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Introduction by Sir Geoffrey Chandler This occasion is intended as the point of departure for the Foundation's new programme. It is a programme which tackles one of the most fundamental problems of our time – the conflict between the values we hold and the manner in which we behave and, where business is concerned, the conflict between values and financial wealth creation. We believe that action in pursuit of sustainability must essentially address values and attitudes, not simply technology and legislation. We live in a world of our own making, but it is a world that we cannot much like. It suffers from social inequity, economic inequality and accelerating degradation of the physical environment and is manifestly unsustainable, which is why sustainability is now at the top of the agenda. But is what we have our inescapable inheritance? Was the 17th century poet, Fulke Greville, correct when he wrote ‘Oh miserable condition of humanity, Born under one law, to another bound’? Are we stuck with what we have got or do we in fact have a choice? We could have no more appropriate speaker this evening to help us begin to answer those questions than the evolutionary biologist, Professor Richard Dawkins. He is the first holder of the Charles Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, but perhaps is more widely known for his books, such as The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, and as one of the most challenging intellects of our time. Sustainability Doesn’t Come Naturally: A Darwinian Perspective on Values:
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