Quotes and definitions
Quotes and definitions
Interesting and thought provoking quotes and definitions explaining commonly used sustainability terms
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Cadbury
'We recognise that if we are serious about tackling climate change, we need to be 'absolutely' committed. This means re-thinking the way we do business, embedding sustainability into every decision we take. Not only will this have a strong social and environmental impact but also a positive economic impact too in the longer term.'
Todd Stitzer, Chief Executive Officer, Cadbury
Climate change
'Climate change is not an environmental issue, but much more to do with security and economics'
Jonathon Porritt (2007)
Climate change
'Climate change is a very unusual ethical challenge because it's so completely measurable...one of the reasons people should take action is because they have a responsibility for their emissions...therefore what somebody else does is really irrelevant.'
George Marshall, author of 'Carbon Detox' writing in the Metro newspaper, 9 January 2008
Climate change
'When you warn people about the dangers of climate change, they call you a saint. When you explain what needs to be done to stop it, they call you a communist.'
George Monbiot, author, columnist and environmental campaigner (writing in The Guardian, 4 December 2007)
Climate change
'Climate change represents the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen.'
Sir Nicholas Stern, 'The Stern Review' into economics of climate change, October 2006
Climate change
'You don't have to believe in climate change to sign up to a low carbon economy'
Simon Helmer, Carbon Trust.
Definition - Climate change
Climate change refers to changes in the average weather experienced over a long period. This includes temperature, wind and rainfall patterns. For the UK, climate change means hotter, drier summers (more heat waves), milder wetter winters , higher sea levels and an increased flood risk to coastal areas.
Climate change mitigation is action to reduce the potential extent of global warming. Climate change adaptation can mean any action, either intentional or accidental, taken to minimise the adverse effects of climate change or to take advantage of any beneficial effects.
(HM Government UK Climate Change Programme: Tomorrow's climate, today's challenge 2007)
Definition - Low carbon economy
Regional definition of a low-carbon economy is:
"An economy that produces goods and services of increasing value while reducing the associated greenhouse gases in their production, use and disposal.
Low-carbon goods, services and skills are related to achieving this outcome and can be specialist e.g. wind turbine manufacturer or micro-generation domestic installers, or changes within mainstream processes, for example a food manufacturer improving the efficiency of its logistics or production process, or plumbers learning how to also install solar heating."
'Connecting to Success' 2007
Definition of what this means for the region:
"In the West Midlands a low-carbon economy means an economy that will underpin a prosperous and thriving region through capturing the economic benefits of increasing efficiency whilst reducing direct carbon emissions and using the region's strengths in engineering, science and technology to deliver low-carbon solutions to national and international markets. For Business, this means fully capturing the opportunities for both existing industries and new enterprises to ensure the West Midlands region secures a reputation for profitable low carbon enterprise. For People, this means upskilling to secure the benefits from new employment opportunities emerging from a low-carbon economy, along with behavioural change, to enhance quality of life. For Place, this means creating the conditions for growth by optimising transport networks and developing a low-carbon built environment through energy efficiency and renewables."
'Connecting to Success', 2007 page 39
The background and context to this definition is in the supporting evidence document on the page entitled defining the low carbon economy.
Definition - Sustainability
The destination of sustainable development.
The goal..is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life without compromising the quality of life of future generations.
(HM Government Securing our Future March 2005).
Definition - Sustainable communities
Sustainable Communities are areas that are economically prosperous; have decent homes at a price people can afford; safeguard the countryside; enjoy a well-designed, accessible and pleasant living and working environment; are effectively and fairly represented and governed, with a strong sense of community.
(DETR: Sustainable communities - building for the future, 2003)
Definition - Sustainable construction
A sustainable construction industry will design better products and services reducing the environmental impacts from the use of energy, resources and hazardous substances; will reduce, and ultimately eliminate waste in construction through improved design, procurement, and greater re-use and recycling of resources, and; will support the re-use of existing built assets and the construction of new, long lasting, energy conscious and future-proof (adaptable and flexible) buildings and structures which are easy to maintain, operate and deconstruct.
(Source: Strategy for Sustainable Construction A consultation paper, BERR 2007)
Sustainable construction can also support social aspects such as supporting skills development, inclusion and innovation, and understanding and responding to issues such as fuel poverty and vulnerable communities and individuals.
(AWM 2009)
Definition - Sustainable development
Sustainable development is the overall goal of UK, EU and UN policy. Sustainable development guides all policy with the aim of integrating economic, environmental and social issues in a coherent way.
(CLG/BERR Policy Document on Regional Strategies Jan 2009)
The UK goal of sustainable development is further broken down into five principles, which include the overall goals of: ensuring a strong, healthy and just society living within environmental limits. This is delivered through achieving a sustainable economy, promoting good governance, and using sound science responsibly
(HM Government Securing our Future March 2005).
Definition - Sustainable economic growth
Economic growth which can be sustained and is within environmental limits, but also enhances the environment and social welfare, and avoids greater extremes in future economic cycles.
