Dr Matthew Agarwala was the only speaker flown to Guernsey for this year’s Institute of Directors event, as organisers worked to keep it carbon neutral one message with an event focused on sustainability.
“The economic model that we’ve used over the past century was great for the 20th century but is not going to work for the 21st century,” he said.
“What we need is a new way of determining what progress means and how we can measure it and I think businesses in places like Guernsey can actually lead the way.”
Pictured: “There is a new way of building the economy that builds in human health, environmental sustainability, trust and social cohesion, a sense of community, and of course the strength of governance, institutions, and physical infrastructure,” said Dr Agarwala.
The event used a ranking system called the Simon Anholt’s Nation Brands index to discuss six key areas of success: people, tourism, exports, governance, investment & immigration, and culture & heritage.
A series of TED-style talks, moderated by Dr Agarwala, saw a variety of speakers dissect these key areas. He said the pandemic has changed our priorities and businesses need to change with them.
“Public opinion polls in every country – Canada, the US, the UK, all across Europe, and Australia – they’re unambiguous, the public wants a green recovery, people liked the time in nature that they had during lockdown, they liked cycling, they liked the better air quality, and they want that to continue through the recovery,” he said.
“Our economy, the whole thing, from a small local cider producer, to the biggest companies on the planet, the entire economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of nature.”
He continued by suggesting that Guernsey is the perfect place to see sustainable changes in action.
“The ability of this community to come together and work together is a huge asset, and we see it, in the high recycling rates, we see it in the response for fees for pay-as-you-throw – here that led to higher recycling, everywhere else that leads to more fly-tipping, and the reason you get the beneficial outcome here is because of this sense of community,” he said.
“It’s a really exciting place, for understanding the connections between government policy, business action, and how people respond from the public.”
Pictured: “The key message is all about sustainability, so the strap line is: How can a small island have a big impact on a global issue?” said IoD Chair, Wendy Dorey.
The Chair of the IoD’s Guernsey Branch, Wendy Dorey, said this year’s event was completely carbon neutral.
“We’ve carefully chosen our speakers this year so that none of them need to come in person, we’ve flown one speaker over, but the rest have been pre-recorded, to keep the air miles down to a minimum and keep the conference as carbon neutral as possible,” she said.
“In fact, we’ll be offsetting all the carbon produced from this event and we’ve made sure that it’s been curated as sustainably as possible.”
