Who we are - Blue & Green Tomorrow
Blue & Green Tomorrow is the most widely-read, and fastest-growing sustainable investment magazine in the UK (currently 76,283 unique readers per month).
Our primary focus is to simplify and amplify the work of individuals and organisations active in sustainability to as large a number of people as possible, and we then encourage our readers to spend and invest more sustainably at home and at work.
Sustainable when?
At Blue & Green Tomorrow, we believe that all things are connected (‘omnia coniuncta‘ is our motto).
How we live our lives, how we invest and how we spend shape the environment, our society and the economy, not only for all of us today, but for the hundreds and thousands of young or unborn generations from tomorrow.
The Earth is a precious, fragile, blue and green marble.
We are borrowing from tomorrow’s generations. It is very unlikely that they will thank us for what we have done to their only home.
Today, we already live with yesterday’s poorly informed investment and spending decisions made by billions of individuals, companies and governments. From epidemic-level air, land and water pollution, increasingly rapid resource scarcity, massive over-consumption and population growth, climate change and resultant geopolitical insecurity.
Our predecessors have made decisions from the cultural norms of their day and the best data available, while profiting from and creating the degraded world we live in today. Today, we have accurate data to allow us to make better decisions, if we choose to.
Over a single month in 2014, Sustainable September will explore the interconnectedness of everything. This is not to dismay, frighten or lecture you into some sort of disempowered inertia, fear or apathy - but to showcase the truly incredible and brilliant people and organisations who are taking practical action today to create a better, a bluer and greener, tomorrow for us all.
“What do I do?” will be answered.
We live on a fragile and precious blue and green marble, our only home. We need it to be sustainably blue and green tomorrow.
What we're doing - Sustainable September
We're running a whole month of events around the theme of Sustainable September.
Our intention is to bring together thought leaders, influencers, investors and the Blue & Green Tomorrow readership to discuss they key issues around sustainability and to show our readers what the latest thinking is, what action is being taken and what action each individual can personally take to make a difference - with our 'Seven Sustainable Steps' (our aim is to get our audience to take 500,000 sustainable straightforward actions from switching to renewable energy to supporting sustainable crowd funding projects on this site).
There will be four polemical Oxford-style evening debates covering tourism, energy, retail and investment in the four weeks leading up to the main conference at Royal Geographical Society on 30th September, where we are hoping to attract at least 750 delegates. Each event will be simulcast online to a global audience.
And what are you debating?
The Sustainable Tourism Debate
–Museum of London, September 3rd, 6-9pm
“Growth in tourism is undesirable: it is rarely economically, socially or environmentally ‘good’.”
Speakers: Manda Brookman (CoaST) and Mark Watson (Tourism Concern) debating Patricia Yates (Visit Britain) and Martin Brackenbury
The Sustainable Retail Debate
– Royal Geographical Society, September 10th, 6-9pm
“Free trade trumps fair trade in helping developing economies.”
Speakers: Tim ALdred (Fairtrade Foundation) and Stuart Singleton-White (Rainforest Alliance) debating Linda Whetstone (Institute of Economic Affairs) and Sam Bowman (Adam Smith Institute)
The Sustainable Energy Debate
– Siemens Crystal, September 16th, 6-9pm
“Gas and nuclear power will address carbon emissions in the immediate term, far more effectively than renewables.”
Speakers: Jeremy Leggett (Solarcentury) and Karl Harder (Abundance Generation) debating Mark Powell (AT Kearney) and Jeremy Nicholson (Energy Intensive Users Group)
The Sustainable Investment Debate
– Royal Geographical Society, September 23rd, 6-9pm
“The purpose of investment is maximising financial return and nothing else.”
Speakers: Catherine Howarth (ShareAction) and John Ditchfield (Barchester Green) debating Russ Mould (AJ Bell) and one other soon-to-be-confirmed
Sustainable September: The Event
– Royal Geographical Society, September 30th, 8am-6pm
The sustainability full-day event will be a TEDx-style conference, which will bring together over 20 visionaries and thought leaders to discuss sustainability, solutions to unsustainability and how we create a blue and green tomorrow.
Speakers: Charles Clover (Blue Marine Foundation), Ben Goldsmith (WHEB), Anthony Hobley (Carbon Tracker), Manda Brookman (CoaST), Leo Hickman (WWF), Will Day (PwC), Kevin Anderson (University of Manchester), Stephen Tindale (Centre for European Reform), Andrew Simms (Global Witness) and more soon-to-be-confirmed
What we need funding for - to take the event global
We want to broadcast the events live and archived, professionally and globally, so everyone can access them, wherever they are. We're working with a social enterpise film company to produce and distribute the live film and recorded film of the event. Here's some of the work we did with them last year.
Blue & Green Tomorrow - Sustainable Investment Bootcamp from Be Inspired Films on Vimeo.