Peak Oil report

The UK's Energy Research Centre has just published an important report that's essential reading for policy makers, analysts and anyone with an interest in business continuity.

The ERC are an independent body, and echo the calls of previous such as those from ITPOES - the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, who produced 'The Oil Crunch' in October 2008.

That central government departments are not planning or engaging the public or local authorities in peak oil or rapid carbon descent is yet another example of the inadequacy of our existing planning system (which is not planner's fault) to respond to 'game change' information shifts.

A series of 'rapid planning' events planned that we are planning for communities across Wales in the coming months will go some way to populating the plan that we need to map our way forwards.

Do feedback

The first talks from the 2009 Do Lectures go online next week, and we're pretty excited about the prospect of aiming for over one million downloads in the coming year.

In the meantime, in between finances, following up and planning for 2010, David pulled together some of the feedback from this year, which is enough to make anyone feel good:

It was like a double shot of fresh air for my brain.T hank you.

It was the most inspiring and abundant event I have ever attended.

Thanks again for the super fun times. I have been trying really hard to describe everything to my wife. What a great week.

A cross between the Burning Man, the Ted talksand Where the Wild Things Are

Truly excellent.

Great job and great lectures -- I think you all have a very special thing going out there in West Wales.

There¹s a reason that there is not a 5 star Michelin restaurant that seats over 50 folks.  Small is beautiful.  Oh yeah...LOVED not getting emails...

When I say I loved the Do Lectures, I really mean I fell in love with them.

The location, the hosting, the food, attendees and of course the speakers all blended together to form a magical mix.

It’s the most important event of its kind..

You gave me the greatest experience and I will remember it forever.

It certainly for me was the most inspiring conference event thing, (which it clearly isn’t) that I’ve taken part in.

It was like putting a hell of a lot of interesting, clever, funny, sparky people in a blender. In a field.

 A place of storytelling. A place of inspiration.

 It has a Genius of Place.

 I jumped in a river with some of the smartest, kindest, friendliest people on the planet..

 Sotheby’s could learn a lot how to auction axes from these people

 The meals taught us that food is not a thing but a relationship.  Damn that food was good...

 I laughed.  I laughed a lot.  Fuel for the soul...

 Revolutions can start in that pub..

 A melting pot of people and ideas. Just an amazing event.

A bonfire with soul

Accounting for Sustainability

As part of a week of events for the Prince of Wales' Charities in Wales, I was invited to speak at an event organised by the ACCA, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Sustainable Development Commission, to discuss the impact and benefits of the Prince's Accounting for Sustainability initiative. Some of the key points from the discussion are outlined below, and are followed by a short interview clip with Roger Adams, Executive Director Policy at ACCA.

20 years ago, ACCA commissioned a report “The Greening of Accountancy” that looked at where the profession should go in terms of the debate. HRH’s lead and desire is to see the inclusion of externalities in costing coming to fruition through the Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) project.

A4S is a pathway that we all need to take, rather than some far-distant vision of a new future.

A new vision of the profession – echoed in Stern’s quote about the greatest market failure of all time. Gore: “enable capital markets to achieve their intended purpose – consistently allocate capital for its best use – the continued wellbeing of people and planet.”

What are the options for A4S?

• Internal and external accounting for and of environmental costs – working with a wider set of accounts
• Disclosure of key strategic sustainability issues
• Investment decision making
• Other accounting aspects, such as greening the supply chain and supply tariff choices
• Full cost accounting –ensuring that all costs, not just contractually definable costs, are built into the operating model
• Carbon emissions

Roughly 3000 companies publish CSR reports. About 1000 of these use the GRI guidelines as a basis for their reporting, and about 25% of all reports are independently verified. Key sustainability issues must be brought into the annual accounts.

Do Lectures attendee?

Here are some ideas from Do colleague David Hieatt to get you going in the right direction if you're thinking of coming along to the next Do Lectures:

As the reputation of The Do Lectures grows around the world, our ability to fit more people into a small tent cannot grow with it. The tent holds 100 people. 80 attendees plus 20 speakers. That’s our lot. No more.

Just being able to afford a ticket isn’t enough to get you a ticket. We need to build an audience that is as interesting as the speakers. To that end, here are some things that help us to get to know you a little bit.

10 Questions for Attendees.

1, Draw a doodle of yourself?

2, When did you last inspire yourself? (Don’t include the doodle)

2 What has failure taught you? What has success taught you?

3, What bugs you? What would you like to change?

4, What was the turning point in your life?

5, How do you look at the world? Is the glass half empty or is it half full?

6, What book inspired you the most? And why?

7, Who would you love to see talk at The Do Lectures?

8, What do you do for fun?

9, If you could run one of the workshops, what would you teach everyone to do?

10, If you had a motto, what would it be?

10.5, Do you snore?

Note well: If accepted, you can’t sell your ticket for a profit or otherwise

to anyone else. The ticket is not transferable. Anyone accepted will have to pay a non-refundable deposit.

A private individual ticket costs £1K. A ticket for company costs £2K.

This money is used to fund the rest of the world to see the talks for Free. Any surplus goes toward building The Do lectures into a World Class resource tool for Doers.

Greengaged

Sophie Thomas is a Doer. In addition to co-running the respected communication & design agency Thomas Matthews, Sophie curates Greengaged, a five day feast of sustainable design ideas, run as part of the London Design Week. I was privileged to speak at Greengage's biomimicry day, with Do Lectures 2009 speaker Michael Pawlyn, Melissa Sterry from Societas, Professor Julian Vincent and Belina Raffy who brought improv action, smiles and learning to the event. The participants brought expertise, specialist knowledge, passion and appetite for action.

So many people at Greengaged offered help to make A Million Minds and Do Design happen quickly - unqualified, lovely, bounteous help. No strings, no trading favours.It feels good to be on the move.