(HM Government, Prosperous Places 2008)
Definition - Sustainable economy
A strong, stable and sustainable economy which provides prosperity and opportunities for all, and in which environmental and social costs fall on those who impose them ("the polluter pays"), and efficient resource use is incentivised.
(HM Government Securing our Future March 2005).
Definition - Sustainable procurement
Sustainable procurement is a process whereby organisations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimising damage to the environment.
(Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Procuring the Future - The Sustainable Procurement Task Force National Action Plan 2006)
Definitions - Equality and diversity
Equality relates to the fair and/or equal treatment of people who can be defined or self-define to one or more common group characteristic based on for example their age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief in relation to other people who share one or more common group characteristic. Equality (of opportunity) is often related to and supported by a legal framework, which makes it illegal to discriminate against people because they belong to one or more defined or self defined identity groups.
Diversity relates to the individual differences that people have and how these are understood and valued. Understanding and valuing the difference that exists in all of us as individuals and the groups we belong to is important. Using diversity creatively and positively can incur benefit for people, organisations and society. Whilst there is a clear difference between Equality and Diversity, they are nonetheless interconnected; therefore The Agency needs to respond simultaneously to equality legislation and be pro-active in diversity in order to optimise the benefits as, "Neither equality nor respect for difference (diversity) is a sufficient value in itself. The two must be held together, mutually challenging and supportive."
(The Runnymede Trust, Multi-Ethnic Britain, 2000).
Miscellaneous
'Don't throw anything away. There is no 'away'.'
Royal Dutch Shell advert (2007)
Politics
'This is the new politics. Personal responsibility. Not leaving it to others. I am my planet's keeper.'
Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (July 2007)
Poverty
'Forget about making poverty history. Climate change will make poverty permanent.'
Nazmul Chowdhury, Practical Action, Bangladesh (2009)
Quote - 2030
'BY 2030, the world will consume twice as much electricity as it does today, if government policies remain unchanged.
THE AMOUNT SPENT on bottled water worldwide - $100 billion per year - would be enough to pay for piped supplies to most of the world's population currently without access to tap water.
A THIRD of the world's population owned a mobile phone at the end of 2005, compared to less than a quarter with a fixed line.
ROAD TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE will need an estimated global investment of $220 - 290 billion a year, from now until 2030.'
OECD -2006
Quote - Action
'I say the debate is over. We know the science, we see the threat and we know that the time for action is now.'
Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California, speaking on World Environment Day in San Francisco, 5 June 2005.
Quote - Action
'You may never know what results come from your action, but if you do nothing, there will be no result.'
Gandhi
Quote - Advancing together
'The new synthesis we need is that growth, social justice and environmental care advance best when they all advance together.'
Gordon Brown in a recent speech to the UN
Quote - Advice
'Measure what is important, don't make important what you can measure.'
Robert McNamara, US Defence Secretary (1960s)
Quote - Aim high
'The greater danger for most of is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.'
Michelangelo
Quote - Bad neighbourhoods
'If you don't visit the bad neighbourhoods, the bad neighbourhoods are going to visit you.'
Thomas Friedman, global analyst for the New York Times
Quote - Better
'If you do things well, do them better. Be daring, be first, be different, be just.'
Anita Roddick, Founder and managing director, Body Shop (1942 - 2007)
Quote - Business
'Only business can build a low-carbon economy. Business is all about seeing ideas and growing them. Businesses have the resources, the people, the technical skills to make things happen - and they have the channels to market.'
Tom Delay, Chief Executive, The Carbon Trust (reported in The Times, 25 March 2008)
Quote - Business
'Investors want to know how exposed a business is to climate change. The physical risks to Tesco are clear, but could be far-reaching. Freak weather in the past few months has disrupted our supply lines in Hungary, Bangladesh and Korea. Any responsible board of directors should be planning ahead, thinking through these risks, and presenting them in a clear, transparent way.'
Sir Terry Leahy, CEO, Tesco (2007)
Quote - Business
'Turning every business into an environmental industry will involve applying new principles...first, we need to make more with less...second, we need to design out waste...third, we must begin to decarbonise our energy supply.'
David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, addressing Environmental Industries Commission conference, London (November 2006)
Quote - Business
'Companies that understand their links with the communities they operate in, and their impact on the environment, are most likely to prosper in the long-term.'
Sir Digby Jones, Director General of the CBI (January 2006)
Quote - Business
'A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.'
Henry Ford
Quote - Business
'Corporate social responsibility is there to repair something you shouldn't be doing in the first place. To use it for brand enhancement is, therefore, risky.'
Alan Knight, Head of CSR, Kingfisher, 2003
Quote - Business
'It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the things it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot, it cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.'
John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Quote - Business
'As one of the largest companies in the world, with an expanding global presence, environmental problems are our problems....there are not worlds out there - a Wal-Mart world and some other world. That's what we saw with Katrina. Our associates, customers and suppliers occupy the same towns, our children go to the same schools, and we all breathe the same air. These challenges threaten all of us in the broader sense, but they also represent threats to the continued success of our business.'
