Carbon labelling is often touted as a way of enabling consumers to shop sustainably. But is trialling carbon labels just a PR exercise or can communicating the climate change impacts of everyday products to consumers genuinely drive consumer behaviour for the better?

The voluntary carbon market – where institutions and individuals can buy carbon reductions, usually to offset their own carbon emissions – is experiencing rapid growth. But as actvity has increased, concerns have been expressed that the voluntary carbon market is a distraction and, worse, that it undermines the need for fundamental change in corporate and individual behaviour.

As concerns about climate change grow, the concept of 'carbon neutrality' has captured the corporate imagination. From a few companies declaring their intention to go carbon neutral in 2003 and 2004, the idea has snowballed, with many companies now making such claims. But what does it mean to claim that your company is ‘carbon neutral’? A new report published today investigates some of the claims that have been made so far, and makes recommendations for organisations planning to become truly carbon neutral.

Transport accounts for nearly 22 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions. Recent developments have seen the introduction of new technology and fuels. However, the simplest most cost-effective, immediate way of making a dent in emissions is to change driving behaviour. By adopting ecodriving techniques, motorists can achieve significant carbon savings and reduce the carbon footprint of each motor vehicle journey.

There’s a new breed of companies leading the way in doing business more sustainably – we call them leader businesses. While yesterday’s leaders worked hard on understanding reputational, resource and regulatory risks arising from the vast number of issues related to sustainability, today’s leaders see sustainability as a positive opportunity. It’s a way to build new markets, reach new groups of customers and ensure a long-lasting
competitive edge.

This business briefing is intended to help managers in consumer-facing customers to communicate the environmental credentials of their products honestly and convincingly. We examine why businesses are increasingly using environmental messaging on products, how different formats - such as eco-labels - have developed and the risks and challenges associated with making environmental claims.

With the 26 million homes in the UK producing 27% of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, we need to get serious about our housing. This two-part report proposes what can be done within the West Midlands to stimulate change at a local and regional level, and presents the huge opportunities for the private sector.

Connected outlines the potential of the ICT sector to help deliver a sustainable future.

This report shows how tools including back-casting and streamlined lifecycle assessment can be combined to ensure organisations are meeting their environmental responsibilities and using sustainability thinking as a source of innovation, differentiation and access to new markets.

With an annual procurement budget of around £160 billion, the public sector is the largest purchaser in the UK. The report Buying A Better World explains the importance of incorporating sustainability thinking into buying decisions, and includes case studies and action planning tips for busy procurement officers.

What do applicants to universities and colleges in the UK in 2007 think about the future?
Where do they expect their happiness to come from?
What do they think the world will be like when they are mid-career?
What are the big challenges facing humanity, and who do they expect action from?
Following the success of the first Future Leaders Survey in 2006/07, we asked every applicant to higher education in the UK in 2007 to set out their views on these and a range of questions. More than 25,000 of them responded. This report summarises what they told us.

This research looks at companies that are rising to the challenge of sustainability - and boosting their profits in the process. We provide a comprehensive model of their business strategies and key approaches, and show how your business can benefit too.

New research from Ashridge Business School, sponsored by Co-operative Financial Services and supported by Forum for the Future explores the UK consumer market for ethical financial products.

This London Accord report warns investors to think more widely about the social and environmental impacts of their clean energy investments.

In September 2007 Forum started work on a very exciting and ambitious project to help make the greater Bristol areas the most sustainable city region in the UK.

Forum for the Future has been working with The Guardian to produce The Green List

How do UK cities really measure up? Our report uses current data to determine who’s sustainable and who’s not. In it, each of the UK’s 20 largest cities are analysed according to three criteria – their ‘environmental impact', ‘quality of life’ and ‘future proofing’ – and given an overall ranking which summarises the results.

This report was written with the support of Vodafone and looks at opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts of mobile phones in developing countries at the end of their lives.

Is retail ready to lead a green revolution? Our report has some food for thought...

Retail Futures offers a glimpse of what the retail experience of 2022 might involve. Through four radically different and detailed scenarios, Retail Futures 2022 explores many of the issues the retail sector will have to face in the years to come.

Taken together, the four scenarios provide valuable tools to help the retail sector develop robust, future-proof strategies that will deliver more sustainable retail in a time of radical change.

This handy little booklet sets out what we mean by innovation and how we help businesses develop new products and services.

