Scan Magazine | Business | Column/Calendar
We must not enslave the future While British politicians fiddle, the planet burns. At the time of writing, Caroline Lucas, the UK’s only Green MP, has just tabled a motion in Parliament calling for a UK-wide climate emergency, as a number of councils have already done. “We need to invest in a Green New Deal to rapidly decarbonise the UK,” she says. The national media, and most people, simply look the other way. Others are having more success. In the vanguard of the call for action on climate change is a Scandinavian – unblinking, unflinching 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, initiator of the school strikes that brought out 1.4 million students across 2,000 cities in mid-March. They are not looking the other way. Greta says in her TED talk: “Instead of looking for hope, look for action [...] Everything needs to be changed and it has to start today”. Please take 11 minutes of your time to watch this.
May these children shame us into action: they will inherit the diabolical mess that we have created. Public philosopher Roman Krznaric confirms this when he writes: “... future generations are disenfranchised in the same way that slaves or women were in the past [...] Modern democracy [...] has enabled us to colonise the future. We treat the future like a distant colonial outpost devoid of people, where we can freely dump ecological degradation, technological risk, nuclear waste and public debt, and that we feel at liberty to plunder as we please”. We must all engage with the long-term future and every company must do so too. Workplace debates about the organisation’s impact on the future could and should help to transform our societies in the same way that trade union struggles won victories for work-
Business Calendar
By Steve Flinders ers’ rights in the 19th and 20th centuries. This column is supposed to be about business communication. Confronting climate change head-on is the most important kind of business communication that I know of.
Steve Flinders is a freelance trainer, writer and coach, based in Malta, who helps people develop their communication and leadership skills for working internationally: steveflind@aol.com
By Sanne Wass
Scandinavian business events you do not want to miss this month Brexit briefing: Contracts Brexit could have a huge impact on commercial contracts and the costs of doing business. This breakfast event, organised by the Norwegian-British Chamber of Commerce, will guide you through the uncertainty of the UK’s departure from the EU. Speakers, including representatives from Haynes and Boone, G4S and Transition Dynamics, will explore options available from a legal and contractual perspective and highlight the capabilities that businesses can acquire to better deal with the complexities ahead. Date: 14 May 2019, 8-10am Venue: Haynes and Boone, 29 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JE, UK www.nbccuk.com
Workshop: Non-verbal communication for client meetings Join the Finnish-British Chamber of Commerce for what it describes as a “fun and interactive workshop” for body language and non-verbal communication. Through participatory exercises with physicality, status and different non-verbal interaction situations,
the event will give you tools to communicate confidently, naturally and effectively with your clients. The workshop is conducted by Suvi Koivusalo, a London-based Finnish trainer and professional actor specialising in creativity, communication and presentation skills. Date: 16 May 2019, 6-9pm Venue: Danske Bank UK, 75 King William Street, London EC4N 7DT, UK www.fbcc.co.uk
Business breakfast: Michael Sheren of Bank of England The Swedish Chamber of Commerce for the UK continues its business breakfast series, this time featuring Michael Sheren, senior advisor at the Bank of England, as the guest speaker, to talk about the financing of the transition to a sustainable global economy. Sheren advises on governance, banking supervision and policy, and is actively involved in domestic and international green finance activities. He is also the co-chair of the G20 Sustainable Finance Study Group with China. Date: 21 May 2019, 8-10am
Venue: DNB Bank, 25 Walbrook, London EC4N 8AF, UK www.scc.org.uk
Conference: The Liveable City More and more people live in ever-larger cities around the world. This comes with a host of challenges and has made the question of how to create liveable cities ever more urgent. To help further the discussion, the Danish Embassy in London invites businesses, politicians, professionals and the general public to take part in talks, seminars and debates on everything from architecture and urban planning to creativity and happiness. Date: 18-20 June 2019 Venue: The Royal Danish Embassy, 55 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9SR, UK www.dkuk.org
Issue 124 | May 2019 | 111