Lee Scott, Wal Mart CEO, speaking on 21st century leadership, October 2005.
Quote - Business
'In a world where energy and carbon emissions are constrained, every business must take resource productivity seriously as a source of competitive advantage. Every industry should become an environmental industry and environmental principals must permeate beyond traditional environmental sectors.'
David Miliband, November 2006
Quote - Business
'Asian people from the sub-continent are three times more likely to start their own business compared to white people. Only 16 of 300 richest Asians in UK have inherited their wealth.'
Family values, networks, longer term view all vital.
Quote - Car ownership
'During the 90s, the sharp rise in car ownership in China led to average 1.8kg weight gain in new drivers, giving them a 70% greater risk of obesity.'
Sustrans 2005
Quote - Challenge
'The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery not over nature but of ourselves.'
Rachel Carson
Quote - Change
'When the rate of change inside an organisation is slower than the rate of change outside the organisation, the end is in sight.'
John Welsh, Chairman, General Electric
Quote - Change
'Be the change in the world you want to see.'
Ghandi
Quote - Change
'One of the most difficult things is not to change society, but to change yourself.'
Nelson Mandela
Quote - Changing direction
'Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are going.'
Chinese proverb
Quote - Children
'Holding our world in trust for our children.'
Michael Meacher, 1998.
Quote - China's rich list
'China's rich list:
1. Cheung Yan £1.8bn Dragon recycled Paper (richest self made woman in world)
5. Shi Zhergrony £1.08 bn Solar Panel Manufacturer'
(Times Oct 12 2006)
Quote - Chocolate
'Protect our planet - it's the only one with chocolate on it.'
Slogan of 'Climate Change Chocolate' which includes in the price verified carbon offsets to balance 'one's average daily contribution to climate change' see www.climatechocolate.com
Quote - Climate change
'The world's growing population can be fed most successfully in the long-term by agricultural systems that manage the land within environmental limits.'
HRH Prince Charles delivering the Sir Albert Howard Memorial Lecture, 2008.
Quote - Climate change
'Dangerous climate change... It's important not to be alarmist but it is very important to be alarmed.'
David Miliband, secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, during Radio 4 'Today Programme' interview 27 September 2006.
Quote - Climate change
'It's here. If we don't react, war, pestilence and famine will follow close behind.'
R K Pachauri, Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2005.
Quote - Climate change
'The climate is unpredictable now. Some people in our village are being accused of putting a curse on the rain. But is it really people here who are damaging the rain patterns and our climate?'
Martine Longom, Caicaoan Village, Uganda
Quote - Climate change
'Climate is an angry beast and we are poking at it with sticks.'
Wallace Broecker, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, New York (2003)
Quote - Climate change
'The less reliant a company is on water and materials, the lower the impact and any disruption to supply arising from extreme climate conditions.'
Dr Martin Gibson, Programme Director, Envirowise (2008)
Quote - Climate change
'Being environmental is an international issue. You can't be a one-nation environmentalist.
Climate change is an ultimate example of market failure, the unacceptable face of capitalism. For this is about people externalising costs and not taking and responsibility for them.
Climate change is about social justice, it is inter-generational, it is global issue and it is about risk. If you are not serious about social justice you cannot tackle the climate change problem.'
David Miliband, December 2006 - Guardian Interview.
Quote - CO2 emissions
'I believe that in the future, perhaps 10 or 15 years from now, every adult in the UK will have an accurate idea of just how much C02 they emit into the atmosphere each year, just as today we have a fairly good idea of how much money we have in our bank accounts.'
Lewis Booth, Head of Ford Europe, July 2006
Quote - Committees
'I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.'
G K Chesterton (1874-1936)
Quote - Complaining
'The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal probably eats better than 30 percent of the people in the world.'
Robert Orben
Quote - Complaining
'To do nothing but grumble, and not to act - that is throwing away one's life.'
William Morris
Quote - Consequences
'The era of procrastination... is coming to a close... we are entering a period of consequences.'
Winston Churchill (warning about the danger of appeasement - and highlighted by Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the Unite States in 2006, in the context of climate change.
Quote - Contentment
'Contentment is natural wealth; luxury, artificial poverty.'
Socrates, 496-399BC
Quote - Crisis
'Those who manage their way into a crisis are not necessarily the right people to manage their way out of a crisis.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - Denial
'Fifteen per cent of the population believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona and somewhat fewer still believe the Earth is flat. I think they all get together with the global warming deniers on a Saturday night and party.'
Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States, September 2006.
Quote - Developing World
'The greatest contraceptive one can have in the developing world is the knowledge that your children will live.'
Julius K Nyere, President of Tanzania 1964-1985.
Quote - Diversity
'Valuing diversity: You don't get harmony when everyone sings the same note.'
Doug Floyd
Quote - Doing nothing
'The only thing necessary for evil to survive is for good men to do nothing.'
