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- Adapting to an urban future
- Educating for tomorrow
- Digital technology in Africa
- Persistent poverty in Britain
- Can the UK ever be sustainable?
- Plastic pollution in the oceans
- Natural disasters: how can we improve?
- Not In My Back Yard
- Digital Divide in the UK?
- Importing goods, exporting drought?
- Britain’s ageing population
- Engineering our climate
- The future shape of Capitalism
- Migration: skills and the job market
- Razing the Rainforest
- London under water
- Concreting the countryside
- Future of low carbon energy.
- Africa in the 21st Century
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Meet the panel
CAN THE UK EVER BE SUSTAINABLE?
SIR STUART ROSE Marks & Spencer
HILARY BENN MP The Labour Party
ANDY HOBSBAWM Do The Green Thing
JO CONFINO The Guardian (chair)
Our way of life is placing an increasing burden on the planet, but how realistic are visions of a sustainable future?
What role can business, politics and the creative industries play?
With the UK aspiring to achieve more with less, who will help turn theory into practice?
SIR STUART ROSE
Stuart was appointed Executive Chairman in June 2008. He is a non-executive director of Land Securities plc and Chairman of Business in the Community.
Stuart began his career in retail at Marks & Spencer in 1972, before going on to the Burton Group in 1989, becoming Chief Executive of the Multiples Division in 1994. He left the Group following the demerger in 1997. Stuart was Chief Executive of Argos plc in 1998 and later became Chief Executive of Booker plc.
Before re-joining Marks & Spencer as Chief Executive in 2004 he was Chief Executive of Arcadia Group plc from 2000 until 2002.
Stuart was knighted in 2008 for services to the retail industry and corporate social responsibility.
Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer - Plan A
RT HON HILARY BENN MP
Hilary is the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, formerly holding the position of Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
A former President of Ealing Acton Constituency Labour Party, Hilary was elected to Ealing Borough Council in 1979, becoming the youngest ever Chair of the Education Committee. He also served as Deputy Leader of the Council. He contested Ealing North in the 1983 and 1987 General Elections.
Hilary worked for MSF as Head of Policy and Communications and represented the union on the Labour Party's National Policy Forum. He was also Chair of the Management Committee of Unions 21 - the trade union think tank.
Following Labour's 1997 General Election victory, Hilary was appointed as special adviser to the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, Secretary of State for Education and Employment. He developed the Union Learning Fund and was closely involved in the drafting of the Learning Age green paper.
In 1999, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Leeds Central.
After serving as a minister at the Department for International Development and the Home Office, he was appointed to the Cabinet as the Secretary of State for International Development in 2003. He was the Prime Minister’s Africa Personal Representative and was responsible for the establishment of the UN Central Emergency Relief Fund.
In 2007 he stood for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party.
From 2007 until the 2010 General Election, he was Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He played a leading role in putting the Climate Change Act and the Marine and Coastal Access Act on the statute book, and he established the South Downs National Park.
Hilary Benn was voted by his fellow MPs as Minister of the Year in the 2006 and 2007 House Magazine Awards. He also won the Channel 4 Politicians’ Politician Award in 2006.
ANDY HOBSBAWM
Andy co-founded award-winning environmental movement Green Thing (Dothegreenthing.com) which inspires people to lead a greener life. Since 2007, people from 205 countries/territories have saved over one million tonnes of CO2.
Green Thing has won “Best Green Digital” two years in a row at the prestigious UK Green Awards. In June 2010, Green Thing was awarded the annual prize at the Cinemambiente (Environmental Film Festival) in Turin for "Communicating The Kyoto Protocol".
Previously, Andy established the first international Internet agency in 1994 and was a founding director of leading British new media company Online Magic which merged with Agency.com in 1997. As European MD then Chairman from 2003-2009, Andy helped guide and was a spokesperson for Agency.com with his unique insight into the continual evolution of the interactive medium.
He was listed among the 100 top digital influencers in 2010 by Wired UK and has previously been recognized by industry professionals as one of most influential 100 individuals who have most contributed to the development and growth of e-commerce and the Internet in the UK over the last decade. In Campaign Magazine he has been voted New Media Innovator of the Year and named by industry peers as one of the most admired digital pioneers. Andy is also an honorary member of the Scientific Committee of AICA (International association for environmental communication) and a trustee of Jonathon Porritt’s sustainable development charity Forum for the Future.
Currently Andy consults on digital media and serves as a non-executive director for various online businesses. In 2009 he co-founded ‘internet of things’ software company Evrythng.net.
JO CONFINO (chair)
Jo is an executive editor of the Guardian, chairman and editorial director of Guardian Sustainable Business and sustainability consultant to parent company Guardian Media Group (GMG).
As a journalist for the past 24 years, he has worked on regional and national newspapers and websites.
He was Wall Street correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and subsequently finance and business news editor for the Guardian.
As well as producing an award-winning annual sustainability audit for GNM, the first one in the sector to be independently verified, he launched one of the world’s first interactive sustainability reporting websites.
He managed a unique multi-stakeholder development project in the village of Katine and supports the new Guardian global development website.
The Guardian - Katine The Guardian - development
He has completed an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath and is also an executive coach.
Jo is on the management board of environmental justice NGO Capacity Global and is also a trustee of the charity Theatre for a Change.