Our grateful thanks to Dame Polly Courtice, founder of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Peter Simpson, former Chief Executive of Anglian Water, for sharing a fascinating conversation on the development of politics, policy, economics and corporate attitudes to sustainability over the last thirty years.
The conversation explored a very wide range of aspects of sustainability including:
- mitigating the impacts of climate change and the effects on farming and development,
- the need for better relationships between all the interested parties,
- the importance of standards, measurement and regulation,
- the problems of slow and underinvestment,
- five year political thinking when upwards of 25 year thinking is required,
- the lack of resilience and need to plan for a dryer future,
- reducing water consumption,
- the importance of cooperation between water companies and the sector,
- plus much more.
In response to questions from the audience Polly and Peter responded on:
- the impact of higher fuel prices and reduced availability,
- planning for future water demand,
- the need for multi sector regional planning to speed infrastructure development,
- water and resources recycling rather than disposal,
- using natural resources and solutions,
- the effects of population growth,
- use of new tools, techniques and technologies including AI
- the importance of leadership and training in sustainability at all levels
- and more over refreshments.
Many thanks to Polly and Peter for such an engaging conversation, our Walbrook Warden Allan Barton for coordinating the organisation of the conversation, our Mater Professor Carolyn Roberts for summarising the event and ARUP for their generous hospitality.
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