Edmund Burke, Whig MP for Bristol 1774-80
Quote - Downstream
'We all live downstream.'
David Suzuki
Quote - Earth
'Treat the Earth well. It is not inherited from your parents, it is borrowed from your children.'
Old Kenyan proverb
Quote - Earth
'Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.'
Rachel Carson
Quote - Earth
'There is something fundamentally wrong with treating the earth as if it were a business in liquidation.'
Herman E Daly
Quote - Economic theory
'Almost all systems of economic thought are premised on the idea of continued economic growth, which would be fine and dandy if we lived on an infinite planet, but there's this small, niggling, inconvenient fact that the planet is, in fact, finite, and that, unlike economic theory, it is governed by physical and biological reality.'
George Monbiot
Quote - Energy equipment
'People want ownership of their own communications, information technology and transport. Energy equipment will become an aspirational thing.'
Adrian Hewitt, Principal Environment Officer, Merton Council, 2006
Quote - Energy rationing
'Businesses must accept that the future will be one of energy rationing... think about war-time rationing in Britain... No one said that price and market forces should determine who should eat and who should not. It was recognised that the challenge had to be dealt with equitably, by sharing out a finite, basic commodity. The ration book was introduced and there were no demonstrations in Trafalgar Square. The same logic must apply today, for sharing out Earth's limited capacity to absorb greenhouse gases.'
Dr Mayer Hillman, senior fellow emeritus, Policy Studies Institute, 2006.
Quote - Entrepreneurship
'UK is one of the few developed countries to increase in entrepreneurship. This is due to Asian business.'
(Source ethnic entrepreneurship in UK - TSB 2005)
Quote - Environment
'We all tend to feel better in the natural environment - so why are we working so hard to destroy it?'
Dr Michael Dixon, Chairman, NHS Alliance (quoted in Sustainable Development Commission 'Healthy Futures' publication, March 2007)
Quote - Environment
'There is a simple rule about the environment. If there is waste or pollution, someone along the line pays for it.'
Lee Scott, Chief Executive, Wal-Mart (October 2005)
Quote - Environmental impact
'Recent research has indicated that three product groups cause 70% to 80% of total environmental impacts in cities and broader society:
* The home, and related energy use: buildings, heating, cooling and other energy using appliances
* Mobility: automobile and air transport
* Food: meat and dairy, followed by other types of food'
Centre for Sustainable Design 2006
Quote - Equity
'The issue of equity is crucial. Climate affects us all, but does not affect us all equally. Those who are least able to cope are being hit hardest. Those who have done the least to cause the problem bear the gravest consequences.'
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Quote - Executive ability
'Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting someone else to do the work.'
John G Pollard
Quote - Extinction
'If we carry on with business as usual, we'll cause the extinction of one million species. Proportionately, several hundred of these extinctions would be associated directly with Kingsnorth power station.'
Professor James Hansen, NASA Chief Scientist, 3 September 2008.
Quote - Failure
'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.'
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
Quote - Food security
'I think we'd be very foolish to expect that we can just import everything from somewhere else and imagine that that's going to last for ever and ever and ever.'
HRH The Prince of Wales, BBC interview, October 2005.
Quote - Forgiveness
'Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.'
Paul Boese
Quote - Future business
'Turning every business into an environmental industry will involve applying new principles...first, we need to make more with less...second, we need to design out waste...third, we must begin to decarbonise our energy supply.'
David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, addressing Environmental Industries Commission conference, London (November 2006)
Quote - Future generations
'When future generations judge those who came before them on environmental issues, they may conclude 'they didn't know': let us not go down in history as the generations who knew, but didn't care.'
Mikhail Gorbachev, 2002.
Quote - GDP
'If everyone in the UK got divorced, and then paid neighbours on one side for sex and neighbours on the other side to look after the kids, GDP would go through roof.'
Andrew Lydon, Localise West Midlands
Quote - Global warming
'The impacts of global warming are such that I have no hesitation in describing it as a weapon of mass destruction.'
Sir John Houghton, former Chief Executive of the Meteorological Office, 2003
Quote - GNP
'We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product. For the Gross National Product includes air pollution, and ambulances to clear out highways from carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. The Gross National Product includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior... And if the Gross National Product includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education or the joy of their play... It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials... The Gross National Product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.'
Robert Kennedy, 1968
Quote - GNP
'It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB - general well-being.'
David Cameron, Conservative Party Leader, 2006.
Quote - Government
'Government underestimates what it can do in long term and overestimates what it can do in short term.'
Geoff Mulgan
Quote - Green New Deal
'The West Midlands is the first out of the blocks with this work on the Green new deal and with this event - let's excite the West Midlands with these ideas and use this huge opportunity to create a big outcome.'
Colin Hines, convenor of the Green new deal group
Quote - Growing population
'The world's growing population can be fed most successfully in the long-term by agricultural systems that manage the land within environmental limits.'