Our latest Annual Report shows the progress we've made in four key areas: inspiring and challenging organisations with positive visions of a sustainable future, delivering innovative and practical ways to help realise those visions, training leaders to bring about change, and sharing success through our communications.

Microfinance used to be known as a basic banking model for villages in the developing world, a universe away from the fast moving capital markets, private equity funds and giant banking and insurance groups that make up the dynamic modern financial sector. But the two worlds are now starting to converge.

This report is intended as a first point of call for anyone wanting to know about the social and environmental impacts of the clothing industry. It covers UK consumption and global production. It is a comprehensive overview rather than a detailed analysis, but will point you in the direction of more in depth information.

These Masterclasses focus on the role of business leaders
in mainstreaming sustainable development within an
organisation. Jonathon Porritt will guide you through the key
issues – providing provocation, insight and experience in
equal measure.

This White Paper, commissioned by RWE npower, comes on the back of new research which revealed that many businesses are confused by what the Low Carbon Economy is. It is one of the first reports published on the Low Carbon Economy in the UK and provides an overview of the impact of human behaviour on climate change, and the necessity of making the transition to a Low Carbon Economy to avoid dangerous climate change.

We face a resource-constrained future in which societies across the world will grapple with accelerating global consumption, growing population and climate change.

Forum for the Future and UCAS (University and Colleges Admissions Service) invited students aged 21 and under, resident in the UK and applying to universities and colleges in 2006, to complete a survey.

New value added mobile services have the potential to increase the positive social and economic role of mobile phones. Person to person airtime transfer is one such service, allowing mobile subscribers to send and receive airtime for a small fee.

This report is intended as a first port of call for anyone wanting to know about the environmental impacts of the mobile telecoms sector. It is a comprehensive overview rather than a detailed analysis, but will point you in the direction of more in-depth information.

Transport policy-makers in the UK are not using information and communication technologies (ICT) strategically in transport policy - so says this report from Forum for the Future.

This report tells you all about the Calor Village of the Year Award winner – in 2016. The fictional winning village, Little Greenham, has a population of 2,500 and has been selected for the great strides it has made in embedding sustainability in all aspects of village life.

Riots on the street, polluted drinking water and mass fish deaths? Or a source of carbon free energy, enabling the EU to meet its Kyoto targets whilst powering our homes and business? These are two of three scenarios developed through the nanologue project, an 18-month EU project looking at the social, ethical and legal implications of nanotechnology.

The OpenStrategy® is a new, web-based product aimed at enabling communities to plan and deliver policy in a more democratic, effective and transparent way. We were asked by the North West Regional Assembly to evaluate the use of OpenStrategy in developing a sustainable procurement strategy for the north west. Our report assesses the effectiveness of the OpenStrategy approach when it comes to formulating regional policy.

The West of England sub-region faces severe transport-related challenges such as congestion, poor air quality, rising carbon emissions and poor infrastructure. Access West looks at these challenges through a sustainability lens and makes the case for a new, system-wide strategy for sustainable mobility across the sub-region.

Britain’s rural estates are experiencing a renaissance of innovation and entrepreneurship, which is helping to regenerate rural communities, says this report from Forum for the Future.

This report recognises ten years of Forum for the Future. It summarises our landmark achievements to date and looks forward to the next ten years. It also provides details of our work between January-December 2005 and outlines details of our finances over that period.

This fundraising brochure is for people who might like to make donations to Forum for the Future. It explains about our work, and encourages individuals to support us by becoming part of the 'future funders network.'

Leader businesses are increasingly turning to sustainable development as a source of inspiration, innovation and access to new markets.

Jamie Wallace and Vedant Walia analyse the risks and opportunities for the UK's rail sector in meeting the challenge of sustainable development, building on our partnership with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB).

Can the success of the Mass Balance tool in measuring and reporting complex resource use be replicated for organisations? This report shows how organisations – using the examples of universities and farms – can use the mass balance approach to streamline their resources and save money.

Resource scarcity will cause economic problems in the UK and affect our the quality of our lives. So claims a new report that calls for action in managing our resources by measuring their flow through our economy.

Forum for the Future’s South West Land Use Initiative worked with a broad range of organisations and local stakeholders in the South West to develop an asset-based sustainability appraisal tool in order to find out why some area-based projects and initiatives are more successful than others at increasing local sustainability and quality of life. This is one of five case studies produced following the trial use of the tool on five very different kinds of area, working directly with local project partnerships and organisations.

