Testimonials

‘Sustainable development is a window on a world of opportunity and risk. All companies, no matter what their size, need to know where they sit in that world. Contributing to the global transition to sustainable development is an imperative for business and not an option. base sets out to show the opportunity, explain the risk, and hasten the process of change for all businesses. It is the pivotal business-to-business forum on the subject and I urge you to be there.’

Tom Burke CBE –  base advisory board Chairman

‘We need a critical mass in the business community to accelerate the pace of change and adoption of low carbon and sustainable practice. I believe base will be a major contributor to this process. It is extremely important that business sees that we can become a super-efficient economy by tackling climate change positively rather than seeing it as a cost or threat. In many ways it is business that can lead the way and I am fully supportive of base in contributing to this.’

Colin Challen MP - base advisory board member

‘This country urgently needs a business-to-business accelerator for sustainable development initiatives to take off in the market place. It's happening in our competitor countries, but not here. The timing of base is absolutely right for the UK. base will bring together innovators, investors and decision-makers in the business and public sectors and help make sustainability enterprises more profitable throughout the economy.’

Charles Secrett - base advisory board member

‘Tom Burke has rightly referred to sustainable development as ‘a window on a world of opportunity and risk'. It is my view that precisely because the risks of a failure to act are so great we must open that window to show the business world the tremendous opportunities that exist in change. I am wholly supportive of base's mission to achieve exactly this, and I look forward to real change coming about as a result.'

Peter Ainsworth MP - base advisory board member

‘Business must move beyond the bare minimum in the environmental debate. As Chairman of the Better Regulation Task Force I led the change for Light Touch Regulation with the ‘Less is More’ report. But for this initiative to work satisfactorily corporate awareness around issues of sustainability has to be at a high level. This in turn will lead to significant new opportunities. Business leaders need to realise that ‘we do not inherit the earth, but merely borrow it from our children.’

Sir David Arculus

‘I have crossed the sustainability bridge between policy and business for many years now. While I am certain that the stick and carrot of policy must have an increasing role in tackling climate change at every level of society, I am equally convinced that business can and must see the opportunities inherent in taking adaptive action of its own volition. Change is an imperative, inside organisations, and up and downstream through the supply chain. This will embrace businesses and services of every size and type, and I believe base will be the flagship forum for this change to take effect.’

The Rt Hon John Gummer MP - base advisory board member

‘I believe that sustainability for business is about responsibility and opportunity. All businesses, and this is true of SMEs as well as large firms, have a responsibility to their customers, their employees and their communities to operate with consideration for their well-being. The opportunity lies in new technologies, innovation, being ahead of the game, and the exploitation of a value added approach. The marriage of responsibility and opportunity is almost by definition a sustainable model. I am certain that base will be an invaluable forum for UK business to lead the way in achieving sustainability.’

Brian Hackland - base advisory board member

‘Of the three constituencies through which we will achieve a low – and ideally zero – carbon economy (individuals, the public sector and business), it is business that can exercise the fastest degree of change by seeing the opportunity rather than the threat. My belief is that base will be the forum for achieving exactly that – an event where business meets business at every level and in every shape, where supplier meets buyer, where the language is that of business and not the pulpit. With Tom Burke’s leadership, a formidable advisory board and a strong management team, I think base will become a landmark event, and the UK’s economic engine will show real global leadership in driving down our carbon dependence.’

Christopher Huhne MP - base advisory board member

‘I have spent many years helping companies embrace sustainable development through the lens of the products they sell. I believe it is through the lens of products that we should expect to see the most rapid change, as companies of all shapes and sizes see not just the moral merit but the bottom line benefit of adopting more sustainable product lines. I am very pleased to be able to contribute to base’s goals in this.’

Alan Knight OBE - base advisory board member 

‘I have spent a large part of recent years working in the fields of regulation, accreditation and environmental management, and I am a firm believer in the proposition that business prospers best when it sees the commercial logic to improving or changing its processes. Nowhere is this more true than with sustainability. It has to be in all our best interests for UK plc and ltd to become the leading agents of change in tackling the climate related threats that are now so evident. base will be a tremendous catalyst for this with its focus on the opportunities and advantages inherent in green business solutions.’

Lord Lindsay (Jamie) - base advisory board member