Economy
Blue & Green Tomorrow’s 2014 guides
All our 2014 guides, focusing on various aspects of sustainability, in one place.
In 2013, we published guides on sustainable investment, sustainable tourism, fair trade, corporate social responsibility and more. You can see them all here.
We also did a range of guides in 2012, kicked off by the inaugural Guide to Sustainable Investment. You can see them all here.
Otherwise, here are the latest publications from this year.
January – The Guide to Sustainable Tourism 2014
With insight and advice from leaders in the travel and tourism space – including the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO) and ABTA, the Travel Association – we have compiled a comprehensive guide that details how your wonderful holiday experiences can also balance the needs of people and the planet.
Inside, you’ll hear about trips overseas to places like Vietnam, Cambodia and the Faroe Islands, and how sustainable and responsible tourism is playing a crucial role in communities within each country.
For those who prefer holidaying closer to home, we speak to the Landmark Trust, a charity that works to transform architecturally important and historically significant buildings into attractive holiday lets – the very essence of sustainability – and look at a range of beautiful UK-based properties offered by cottages4you.
Meanwhile, if you prefer bustling urban centres over quiet rural communities, Rachel Dodds of Sustaining Tourism writes about how you can be responsible in the city. We also look at five green European places taking big steps towards a more sustainable future.
The 19th century French writer Gustave Flaubert once said, “Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” Not only this, but it allows you to see new and exciting cultures, people, communities and places. It would be selfish and wrong to think that your holiday experience should come above even one of those.
Click here to visit The Guide to Sustainable Tourism 2014 download page.
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February – The Guide to Sustainable Transport 2014
The pace at which transport has evolved since the invention of the wheel is remarkable.
The introduction of Henry Ford’s mass production model for car manufacturing in 1908 set the ball rolling on a way of getting from A to B that was available to almost everyone, at speeds unimagined by previous generations.
Over a century later, and the world seems a much smaller place. But at what cost?
The environmental and social effects of mass transportation were unexpected. Air pollution, increased obesity, urban sprawl and deaths from road, sea and air transport are all depressing negative side-effects of the 21st century’s transport system. But things don’t have to be this way.
In The Guide to Sustainable Transport, we outline some of the ways in which cars, trains, ships and planes are striving to become more efficient and less damaging to the planet.
We talk to transport firms, campaign groups, thought leaders and investors whose collective insight is helping create a new age of sustainable transport.
And we look at the bigger picture; why it really matters that transport becomes less of an ecological burden and more of a societal benefit – just as it was when Ford broke ground 106 years ago.
Click here to visit The Guide to Sustainable Transport 2014 download page.
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March – The Guide to Sustainable Investment 2014
The insight from some of the industry’s leading lights helps demystify sustainable investment. It makes a compelling case for balancing the needs of people, the planet and everyone’s prosperity through how and where we invest.
We look at the sector’s evolution, from its Quaker roots in the anti-slavery movement to its future investing in solutions to the most pressing sustainability challenges, like climate change and resource scarcity.
We speak to the fund managers seeking to invest in sustainable companies today, as well as the financial advisers whose clients are the investors making it all happen.
The guide also looks at the big picture, asking why sustainable investment matters, and puts a spotlight on the industry from a UK, Europe and global perspective.
More than anything else, investment shapes our future. So investing in, and buying from, the companies that are leading the way on sustainability is the sensible, smart and necessary option. This guide helps you through it.
Click here to visit The Guide to Sustainable Investment 2014 download page.
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May – The Guide to Sustainable Democracy 2014
Providing answers are politicians from the major parties, as well as leading reform organisations, thinktanks and campaign groups. The result is a guide that we hope serves as a starting point on how to combat key issues like voter apathy and falling turnouts at elections.
Also included are the results of a survey that we conducted with Vote for Policies, the online blind taste test that encourages people to vote for the parties whose policies they most agree with, and not the one with the most charismatic leader, for example. We asked nearly 7,000 people what measures they thought would help best reform the political system and the results are fascinating.
We look at the timely issue of Scottish independence and analyse whether Russell Brand is right in telling people not to vote. Meanwhile, crucial context is provided in the form of a feature on the Magna Carta – which turns 800 years old in 2015 – and a review of a recent Intelligence Squared event on the effectiveness of democracy.
Click here to visit The Guide to Sustainable Democracy 2014 download page.
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June – The Guide to Sustainable Philanthropy 2014
At Blue & Green Tomorrow, we spend most of our time writing about sustainable investment, which is about balancing the needs of society and the environment while also making a healthy financial return. But another important and popular use for money is philanthropy or charity, which, like sustainable investment, is about balancing the needs of society and the environment – but this time because it’s simply the right thing to do.
Leading from the front are some of the world’s richest people – Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and co. The Sunday Times’s annual giving list outlined recently that more than 280 individuals featured on its acclaimed rich list had collectively given away £2.387 billion to charity in the past year. This includes the Sainsbury family, who in donations and through its network of trusts gave away £165.3m – or 30.62% of their wealth.
But of course, it’s not just the super-rich doing their bit. The average Briton gives £10 to charity a month, according to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). In a 2013 survey of CAF customers, 97% said their motivation for giving was their personal values and 96% their morals or ethics.
The Guide to Sustainable Philanthropy 2014 takes a look at the philanthropists who are truly changing the world for the better, while also casting an eye on how the future of giving might look. With a range of important social and environmental issues increasing in prominence, the chief causes people give to are slowly changing. Only time will tell whether their good work will be enough.
Click here to visit The Guide to Sustainable Democracy 2014 download page.
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July – The Guide to Sustainable Clean Energy 2014
It is anyone’s guess what Lincoln would make of the faults and possibilities of energy generation in 2014. But after 154 years, he might say we are long overdue in making the most of the vast potential renewable energy has to offer.
Countless studies have outlined just how feasible – and financially sensible – it would be to vastly ramp up our clean energy output. The economy would benefit, society would thrive and the environment would be cleaner.
What’s clear is that the biggest stumbling block is political.
The debate all too often comes back to aesthetics – and whether something spoils the landscape. Nimbyism (‘not in my back yard’) is quickly turning into bananaism (‘build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone’).
But if ever a document has existed to convert the most ardent bananaist, it is the Guide to Sustainable Clean Energy 2014.
Blue & Green Tomorrow’s comprehensive new report expertly sets out the necessity, benefits and opportunities of sustainable energy.
If Lincoln did travel through time into this world of wind farms and climate change, there would be no better text to get him up to speed on the state of energy today.
The guide, now in its third annual edition; delves into the surprisingly distant history of renewable energy, dissects the biggest challenges facing the sector today, and asks what might be powering our hoverbikes in the faraway future.
Along the way, you’ll meet some of the leaders going to great lengths to bring about the low-carbon transition. Prepare to be utterly inspired.
Click here to visit The Guide to Sustainable Clean Energy 2014 download page.
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July – The Guide to Ethical ISAs 2014
Ethical Bank Triodos tells Blue & Green Tomorrow’s readers how to save and invest their money ethically in the 2014 Guide to Ethical ISAs.
No-one likes to pay more tax than necessary, so it’s easy to see what makes ISAs such a popular and widely recommended choice for savers and investors.
But what if, as well as protecting your money from the taxman, you also want to use it to help bring about positive change in the world?
In that case, opening an ethical ISA could be the way to go.
And who could be better to guide you through the ins and outs of saving or investing with an ethical ISA than Triodos Bank, a leading name in sustainable banking.
Click here to visit The Guide to Ethical ISAs 2014 download page.
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