Stephanie Draper, Deputy Director, Forum for the Future Business Programme, assesses the implications of the new strategy launched by Tony Blair on 7 March 2005 for the business community

A top-performing region needs to get the direction, content and delivery of its activities right. Good regional policy should be about long-term thinking that fosters innovative economic, social and environmental benefits in an integrated way – genuinely sustainable development. We believe that this is the only framework within which successful regional policy can be developed and delivered.

If economics causes an item to be inaccurately priced, it hides the surrounding implications of its production in darkness and misleads us as to its true worth. This article discusses this issue in more depth, asks why it is happening, explains why this matters, and suggests what could be done about it.

This guidance explores how to integrate sustainability literacy into the provision of all higher education courses and provides a toolkit to guide you.

The report, 'London Principles - Three years on from Johannesburg', reviews the progress that's been made on the London Principles project, launched by Tony Blair at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

This report examines area-based initiatives in the South West that point towards ways of reaping the full rewards of more sustainable land use and resource management.

An introduction to Forum for the Future’s approach to accounting.  We anchor sustainability performance in quantitative data that goes far beyond simple indicators. By converting environmental and social benefits and costs into monetised values, we allow you to account for these impacts in a way which is consistent with other business activities. This process provides the basis for analysis and recommendations to improve performance.

Forum for the Future’s South West Land Use Initiative worked with a broad range of organisations and local stakeholders in the South West to develop an asset-based sustainability appraisal tool in order to find out why some area-based projects and initiatives are more successful than others at increasing local sustainability and quality of life. This is one of five case studies produced following the trial use of the tool on five very different kinds of area, working directly with local project partnerships and organisations.

Capture of wild fish for human consumption soared in the last century, from 20 million tonnes in 1960 to almost 95 million tonnes in 2000, leading to serious and widespread overfishing. The crisis in our seas is a clear case of the human species coming up against natural limits to growth.

Find out how we work with partners, including the Welsh Assembly Government and Unilever. We describe our work for social equity, and the application of science to the largest PFI project in the UK, Barts and The London Hospital.

The environmental case for recycling and refurbishing old mobile phones has long been accepted. A new report by Forum for the Future now makes the social case for reburbished mobile phones, arguing that they lower the barrier to entry for people in less developed countries to get access to mobile services

The Vision addresses the challenges facing the industry in UK - the globalisation of markets and production; the increasing shift in developed countries from bulk to specialty chemicals; increasing societal mistrust of chemicals; and a growing awareness of the resource limitations of our planet - and outlines how a proactive approach to sustainability can help secure its ongoing prosperity.

Forum for the Future’s South West Land Use Initiative worked with a broad range of organisations and local stakeholders in the South West to develop an asset-based sustainability appraisal tool in order to find out why some area-based projects and initiatives are more successful than others at increasing local sustainability and quality of life. This is one of five case studies produced following the trial use of the tool on five very different kinds of area, working directly with local project partnerships and organisations.

Whilst perhaps not immediately apparent, ICT can be used to facilitate and even help move towards a more sustainable society. The potential synergies range from simply using ICT to communicate sustainable development, to the potential of teleworking to cut down on car emissions more pervasive.

Can a route map be developed to help the farming industry make the transition towards more sustainable land use management? This report details the findings from the Forum Farm Network, ten farms which underwent sustainability reviews from 2002 to 2004.

In a joint report, the Shell Foundation and Forum for the Future stress the value of the small and medium sized enterprise sector for economic stability. It provides jobs and income for half the population in developing countries and contributes to around two thirds of national income, as well as strengthening communities and reducing poverty.

This report examines the potential environmental benefits of teleworking. Telework - working at home or on the move using networked computers - is on the increase in the UK. Over two million of us did it in 2002, twice the number in 1997. But we are still a long way behind countries like Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands where up to 17 per cent of the workforce teleworks.

Forum for the Future’s South West Land Use Initiative worked with a broad range of organisations and local stakeholders in the South West to develop an asset-based sustainability appraisal tool in order to find out why some area-based projects and initiatives are more successful than others at increasing local sustainability and quality of life. This is one of five case studies produced following the trial use of the tool on five very different kinds of area, working directly with local project partnerships and organisations.

