Cop26 The Time to Act is Now (Nov21)
Al Gore was forthright. He said that at the Paris COP in 2015, the key challenge was denial. In Glasgow, the message is clear – it’s delay. The exciting thing about joining the marches with Greta was the feeling of being one of many who recognised the dire predicament the world is facing. There were […]
Was I a green yuppy? (Aug21)
Thirty two years ago – September 1989 – the Telegraph feature title was ‘Saving the Earth…. and Making money’. I was described as a ‘green yuppy’ or ‘guppy’, who sold out to industrialists. I was keener on the term ‘green realo’ and was quoted as saying ‘The fundies believe in a few people doing a […]
Net zero is not good enough or soon enough! (May21)
I consider myself to be a pragmatic environmentalist – with realistic aspirations. But I find that I’m very uncomfortable about the clamour for the Net zero target – by 2050, 2030 or even sooner. Why? Because: It’s possible to do more: Many businesses are setting their sights on ‘net zero’ when they could quite easily […]
Too many boardrooms are climate incompetent (Feb21)
Very interested to see this FT article lamenting the lack of directors with expertise in climate and ESG issues. I am proud of what I managed to achieve during my short tenure as a NED at Big Yellow. This was not done simply by suggesting a Net Zero target by a certain date, but by backing […]
READY, STEADY, STOP AT BIG YELLOW (Jan21)
I was excited to join the board of the Big Yellow in March 2020 to ‘provide oversight regarding their strategic environmental objectives, with deliverable targets’. Sadly, my approach does not chime with the executive board and I’ve decided to resign. Perhaps I was too ambitious in hoping to help Big Yellow become an exemplar in […]
Green Consumer Compilation – TV Clips with Julia Hailes from 1988-90
Many people will be surprised to know how much interest there was about green consumerism in the late 80s and early 1990s. It was kicked off by the publication of The Green Consumer Guide, co-authored by myself and John Elkington, in 1988. The book had 11 print runs in the first month, shot to the […]
TV Clips of Julia Hailes – Green Consumer Compilation from 1988/1989/1990 (posted Nov20)
Many people will be surprised to know how much interest there was about green consumerism in the late 80s and early 1990s. It was kicked off by the publication of The Green Consumer Guide, co-authored by myself and John Elkington, in 1988. The book had 11 print runs in the first month, shot to the […]
1989 Video of Julia Hailes on BBC Nine O’Clock News launching ‘Green Shopping Day”.
Green Shopping Day was organised by Julia Hailes and John Elkington from SustainAbility, to launch their second green consumer book – The Green Consumer’s Supermarket Shopping Guide. At the time there was some controversy about the idea of encouraging people to buy products with less environmental impact, rather than simply reducing consumption. This video from […]
TV Clips – Fashion & Environment 1989 – Julia Hailes, Paul Smith and others interviewed.
Gosh – this video is actually quite funny. The lady from Next is incredibly competitive about what the company is doing. “I’m not going to let everyone else bring out green t-shirts” – She reinforces her lack of environmental knowledge and awareness by with this bold statement “Everything about green cotton is environmentally sound”. That’s […]
Turning the Big Yellow green
I’ve just been appointed a board member of FTSE 250 company The Big Yellow Self Storage! I’ll be chairing the new Board Sustainability Committee and am looking forward to seeing how I can help turn The Big Yellow green… In 2007 I gave the key note speech at the Self Storage Association annual meeting. Had […]