HRH Prince Charles delivering the Sir Albert Howard Memorial Lecture, 2008.
Quote - Happiness
'Happiness does not require an expanding economy.'
John Kenneth Galbraith, Economist (1908 - 2006)
Quote - Happiness
'The 10 steps to happiness:
Plant something and nurture it
Count your blessings - at least five - at the end of each day
Take time to talk - have an hour-long conversation with a loved one each week
Phone a friend whom you have not spoken to for a while and arrange to meet up
Give yourself a treat every day and take the time to really enjoy it
Have a good laugh at least once a day
Get physical - exercise for half an hour three times a week
Smile at and/or say hello to a stranger at least once each day
Cut your TV viewing by half
Spread some kindness - do a good turn for someone every day'
BBC 2 documentary series 'Making Slough Happy' (November 2005)
Quote - Having enough
'He who knows he has enough is rich.'
Tao Te Ching
Quote - Having everything
'You cannot have everything. I mean where would you put it?'
Steven Wright
Quote - Having everything
'Now that we have everything we need, we discover that there is almost nothing that we have that we want.'
John Cage
Quote - Health and climate change
Economic growth is not the most important measure of our country's success. The fair distribution of health, well-being and sustainability are important social goals. Tackling social inequalities in health and climate change must go together.
Key message No.6, The Marmot Review, February 2010
Quote - History
'History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.'
Abba Eban
Quote - Human history
'Human history is a race between education and catastrophe.'
H G Wells
Quote - Humanity
'It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - Imagination
'Imagination is more important than knowledge.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - Intelligent life
'Personally, I don't think there's intelligent life on other planets. Why should other planets be any different from this one?'
Bob Monkhouse
Quote - Intelligent tinkering
'The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces.'
Lord May, President of the Royal Society, January 2003
Quote - Knowledge
'If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.'
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Quote - Leaders
'Leaders look to the future, not just the bottom line.'
Source Not Known
Quote - Leaders
'(Requirements of future leaders) A passion for continual learning, a refined, discerning ear for the moral and ethical consequences of their actions, and an understanding of the purposes of work and human organisations.'
Warren Bennis, Professor of Business Administration, University of Southern California
Quote - Leaders
'A leader is a dealer in hope.'
Napoleon
Quote - Leaders
'If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, then you are an excellent leader.'
Dolly Parton
Quote - Leaders
'Leadership is about showing the way, by going in advance, and influencing the behaviour of others. It refers to introducing new business behaviour, practices, or technologies, which demonstrate that sustainable development is possible.'
Forum for the Future report 'Corporate leadership today and tomorrow' (2003)
Quote - Leaders
'The leaders of tomorrow will have moved on from being a 'good neighbour' to being 'a caring and enabling partner'.....They will have understood their local social and economic footprint and will be actively engaged in local partnerships in order to reduce it. Working with a whole range of local groups and organisations they will both encourage and enable by offering their skills, time, and passion.'
Forum for the Future report 'Corporate leadership today and tomorrow' (2003)
Quote - Leaders
'Leadership is getting others to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.'
General Eisenhower
Quote - Leaders
'The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.'
Max DePree
Quote - Leaders
'Managers do things right, leaders do the right things.'
Source Not Known
Quote - Leaders
'Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.'
Mother Teresa
Quote - Leaders
'The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.'
Kay age 14, Guardian, 13th May 2009 p5.
Quote - Life
'One life is worth no more or less than any other.'
Melinda Gates, philanthropist and wife of Bill Gates (2005)
Quote - Lifestyle changes
'In a poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries, 83% per cent said lifestyle changes were necessary to cut emissions.'
BBC World Service
Quote - Low carbon
Low carbon is not a sector of an economy - it is an economy...There is no high-carbon future.
Peter Mandelson
Quote - Lowest bidder
'As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.'
John Glenn
Quote - Mistake
'Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.'
Edmund Burke, Whig MP for Bristol 1774-80
Quote - Modern business
'The role of modern business: To provide ever better goods and services in a way that is profitable, ethical and respects the environment, individuals and the communities in which it operates.'
'Tomorrow's Global Company: Challenges and Choices', report by business led think tank 'Tomorrow's Company' (2007)
Quote - Money
'Only when the last tree is cut, only when the last river is polluted, only when the last fish is caught, will they realise that you can't eat money.'
Native American proverb
Quote - Money
'I'm of the firm belief that carbon is very much equated to money. If you are emitting carbon, somewhere down the line you are spending money to do that.'
Dr Martin Blake, Head of Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Royal Mail (The ENDS Report, May 2007)
Quote - Money
'The importance of money flows from it being a link between the present and the future.'
John Maynard Keynes
Quote - Money
'If advertisers spent the same amount of money on improving their products as they do on advertising then they wouldn't have to advertise them.'
Will Rogers
Quote - Morality
'The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.'
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Quote - Natural resources
'Humanity is living off its ecological credit card and can only do this by liquidating the planet's natural resources.'
Mathis Wackernagel, Global Footprint Network, 2006.