Closer working with the County archaeology team resulted from the appraisal, with the development of shared management plans for different heathland sites. The appraisal also helped to highlight the value of employing local wardens on the urban fringe heaths and the potential of using the heathlands for improving local health and well-being by working closely with the Primary Care Trust.

For more information about the project, please visit www.english-nature.org.uk/thh/

 

 

What sort of environment will we be living in in 15 years' time? You don't have to look very hard to find a welter of depressing predictions of accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss, ozone depletion, soil erosion or water stress. But there are chinks of light on the horizon too.

One of those chinks of light is what can be done with our increasingly powerful technology, if it is used in the right way, to avert some of the more extreme scenarios.

Back in 2003, the Institute for Prospective Technology Studies, a part of the European Commission, gathered a consortium of institutions that included Forum for the Future, to ask how developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) might influence various environmental indicators.

The project consortium developed an innovative methodology blending exhaustive desk research, qualitative scenario building and quantitative modelling using a Systems Dynamics approach, to answer this question. The findings challenge assumptions that ICT will be a marginal factor in managing environmental change.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

 

The latest research conducted by Regional Futures, reveals that Regional Spatial Strategies (RSSs) offer a real opportunity to deliver sustainable development and they need to grasp this opportunity by having a coherent vision, being clear about the role of the spatial strategy in the region, encouraging wide participation in its development, and developing a truly integrated strategy.

Drawing on the learning from the research and event 'Your space or mine - can regional spatial planning deliver sustainable development' event on 1 October 2004, a 10 steps guide to improve spatial planning in the regions has been produced.

10 Steps to improve spatial planning in the regions

For more information please contact publicsector@forumforthefuture.org.uk

A guide to how best to communicate sustainable development.

'Innovation for Sustainable Development' is our first project funded by the Business Futures Fund, supported by our Foundation Corporate Partners.

Forum for the Future’s response to the Government’s consultation on a new strategy is that sustainable development is still viewed as a luxury rather than a necessity. The last three years have seen concerns over security dominate the political agenda, for example, squeezing the space available for serious debate around sustainable development, despite the obvious connections between the two.

The Forum’s response urges the Government to reinvigorate its programme of environmental tax reform. The Government set out a clear goal to shift taxation onto environmental ‘bads’ in its 1997. But new research by Forum for the Future Associate Director Professor Paul Ekins finds that, as a percentage of total taxes, environmental taxes have declined. At the end of the first Labour Government in 2001 environmental taxes as a share of total taxes were lower than in 1997, when the statement was published, and lower even than in 1994.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

An 18 month project funded under the DTI program 'Partners in Innovation'.
 
For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

Rather than limiting your creative freedoms, this paper argues that embracing sustainable development agenda provides a world of creative opportunities through concepts such as biomimcry, and shifting from products to services - and highlights a series of cases of where 'creatives' and companies are doing exactly that.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

 

Government policy is undermining the UK’s efforts to improve its poor recycling record, argues the Forum’s latest report.

The report, Wasted Opportunities, was written for Tetra Pak – a major producer of liquid food packaging, and a Forum business partner.  It looked at why there are such low levels of recycling of packaging in the UK.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

2004

What skills do employers think graduates need to help them achieve sustainable development?  Are there special skills which universities need to be developing in students? Or is it a case of making sure whatever field they're in, UK graduates have a sufficient degree of sustainabiltiy knowledge and skills - ie are sustainability literate?

This report is from a one day workshop run by Forum for the Future. The findings fed into the UK sustainable development strategy which called for all graduates to be sustainabiltiy literate
Discussions with a variety of employers found that there are no such thing as specialist 'sustainabilitiy skills'.  The skills needed to deliver sustainable development are generic, they include critical thinking, strong communication skills, the ability to design a strategic vision, negotiation and consensus building, and conflict resolution.  They the same as those needed to deliver business success, enterprise and excellence in leadership and management, as well as key policy gendas like social inclusion, regeneration. The challenge lies in harnessing these skills to work for a more sustainable way of life.
 
For more information please contact comms@forumforthefuture.org.uk

 

Forum for the Future’s South West Land Use Initiative worked with a broad range of organisations and local stakeholders in the South West to develop an asset-based sustainability appraisal tool in order to find out why some area-based projects and initiatives are more successful than others at increasing local sustainability and quality of life. This is one of five case studies produced following the trial use of the tool on five very different kinds of area, working directly with local project partnerships and organisations.

