‘Learning from nature – the new agenda for business success: a Tomorrow’s Natural Business Conference’ This event will focus on how businesses can succeed in an increasingly challenging climate.  Businesses will learn from the resilience and sustainability of nature to survive unpredictability.  The day promises to be inspirational and exciting with keynote addresses, high quality panels and practical workshops.

Mark Goyder is the Founder Director Tomorrow’s Company, the business-led think and do tank, and co-author of the Family Business Stewardship report. In this article, first printed in the Raconteur supplement of The Times and in association with the Institute for Family Business, Mark discusses the role of stewardship as well as setting out the four major principles that underpin family business stewardship.

In 2008 Tomorrows Company published “Tomorrow’s Owners – stewardship of Tomorrow’s Company”. This was a review of the principles of good ownership from private equity and family business to institutional investment in listed companies. The report concluded that shareholders had four roles – being a member, a provider of finance, a trader of shares and a steward, but that in listed companies it was this fourth role that was being neglected. The publication of this report coincided with the failure of the banks in October 2008. Sir David Walker picked up the theme of stewardship in his 2009 report for the UK government on the governance of banks and other financial institutions. Here we set out Tomorrow’s Company’s definition of stewardship and the four principles that make up effective stewardship.    

 In November 2009 AISEC along with Kairos Futures conducted a survey of over 3,000 young people from around 122 countries about their views on climate change. The results were telling. 73% of respondents believe climate change to be a greater threat to society than the war or terrorism, and nearly all see their main responsibility as being to leave the world in better shape than their parents did. Here is a run down of their findings.

People around the world are embracing Green Capitalism because it is now possible to create a higher standard of living for every person and community throughout the world, by shifting from resource-wasting industrial development to resource saving industrialism. In the 21st Century, people, places, and organizations will literally “get richer by becoming greener,” earning more money by using fewer resources and reusing more.