The race for sustainability is the race for competitive advantage. The question for business leaders is whether they are settlers or pioneers. We are moving to a low-carbon economy and businesses have to decide if they want to be innovators and leaders or compliant laggards.
The faster and bolder businesses are in this area, the greater the competitive advantage they'll gain. Rather than looking at this as a doom-and-gloom issue, focusing on the negative, it's better to flip it and see it as the biggest opportunity of a generation.
Only something like five per cent of the population are prepared to pay a premium for something that doesn't offer better performance just because it's sustainable. Until sustainable things are better and cheaper they will never be of interest to the mainstream.
The Long Run Venture is about forming partnerships to amplify the good things others are doing. For example, the Carbon War Room is doing a lot to unblock flows of capital to sustainability projects. It has estimated that 70 per cent of the innovation needed to achieve the 2020 targets already exists. It's just not being taken up because of vested interests.
Changing behaviours is essential to achieving sustainability. We're not focused on consumer-facing messages because others are better at doing that. We focus on the skills agenda and are working with City & Guilds to equip the next generation of plumbers, electricians and builders with knowledge and skills to be more sustainable.
Sustainability has remained a business issue in the recession. Even the settlers, who see it only in terms of a cost-cutting exercise, benefit. But pioneers see it as a new business opportunity.
The UK is ahead of the global curve on major areas of sustainable innovation, including alternative energy supplies, such as tidal power and wind power. But this is not an issue that can be left to one or two sectors. It will affect every company in every sector. There are pioneers in every industry. Companies such as EDF Energy and Marks & Spencer are causing their competitors to think again. As always happens, the settlers follow in the pioneers' footsteps.
In this downturn people are coming out of the labour market and looking to do interesting entrepreneurial things. We'll see the low-carbon economy play an increasingly large part in the things these new entrepreneurs do.
The coalition has yet to come through on its promise to be the greenest-ever government. If they are to live up to that pledge then it's time we saw meaningful measures to underpin the rhetoric. Governments play a fundamental part in creating the right environment but there is little point waiting for politicians to deliver. There is little global political will. In time regulators and politicians will get their act together, but in the meantime the opportunities for business are too big to ignore.
Times are tough. Businesses aren't investing, household budgets are squeezed and the government is cutting back everywhere. This is when I expect the cream of our entrepreneurial talent to turn their attention to this area. I would also like to see more attention paid in the City. Financiers could do more to put sustainability at the heart of investment strategies and offer funds and financial instruments with a sustainable edge.
There has been good work done by people like [Sir] Richard Lambert at the CBI and [Sir] Stuart Rose at Marks & Spencer. But with these people moving on, the challenge is to their successors to carry on the work. They have to take it to the next stage and develop it again as a significant economic opportunity for the UK.
