6.5e21 tons)
Rotation Period with respect to
stars (Sidereal Day)
23 hrs 56 min
Period about the Sun (Length of a
Year)
365 days 5 hrs
Minimum Distance from Sun
146 million km (91 million miles)

3. Statistics
It’s the only one
we’ve got ….

4. ….so you’d
think we’d
take care of
it!
If we
continue to
behave as we
do now, we
are likely to
go the way
of other
civilisations

5. Olmecs
South-central
America
(Mexico)
1400 BC
Demise –
probably climate
change

6. Anasazi or
Ancestral
Puebloans
USA (where
New Mexico,
Arizona,
Colorado, and
Utah meet)
1200 BC
Demise-
population
explosion

7. Nabateans
Jordan, Canaan
and Arabia
Sixth century
BC
Demise –
changing trade
patterns

8. Aksumites
What is now
Ethiopia
(home of the
Queen of
Sheba)
First century
AD
Demise –
climate change
and over
farming

9. Clovis
American
10,000 BC
Demise – over
hunting and/or
possible meteor
hit

10. Us
Global
up to 2012 and
still going
BUT

11. Our damaging Impact On The Planet

12. Our damaging Impact On The Planet

13. Human development in the
Anthropocene
WBCSD
Prof. Johan Rockström
Stockholm Resilience Centre
24th April 2012

14. Atmospheric CO2 concentration
Etheridge et al. Geophys Res 101: 4115-4128
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

15. Northern hemisphere average surface
temperature
Mann et al Geophys Res Lett 26(6): 759-762
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

16. Atmospheric N2O concentration
Machida et al Geophys Res Lett 22:2921-2925
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

17. Ozone depletion
JD Shanklin British Antarctic Survey
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

18. Natural climactic disasters
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

19. Fully exploited fisheries
FAOSTAT 2002 Statistical database
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

20. Tropical rainforest and
woodland loss
Richards, the Earth as transformed by human action, Cambridge University Press
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

21. Species extinctions
Wilson, the Diversity of Life.
IGBP synthesis: Global Change and the Earth System, Steffen et al 2004

23. Report warns of global food insecurity
as climate change destroys fisheries
Persian Gulf, Libya, and Pakistan expected to be hardest hit by decline in fish stocks in coming decades
•Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
•guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 September 2012 08.00 BST

24. Our damaging Impact On The Planet

25. Now, you’d think
if we were the
intelligent species
we think we are,
in the 20 years
I’ve been doing
this stuff, we’d
have done better
than that.

27. The “Dostrich Theory”
The true story of the
demise of the dinosaurs

28. Accepted
history
Incoming extra-
terrestrial “lump”
hits planet earth

32. Now – at last – the
true story!

37. Greenhouse effect

39. Greenhouse effect

40. Definition: Dostrich
– a dinosaur behaving like an
ostrich

41. Question: We can see
the problems we
confront – but are we
preferring to behave like
a dostrich – putting our
heads in the sand and
hoping it might go away.

42. BBC October 31st 2006
The world cannot afford to wait before tackling climate
change, the UK prime minister has warned.
A report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern suggests that global warming
could shrink the global economy by 20%.
But taking action now would cost just 1% of global gross domestic
product, the 700-page study says.
Tony Blair said the Stern Review showed that scientific evidence of
global warming was "overwhelming" and its consequences "disastrous".

43. Dr Stewart Davies.
Former Business Commissioner of
the now disbanded Sustainable
Development Commission.
Speaking in Birmingham
December 2009
“At a stroke of a pen, cheques of unheard of
amounts were written virtually overnight
to save the banks. Three million million
pounds. So where is the same commitment
to respond to the findings of Nick Stern?”

44. Gold News March 2008
And on average, the World Bank
economists found, "governments spent
an average of nearly 13% of GDP cleaning
up their financial systems" as a result of
the bail-out programs they tried to
implement.

45. Priorities
Save the banks = 13% of GDP
Respond to climate change = 1% of GDP

48. £4 + trillion
S: UK Gov.

49. 2050
£4 + trillion Where we need to be. 9b people living on our planet.
With enough food and clean water for them
S: UK Gov. all; poverty eradicated; everyone with
The estimated global value access to energy and sanitation.
of the low carbon S: (WBCSD)
environmental
products and services we
need to get from where
we are to where
we need to be.
The challenge
2012
Where we are now. 7b people; polluting; wasting; critical
resources under ever increasing pressure – like water; demand
for energy outstripping growth in production; many people without energy
and clean water; rife poverty

50. Creating a different way of living. A
sustainable way of living.
Potentially the biggest business
opportunity since the industrial
revolution

51. Producing goods and services that
enable us to live in a low carbon,
sustainable society

52. Producing goods and services that
enable us to live in a low carbon,
sustainable society
That generates
business for
businesses and
creates jobs

53. Producing goods and services that enable
us to respond to environmental challenges
Which creates
That generates
wealth via
business for
taxes and
businesses and
enables us to
creates jobs
be a socially
conscious,
sustainable
society

54. Environmental
Producing goods and services that enable
us to respond to environmental challenges
Environment –
economic – social
Which creates
= 3 “pillars” of generates
That
wealth via Economic
Social business for
sustainable
taxes and
businesses and
development
enables us to
creates jobs
be a socially
conscious,
sustainable
society

55. Green
economy

57. For example, the value of
offshore windfarms in the
Phase 3 UK offshore wind
industry development is estimated at well
in excess of £110 billion. But all the kit is
made in Germany and Holland leaving
“only” installation and support
for UK companies.

58. The same applies in the
retrofit of the UK housing
stock. BUT pvs are
imported –mostly from China – giving the
real value – the manufacturing value – of
UK market development to overseas
companies.

59. The
Chancellor and
the Treasury
simply do not
“get it”
No
DECC DEFRA Education Transport No 10 No 11
11

62. The Energy Act 2011 includes provisions for the new 'Green Deal',
which intends to reduce carbon emissions cost effectively by
revolutionising the energy efficiency of British properties.
The new innovative Green Deal financial mechanism eliminates the
need to pay upfront for energy efficiency measures and instead
provides reassurances that the cost of the measures should be
covered by savings on the electricity bill.
ECO
A new Energy Company Obligation will integrate with the Green
Deal, allowing supplier subsidy and Green Deal Finance to come
together into one seamless offer to the consumer.

64. Birmingham As A Green City
We aim to accelerate Birmingham’s transition to being one
of the world’s leading green cities.
We are setting up a Green Commission, led by the Cabinet
Small Group
and we’re in
Member for a Green, Safe and Smart City. it

66. David Middleton
0121 693 8338
davidm@ebc-info.co.uk