Following the appraisal the project team have incorporated the appraisal tool into their business planning activities and are considering how best to develop local indicators to monitor progress towards improved area-wide sustainability.

For more information on the project please visit www.rubycountry.com.

For more information about the report please contact publicsector@forumforthefuture.org.uk

The idea for this inquiry grew from a sense that engineers of all ages and backgrounds can significantly contribute to the practical challenges of improving the quality of life for people worldwide. And they can do so in a way that is considerate towards the environment and the community. A mechanism was needed to build a critical mass of 'engineers for sustainability' to become a positive force for change within the profession. What better rallying point than the very engineers who will be moving into leadership roles in the next decade or two?

The Engineer of the 21st Century Inquiry: Engineers for Sustainability
 
For more information please contact comms@forumforthefuture.org.uk.

A review of how ICT is changing society and business and how this will affect the ability of companies to promote more sustainable development.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

For more information please contact business@fourmforthefuture.org.uk

A review of sustainable development policies in Wales and how ICT can contribute.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

‘Sustainability and business competitiveness’ is a summary of a workshop commissioned by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and organised by Forum for the Future in May 2003. It was attended by 70 senior business researchers and practitioners, from the Chief Economists of Shell and BA to the Senior Corporate Responsibility Adviser at Vodafone.

They were brought together to discuss how sustainability performance could contribute to competitive advantage and business success, and how it could be measured.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

This guidance has been developed especially for universities and colleges, to help them to provide access to key services for a wide range of people through the development of a travel plan.

For more information please contact comms@forumforthefuture.org.uk

BT commissioned this report from Forum for the Future to address the increasing difficulty it is experiencing in sourcing enough renewable electricity from the market to meet its own voluntary CO2 reduction targets.

BT is one of the UK’s largest consumers of electricity, accounting for 1.8% of the commercial and industrial energy market and has made excellent historical progress in reducing its carbon emissions.

However, a number of factors mean that it must increasingly look to renewable electricity to meet its target of a 25% CO2 reduction by 2010 on 1996 levels. But despite reaching a high of 4.6% renewables in 2002, market barriers are preventing BT from making further progress – indeed the amount of renewables purchased reduced by over 50% during the 2003 financial year.

This report identifies the policy measures that the Government should adopt to restructure the market and so enable greater renewables supply for large-scale industrial users, such as BT. It also looks at some operational solutions for BT.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

In 2000, The Engineer of the 21st Century Inquiry urged practical action following findings that despite the fact that good engineering is essential to sustainability, engineering solutions are often unsustainable.

Two years on from the original inquiry, this new report follows research with companies, professional bodies, academic institutions and Government into how well they are progressing on the key challenges of sustainability.

For more information please contact comms@forumforthefuture.org.uk

The first sustainability reporting tool for higher education has arrived. Find out how it could help you build a unique ‘Sustainability profile’ of your university or college. Guidance for using the reporting tool and a background to reporting for sustainability is also available.

For more information please contact comms@forumforthefuture.org.uk

A comprehensive review of the environmental impacts of ICT, including an analysis of whether growth in consumption of resources and economic growth can be decoupled in the Information Society.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

Lead organisation: Wuppertal Institute

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

Do partnerships deliver? Amid rising expectations of partnership working, Ben Tuxworth and Florian Sommer examine attempts to evaluate it. Their particular focus is on the partnerships between NGOs and the organisations they are seeking to change, a form they call 'challenge partnerships'. With a survey of approaches to evaluation, this report concludes that little is being done to justify the claims NGOs and business make about the effectiveness of partnership working.

Research supported by the John Ellerman Foundation.

For more information please contact b.tuxworth@forumforthefuture.org.uk

An investigation of the social and environmental potential of banking services delivered over the Internet, including a comparative study (using the MIPS methodology ) of the ecological backpack of an online and offline banking transaction.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

Lead organisations: Forum for the Future and Wuppertal Institute

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

An investigation of the social and environmental role of digital music, including a comparison of the ecological backpack of a CD bought from a shop and the same music downloaded as a file from the Internet (using the MIPS methodology)

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

Lead organisations: Forum for the Future and Wuppertal Institute

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

A comparison of the ecological backpack of a handheld computer and a notebook computer, using the MIPS methodology,

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

Lead organisation: Wuppertal Institute

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

Regional Futures commissioned research examining the links between the Regional Assembly, the Regional Development Agency, Government Office, Sub-regional Strategic Partnerships (SSPs) and Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in each region. Results revealed confusion over the role of organisations and partnerships at the regional level and below, and how they should interlink. Three steps were identified to help improve regional to local links.

