Why investing in renewables can fix our balance of trade deficit

Britain’s balance of payments or trade deficit has officially ballooned to £20.8 billion. Investing in renewable energy offers an opportunity to reverse that trend.

UK renewable energy: powering pensions with wind and solar

Over the last few weeks we have seen strong votes of confidence in UK onshore wind and solar from leading institutional investors. But the Coalition is disagreeing on which direction to take. So what will be the energy legacy we leave to the next generation?

The great resource scarcity debate, but who’s listening?

I had the opportunity to go and listen to Bill Clinton speak about resource scarcity in Oxford last week. And, it was an impressive speech – deserving of a far bigger audience than the several dozen that got to hear it.

Six ways to sustainable business success post-financial crisis

A profound change is taking place in the way businesses are run following the financial crisis and some companies and start-ups are already reaping the rewards. So what are the causes of the changes and how are businesses responding? On the input side, capital is scarce, resource prices are increasingly driven by constraints and becoming more volatile, externalities (such as carbon dioxide and water) are beginning to be priced into the economy, new technologies are emerging with increasing rapidity and talent is becoming increasingly discerning – motivated by a ‘higher purpose’ that most companies did not provide before the financial crisis (befic). The output side of the equation is changing as well, with volatile and…

The future of manufacturing: is it going small-scale?

Globalised manufacturing today involves large-scale manufacturing at a handful of strategic locations around the world, but in a carbon and cash-constrained world are we going to see a return to local, small-scale manufacturing?

A light green Queen’s Speech

The Queen’s Speech confirmed the Green Investment Bank will be enshrine in law in next Parliamentary session, but we will have to wait for another three Queen’s speeches to come and go before we can assess the success of it.

Green Deal pioneers, but will they open the way for more providers?

They’ve been described as the “Green Deal pioneers”, and many of them are small to medium-sized companies, but will the first wave of Green Deal providers be able to open the way to a burgeoning market?

Energy efficiency: getting over the financial hurdle

The financial implications of a green makeover in any business make most managers reticent. So is energy saving investment unrealistic?

A better retailing climate, but what we need is a radical one

The country’s leading retailers are on track to deliver against a set of targets covering their direct environmental impacts and are making good progress in achieving change in their supply chains and encouraging their customers to do more. But without a radical rethink the rate of progress is bound to slow.

Short-termism, and why we need to add ‘value’ to our investments

Short-termism is ruining our investments, but creating a new sustainable model – where investment options are offered direct to investors and are long-term, linked to value creation, lower fee, and transparent –  will require new players in the market and for us to be more active investors.