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In his Foreword to the Foundation's recent publication Sowing the Seeds of a Sustainable Future, Professor Handy said: I first became aware of the work of the Environment Foundation in 1988 when, as Chairman of the RSA, I was involved in the Better Environment Awards for Industry which were hosted by the RSA. I have watched with interest and admiration while the scope and ambitions of the Foundation’s work have grown over the succeeding years. It did not enter my mind, in 1988, that I might one day be participating in a Consultation on Management Education organised by that same Foundation, yet that happened in January 2000, as their Tenth Consultation at St.George’s House in Windsor Castle. A quick glance at the number and variety of the names of those who have attended these Consultations is evidence enough of the growing influence of the Foundation. I hope that this publication will help to alert even more people to its work. It is work that is increasingly important as the world becomes more and more interlocked, and more and more dependent on business to provide the wherewithal of life. It would be a paradox indeed if, in their competition to provide the means of life ever more efficiently, business managed to destroy much of what sustains life. Governments and international bodies have their part to play, but ultimately our future depends on the values and priorities of decision-makers at all levels in society. It is a sobering thought that half of the world’s largest 500 economies are corporations who are answerable in law only to themselves and their stockholders. We have to rely on the internal values of those who control them to keep them honest and decent; and we must hope that those values are focused on what is good for all of us, not just themselves; that they think of themselves as communities fuelled by purpose, rather than as the personal properties of their owners. This, it seems to me, is the ethical challenge for this century. It is a challenge that I am heartened to see lies at the heart of the Foundation’s plans for the future. I wish them every success with those plans and I commend this brief outline of their work to you. It deserves your attention. |
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