Quote - Natural resources
'The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.'
Theodore Roosevelt (US President 1901-1909)
Quote - Nature
'Nature does not compromise; a pelican is not a compromise between a crow and otter, it is just a pelican. Nature makes no compromises; any inefficient products are recalled to the manufacturer!'
Amory Lovins
Quote - Nature
'Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - Nature
'One can never study nature too much and too hard.'
Vincent van Gogh
Quote - Nature
'Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty, if only we have the eyes to see them.'
John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Quote - Nature
'Spring is nature's way of saying 'Let's party!''
Robin Williams (American actor and comedian)
Quote - Open questions
'How to overcome the idea that to talk about the environment is to talk in an unbusinesslike way: ...the way to change attitudes is to keep asking obvious open questions.
Where does success come from?
Where is success likely to come from in the future?
What are the most significant forces for change that will shape the environment that businesses operate in?
What needs that are unmet today will offer opportunities to companies tomorrow?'
Mark Goyder, Director, Tomorrow's Company (think tank) (2005)
Quote - Opportunities
'As I have discovered, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.'
Boris Johnson, MP, after being sacked from Tory front bench (2004)
Quote - Peak oil
'There is a rude awakening in store for nations and for corporations that haven't made preparations for dealing with the situation. What we are witnessing now is that virtually three-quarters of the important oil producing countries of the world are now past their peak. There is no argument about it whatsoever.'
Edward Schreyer, economist and former governor-general of Canada 2005.
Quote - People
'I want to see that our older people still feel useful, and our younger people feel engaged in our wider society, and I want to feel that we can bond people from disparate backgrounds, ages and communities together in a greater project, which they get engaged in for the sake of others. Volunteering, in all sorts of ways, seems to me likely to be able to achieve some of that.'
Baroness Julia Neuberger (BBC 1 Politics Show, 9 March 2008)
Quote - People
'When the strong help the weak, it makes us all stronger.'
Gordon Brown, acceptance speech on formally becoming Labour Party leader, 24 June 2007
Quote - People
'We all say in our own lives that money isn't everything. Love matters, friendships matter. My relationship with my kids matters. It shouldn't be a giant leap to take that thought and introduce it into political dialogue.'
David Cameron, Conservative Party Leader, interview in 'Green Futures', October 2006
Quote - People
'Environmental problems are really social problems anyway. They begin with people as the cause and end with people as the victims.'
Sir Edmund Hilary
Quote - People
'The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.'
Theodore Roosevelt
Quote - People
'Ask yourself constantly 'Am I treating my fellow citizens as I treat my mum?'
Tommy Sheridan, former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party (2007)
Quote - People
'Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?'
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1969)
Quote - People
'Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - People
'When people are laughing, they're generally not killing each other.'
Alan Alda
Quote - People
'Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.'
T S Eliot
Quote - People
'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that does.'
Margaret Mead, Anthropologist
Quote - People
'We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.'
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1969)
Quote - Pessimism
'If the world should blow itself up, the least audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.'
Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and raconteur, 1921-2004.
Quote - Planet
'What good is a house, if haven't got a decent planet to put it on?'
Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862
Quote - Planting trees
'The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.'
Dambisa Moyo, Zambian economist
Quote - Politicians
'Your job, if you're a good politician, is to imagine the future and prepare your city or country for it.'
Ken Livingstone, Regeneration and Renewal, 18th May 2009
Quote - Positive model
'We must create a positive model of a low carbon future - and one that connects with ordinary, every day life in the present,' he said. 'No approach based mainly on threats and deprivation is going to work. Martin Luther King did not inspire the world by proclaiming: 'I have a nightmare.'
Richard Lambert , The director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) June 2009
Quote - Poverty
'Poverty is not natural; it is man-made.'
Nelson Mandela (2005)
Quote - Power
'I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have - POWER!'
Matthew Boulton 1776
Quote - Principles
'Gentlemen, those are my principles and if you don't like them....I've got others.'
Cecil B De Mille
Quote - Profiting responsibly
'Do the profitable thing now, and do it as responsibly as possible. At the same time, press hard, on a moral basis, for making more of those responsible things more profitable in the future.'
Jorgen Randers in 'Just Values' Forum for the Future and BT, 2003
Quote - Quality of life
'Government must realise that economic growth does not guarantee quality of life.'
UK Sustainable Development Commission, 2003.
Quote - Realisitic
'I waited far too long, being optimistic rather than realistic. I also failed to do my homework.'
Gordon Clark, founder of Clark Foam the California-based surf board factory closed down in 2005 over controversy surrounding toxic chemicals affecting employees and the local environment
Quote - Recycling
'Think about it...if we throw it away, we had to buy it first. So we pay twice, once to get it, once to have it taken away. What if we reverse that cycle? What if our suppliers send us less, and everything they send us has value as a recycled product? No waste, and we get paid instead.'
