|
November 2003:
The Foundation’s 20th Anniversary
Consultation
21st Century Values at Work
The Foundation is celebrating its 20th Anniversary with a
continuation of the series of Consultations on values and the corporate world,
which have formed the basis of its work.
Looking back over the last 20 years, there are several things
that stand out:
-
We started in the City, probably as the first major
initiative designed to address the environmental agenda, when the
international insurance industry provided our start-up funds
-
We sponsored the Better Environment Awards for Industry,
run by the RSA, and co-sponsored by Shell, DOE, CBI and FT. This awards
scheme aimed for replication of the best technologies and management
practice. It became a model for the first pan-European award scheme for
industry and the environment, which continues under the auspices of the
European Commission. It went on to act as a catalyst for, and was partly
subsumed by the Queen’s Award for Environmental Achievement.
-
We initiated a series of Windsor
Consultations on a wide range of issues at the cutting edge of the
sustainable development debate. Many were ahead of their time and acted as
a catalyst for action by others
-
When we carried out a review of the results of these
Consultations, we recognised the need for broad corporate values, which
led to the development of our Values and
Sustainability Programme, defined by Professor Charles Handy as being
at the heart of the ethical challenge for the 21st Century.
-
Most recently, after four long years of difficult
negotiation with the Charity
Commission, we managed to persuade them to recognise the need for a
new charitable purpose – the promotion of sustainable development. This
has major implications not just for the Foundation, but for the whole of
the charitable sector.
The latest Consultation, 21st Century Values at Work, aimed to
take this agenda forward by:
-
Sharing knowledge and experience about values-related
activities
-
Looking back at what we have learned over the last 20
years and examining how we can apply these lessons over the next 20 years
-
Outlining the key challenges and responses needed by the
crucial agencies
-
Producing a route map to the future
Read Sir Geoffrey
Chandler's presentation in full.
|