For more information please contact: publicsector@forumforthefuture.org.uk

An investigation of the drivers and barriers for increasing public access to ICT and an analysis of the relationship between digital inclusion and social inclusion.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

 

A guide to help higher education managers gather a complete picture of the real costs and benefits of decisions about student numbers, teaching facilities, research funding, staff conditions, refurbishment and new buildings.

For a hard copy please contact comms@forumforthefuture.org.uk

 

This is the first time practical guidance on purchasing for sustainability has been developed for the Higher Education sector. Written by people working in the sector, it aims to help you and your institution to understand how to incorporate environmental, ethical and financial criteria into purchasing decisions in your institution.

For more information please contact comms@forumforthefuture.org.uk

Results of a survey of European companies designed to explore the link between social and environmental performance and the use of ebusiness.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

An in-depth review of evidence for the social and environmental role of working at home using ICT.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

Lead organisations: Forum for the Future and Wuppertal Institute

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

An investigation, using econometric analysis, of how the growth in use of ICT in companies, and the growth of an ICT sector, is affecting the pattern of regional economic development in Europe.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

Lead organisation: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

An investigation into the role that mobile telephones might have to play in building social capital in Poland, a country in social and economic transition and with a relatively poor fixed line telecoms infrastructure.

Digital Europe was a pan-European research project investigating the impacts of Information and Comunication Technology (ICT) on sustainable development, led by Forum for the Future and funded by the European Commission and other private and public sector partners.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

New information and communication technologies are reshaping the way we live, work and do business, holding out the promise of a lightweight, socially inclusive future. But rising inequality, growing consumption and travel, and ever-higher levels of greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution suggest a less rosy prospect.

Drawing on important new research and evidence, this book shows what is really happening - how the growth in networks and the increased availability of information is affecting our lives and our environment. It takes an integrated approach to the environmental, economic and social consequences, and includes commentary by leading thinkers in the fields of technology and sustainable development.

The book shows the opportunities and the dangers, and argues that in both the public and private sectors only by recognizing the greater complexity of a wired world can we hope to find the solutions that will produce a more sustainable and harmonious one.

The book is available to order from Amazon.co.uk (Making the Net Work page)

 

Information and communications technologies (ICT) are everywhere: at home, at work, at play. Such ubiquity forces us to ask questions including what good does it do? Does it harm society? Can it benefit the environment?'

This booklet is a brief summary of two years of research with key findings and recommendations. It is structured to answer crucial questions being asked about the effect of ICT on sustainable development. The practical solutions to the questions on each page are designed to move us towards something not unlike the society described at the back: a vision of a sustainable networked world.

This is how we think we can make the net work for sustainable development.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

A detailed overview of the UK waste and resource management policy since the creation of the European Community. The review was conducted in the framework of the Mass Balance UK project.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

The 'London Principles' aims to raise support and awareness among mainstream financial institutions of the sound business reasons for implementing sustainable finance principles.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

The business world is increasingly engaged with the challenge of sustainable development. There is clear evidence for the ‘business case’ for engagement and many companies have delivered shareholder value while pursuing sustainability action. But there are also limits to the business case because companies have no option but to operate within a corporate framework where short-term shareholder value remains paramount, and markets do not always recognise value which is important for sustainable development.

These limits, and the need for government action, are increasingly recognised by many in the business world. Roger Cowe and Jonathon Porritt argue that these limitations mean it is time for the Government to respond by acting to support and extend the business case using the full range of fiscal, economic and regulatory instruments available to it. Sustainable development must be seen as central to competitiveness and productivity.

For more information contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

The internet opens up organisations to the outside world more than ever before. Open Policy by Paul Miller argues that this is a great opportunity for organisations to talk to stakeholders and manage their role in society in new and innovative ways. The radical suggestion here is that companies and governments can learn from the open source software movement, and open up their policy making processes, allowing outsiders in to make suggestions and contribute, to the benefit of all.

For more information please visit

www.paulmiller.org or contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk

A detailed overview of the European waste and resource management policy since the creation of the European Community. The review was conducted in the framework of the Mass Balance UK project.

For more information please contact business@forumforthefuture.org.uk