ifs Financial Sustainability Symposium

On 1 October, I attended EAUC member ifs University College's Financial Sustainability Symposium in London. The day programme was packed with inspiring speakers from those working in financial sustainability and sustainable business.

There was a short welcome and introduction from Darran Messem, Managing Director, Carbon Trust Certification. He looked at how to embrace sustainability, which he said involves financial, compliance and reputation. He recognised the need for graduates in sustainability to have the awareness, understanding and belief in the ability to change.

Triodos Bank Managing Director Charles Middleton spoke in great length about balancing financial performance against environmental and social returns. Adam Elman, Head of Global Plan A Delivery at Marks and Spencer offered interesting insights on sustainability and a new business plan.

After lunch, Kathleen Britain gave her perspective on evolving corporate citizenship and Barclays Citizenship Plan. This was then followed by a Q and A panel debate session with the guest speakers Darran, Charles and Kathleen. They took questions from the floor on a range of issues relating to financial sustainability and a fierce debate on divestment.

We ended the day with a roundtable group discussion on embedding financial sustainability and whether attitudes have changed or is it business as usual? Discussions focused on threats and opportunities to sustainable development, and the tools needed to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Take a look at what happened and some of the discussions from the day using the hashtag #sustsym.

This is a blog post written by Seth Kirby, Membership Engagement Officer, EAUC.