Leading by Example: Kingfisher

What

The company has identified four priorities for Net Positive where they can work with their businesses, suppliers, partners, and their customers towards making a net positive impact:

• Timber
• Energy Innovation
• Communities

But how does this ground-breaking initiative work in practice? Join this exceptional session and learn from Ian Cheshire, the Guardian Sustainable Business Leader of the Year.

Not content with merely achieving neutrality in resource consumption, energy efficiency, and carbon output, Kingfisher’s CEO Ian Cheshire wants his company to achieve a Net Positive output – expanding and replenishing the earthly stocks from which the company’s revenues depend. As he puts it: “Doing less evil is a good thing, but could we go beyond that? Being a positive force for good is a much more motivating idea than just not increasing the amount of evil you do."

Who

Ian Cheshire, CEO, Kingfisher

Ian Cheshire is widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of sustainable business. As CEO of Kingfisher (the parent company of B&Q) since January 2008, he has been outspoken in his view that the organisation's whole business model needs to fundamentally shift. His vision of B&Q's customers renting power drills as opposed to buying them (on average drills are only used for six minutes a year) has captured imaginations, and is widely used as an example of a mainstream business adopting a more collaborative approach to the products and services it provides.

Ian is also a Non-Executive Director of Whitbread plc and lead non-executive member on the Department for Work and Pensions Board. He is a member of the Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change and a Member of the Employers’ Forum on Disability President’s Group.

In May 2012, Ian was honoured for his contribution to the advancement of business sustainability, with the Guardian Sustainable Business award for Leader of the Year.  
 

When

12 February 2013, from 12.30 to 13.30 CET