Lee Scott, Chief Executive, Wal-Mart (October 2005)
Quote - Reputation
'Reputation is built on a complex base of intangible attributes such as reliability, quality, honesty, trust, social and environmental responsibility and credibility... ...There is clear evidence that a good reputation gains a company more customers, better employees, more investors, improved access to credit, and greater credibility with government.'
The Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, London (1996)
Quote - Resources
'In the natural order of things, the fittest are not those that fight well, but those that avoid fighting altogether, and thereby learn to use resources efficiently.'
Tony Stebbing and Gordon Heath (Green Futures, September/October 2002)
Quote - Responsibility
'We do not believe that you can be 'half responsible' or pick and choose the convenient areas to be responsible in.'
Arun Sarin, Chief Executive, Vodaphone, 2006 Corporate Responsibility Report
Quote - Responsibility
'It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously.'
Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and raconteur (1921-2004)
Quote - Results
'However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.'
Winston Churchill
Quote - Satisfaction
'Maybe you should be satisfied with what you've got. Your best bet is to try to be happy, satisfying relationships with your partner, family and friends and enjoy yourself.'
Oliver James, psychologist and author of 'Affluenza' which examines the role our consumerist aspirations play in making us miserable (from interview in 'Metro' 12 February 2007)
Quote - Schmidt's Law
'If you mess with something long enough, it will break.'
Schmidt's Law
Quote - Small is beautiful
Small-scale operations, no matter how numerous, are always less likely to be harmful to the natural environment than large-scale ones, simply because their individual force is small in relation to the recuperative forces of nature. There is wisdom in smallness if only on account of the smallness and patchiness of human knowledge, which relies on experiment far more than on understanding. The greatest danger invariably arises from the ruthless application, on a vast scale, of practical knowledge such as we are currently witnessing in the application of nuclear energy, of the new chemistry in agriculture, of the transportation technology, and countless other things.
EF Schumacher (1911-1977) German-born radical economist and author of the groundbreaking Small is Beautiful.
Quote - Society
'In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy.'
John Sawhill
Quote - Solutions
'There are no environmental solutions to environmental problems, only social, economic and political ones.'
Charles Secrett, Friends of the Earth.
Quote - Solutions
'Today's problems cannot be solved if we still think the way we thought when we created them.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - Solutions
'We have a basic notion that unless we find a solution for environmental problems, we will not achieve sustainable growth in the coming years.'
Hiroyuki Watanabe, Managing Director, Toyota, 2001
Quote - Statistics
'Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.'
Homer Simpson
Quote - Stewardship
'Being a good steward of the environment and our communities, and being an efficient and profitable business, are not mutually exclusive. In fact they are one and the same.'
Lee Scott, Chief Executive, Wal-Mart (October 2005)
Quote - Success
'Success requires just two ingredients, vision and hard work.'
Source Not Known
Quote - Success
'If you use your skill and imagination to see how much you can give for a dollar, instead of how little you can give for a dollar, you are bound to succeed.'
Henry Ford
Quote - Success
'Getting ready is the secret of success.'
Henry Ford
Quote - Success
'If, at first, you do succeed, try to hide your astonishment.'
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
Quote - Success
'Eighty percent of success is showing up.'
Woody Allen
Quote - Success
'Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.'
Winston Churchill
Quote - Survival
'It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change.'
Charles Darwin
Quote - Survival
'It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.'
Dr W Edwards Deming, American management and total quality guru (1900 - 1993)
Quote - Sustainability
'Sustainability is here to stay or we may not be.'
Niall Fitzgerald, UK CEO, Unilever.'
Quote - Sustainability
'Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.'
'Our Common Future' World Commission on Environment and Development report, 1987, chaired by Mrs Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Quote - Sustainability
'It's extremely difficult to get people to live sustainably. Often they are just concerned with trying to live.'
Callum Rankine, WWF, quoted in the 'New Scientist' concerning relationship between fast-growing populations with local resources, November 2004.
Quote - Sustainability
'Sustainability is a political choice, not a technical one. It's not a question of whether we can be sustainable, but whether we choose to be.'
Gary Lawrence, Director of Seattle Planning Department, USA.
Quote - Sustainability
'Sustainability is about profit...it is the opportunity of the century.'
Ben Clarke, Kraft Foods (2008)
Quote - Sustainability
'Sustainability underpins future profits.'
Sir Neville Simms, CEO, Carillion
Quote - Sustainable development
'Sustainable development is the peace policy of the future.'
Professor Dr Klaus Topfer, UNEP Executive Director, 2004.
Quote - Sustainable development
'We know the problems... and we know the solution; sustainable development. The issue is the political will.'
Tony Blair, speech in Maputo, Mozambique, September 2002.
Quote - Sustainable development
'Sustainable Development is like teenage sex - everybody claims they are doing it but most people aren't, and those that are, are doing it very badly.'
Source not known
Quote - Sustainable development
'Our biggest challenge in this new century is to take an idea that seems abstract - sustainable development - and turn it into a reality for all the world's people.'
