By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent
Charities could be irrelevant by 2030 if business leaders put global prosperity on a par with profit, according to eco-entrepreneur Arthur Kay.
The 24-year-old founder of innovative green energy business bio-bean and recent Green Challenge and Guardian Sustainable Business Leader of the Year winner, will call on fellow entrepreneurs to spell out how their future business models will actively create a fair, clean, green and equal world at the UCL Institute of Global Prosperity (IGP) event, Countdown 2030, in London this Saturday.
He says: “I take the view that if we get to the point where charities are irrelevant because business is thinking about how it can perform social good without having to feel guilty about its activities, then that would be a win.
“That means having a socially beneficial core at the heart of business, rather than just relying on CSR policies or trying to be ‘less bad’.”
Kay will address the event alongside leading names at the cutting edge of redrawing the way we live, work and play to create a sustainable future, including Jonathon Porritt CBE, founder of Forum For The Future, and renowned social anthropologist and IGP founder Professor Henrietta Moore.
The one-day event, being held across venues in Bloomsbury and East London’s Olympic Park, is designed to engage the Millennial generation in thinking about their role as citizens of the world, and leaders of the future, in creating a world free from poverty that fits with the UN’s 2030 vision.
Professor Henrietta Moore says: “It’s becoming increasingly clear that Millennials are the make-or-break generation. They are the ones who will be leading the world in 2030, so we need to get them engaged now in applying their innovative thinking and fresh ideas to the major challenges we face as a planet between now and then.”