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General
Quote - Sustainable development
'Companies not interested in sustainable development issues will not survive long.'
Malcolm Brinded, Chairman of Shell UK, 1999
Quote - Sustainable development
'Sustainable development is critically dependent on the activities of business throughout the world. On the one hand, businesses are the dynamos of society, providing most of the goods and services we need, innovating to create new opportunities and possibilities, and providing most of the jobs and employment in the world. On the other hand, they have been responsible for much of the pollution and depletion of natural resources in the world, and have sometimes been bad employers and bad neighbours in the communities in which they operate. The challenge for businesses in the twenty-first century is therefore to find ways of operating as good employers and good neighbours and in ways that minimise pollution and depletion of resources.'
UK Sustainable Development Commission (2004)
Quote - Sustainable development
'...sustainable development is best seen in quality terms, but quality defined as 'maximising the value added to society resulting from the creation, use and disposal of products'.'
Derek Deighton, Coordinator, North West Engineering Institutions (2005)
Quote - Sustainable growth
It is impossible for the world economy to grow its way out of poverty and environmental degradation... In its physical dimensions, the economy is an open subsystem of the earth's ecosystem, which is finite, non-growing and materially closed. Therefore its growth is not sustainable. The term sustainable growth when applied to the economy is a bad oxymoron- self-contradiction as prose and unevocative as poetry.
Herman E Daly, contemporary, US economics professor and pioneer critic of the validity of conventional economics.
Quote - Sustainable vision
'The people who will succeed fifteen years from now, the countries which will succeed, are those which are most based on a sustainable vision of the world. That is what we should be training people to do.'
Charles Clarke MP, March 2003
Quote - The future
'We will create the environment of the future, either through action or inaction. We have a choice.'
John Duggan, CEO, Gazeley, 2006.
Quote - The future
'My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.'
Charles F. Kettering, American inventor, 1876-1958.
Quote - The future
'The best way to predict the future... is to create it.'
John F. Kennedy
Quote - The future
'The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.'
William Gibson
Quote - The future
'The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we're ready for it.'
Arnold Glasgow
Quote - The future
'The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.'
John Scully, CEO Pepsi.
Quote - The Ultimate Recession
''The ultimate recession': a recession caused not by failed regulation and bankers' greed, but by very high oil prices, food and water shortages, disappearing forests, accelerating climate change, forced migration and mass civil disruption...The long and the short of it, unfortunately, is this: more politicians still believe that economic recovery depends on continuing to live beyond our means (financially and ecologically) than on learning to live within our means. And that's why the ultimate 'Perfect Storm' recession still looms on the horizon.'
Jonathon Porritt, www.forumforthefuture.org article 'Living within our means' (21 March 2009)
Quote - Thinking
'A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.'
William James
Quote - Truth
'All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.'
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Quote - Understanding
'You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - Wants
'We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.'
Donald Horban
Quote - Waste
'Waste: Any cost which does not produce value to our customers.'
Interface Inc.
Quote - Winds of change
'When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.'
Chinese proverb
Quote - Wisdom
'Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.'
Robert Louis Stevenson
Quote - Wisdom
'The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.'
Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st prime minister of India (1889 - 1964)
Quote - Wisdom
'Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted.'
Albert Einstein
Quote - Wisdom
'First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they attack you. Then you win.'
Gandhi
Quote - Wisdom
'Vision without action is dreaming, action without vision is a nightmare.'
Source Not Known
Quote - Working from home
'A new report published by SEEDA, the development agency covering the south east and Isle of Wight, says if more people worked from home we could help save the environment.
As well as figures like 8750 tonnes of CO² a month not being put into the atmosphere, the report, which details a 6-month pilot project, has shown that by working from home 2 days a week, 87% of participants in the study increased their productivity, accuracy and quality of their work. The cost of commuting has also been highlighted as where real savings can be made on the pocket. It's estimated £2.75 million in fuel savings could be made across the south-east, that's an average of £80 a month for the individual. As well as reducing emissions and saving money the idea of the work-life balance was also raised with participants improving the quality of their life.'
Asian Entrpenuership
Quote - Worst value
''Worst Value' is buying cheap so you'll need to buy twice and pay double.'
Purchasing manager's proverb
Quote- Invention
'Everything that can be invented has been invented.'
Charles H Duell, US Patent Commissioner 1899
The four pillars
'The security of people and nations rests on four pillars - food, energy, water and climate. They are all closely related, and all under increasing stress.'
Tom Burke, The ENDS Report (May 2008)
The future
'Our problems are man-made - therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable, and we believe they can do it again. For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.'
John F. Kennedy
The future
'By 2030 the demand for resources will create a crisis with dire consequences. Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion.'
Warning from Prof John Beddington, UK Chief Scientist, addressing SDUK 09 conference (March 2009)
The future
'...each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet...We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories...And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.'
President Barack Obama, inauguration speech (20 January 2009)
The Future
'The planet should not be used as a warehouse of resources to serve humanity's selfishness'
Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, 2007 Christmas address