The Hillary Symposium

Live from the Hillary Symposium Trading Floor

June 5th, 2009

“…icons of our time…Julia Roberts, George Clooney….Al Gore – Global Warming is the theme of the whole (Vanity Fair) magazine – this is something very different. But we face a triple crunch, financial, energy and climate and we need, all of us, to respond.” Jeremy Leggett, the UK’s most prominent renewable energy CEO and the Hillary Institute of International Leadership’s international Laureate — 2009.

The best stories are those that defy convention and resolve conflict. The second annual Hillary Symposium did the first and had little need of the latter. It set out to model a cross-sectoral trading floor, based on the moot of a ‘Carbon Positive’ Christchurch city-state.

Leggett’s initial provocation as the Hillary Laureate was a graphic, and very powerful exploration of the coming together of three primary challenges, one which held his audience riveted throughout and in the Q&A that followed live from London. “As we head toward Copenhagen, we know what we’re capable of collectively, if we manage to get to tipping-points where progress in society occurs at the pace of epidemics — that’s what we have to angle towards…”

High level influencers across sectors had from the very fine ‘Crumpet Club’ breakfast to lunch to be strongly provoked, reflect and respond. By the time the first two of a six hour intensive series of provocations and reflections were done,  no-one on the local ‘trading floor’ was debating the issue, or seeing the challenge as too hard — energy in the Crumpet Club’s intensive space was palpable — deals were being done. Business commentator Rod Oram and entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds followed Leggett’s initial provocation,  laying out the opportunities for NZ and Christchurch. Oram described the nation’s ‘must-do’ next  leap forward as sustainability, Clark-Reynolds called on government to get fully onboard for the December global climate round in Copenhagen — a breakthrough US/China climate deal at its core. And Excelerator Institute Director Lester Levy reminded participants of one of Leggett’s key assertions, “It’s not enough to say we care (mildly) — we are all leaders — and need to step up”.

A cacophony unfolded as the trading floor process got underway — senior players from EECA to CECC to Canterbury University, Ngai Tahu, City and Regional Councils, Alliance, Buddle Findlay, Synlait, National Bank to generation Z & Y jockeyed for opportunity and profitability — just what might Christchurch city-state do to become Carbon Positive? Nick Marsh reminded delegates the Danes have done it driven by the oil crash of 1973 — not rocket science, just a national imperative!

Then a pause — taihoa,  for breath. Bishop Victoria Matthews eloquently articulating the ethics of challenging our behaviours, putting the planet’s health first.  Ngai Tahu’s  Sacha McMeeking on the need/opportunity to value cross-cultural conversation and Project Litefoot’s Hamish Reid re-posing a recurrent core question — what about Mom and Pop? — as his sports-star cohorts  the Evers-Swindell twins, Michael Campbell and Conrad Smith talked in plain language about making a garden, offsetting travel emissions and changing light-bulbs.  By lunch, the ‘carbon positive’ initiative outcomes flowed and two major themes emerged.

National Bank led the charge on Energy mooting new reduced-interest loans to match Government’s budget initiative. Trading with EECA and MfE on the policy and metrics, drawing in City Council on energy best practice and insulation beyond the building code, and professional service firms Buddle Findlay, KPMG and Deloitte responding with goodwill for the necessary support. Chamber of Commerce and CDC offered ‘form and function’ to sustainable start-ups. Ngai Tahu reflected on how this might be applied to its Wigram development – 2,500 houses to be built ‘just down the road’ in the next decade.  Federated Farmers and Hikurangi Foundation’s Tom Lambie  tied in progressing water as a key Canterbury issue — farming dams that can be models hill country storage, an energy, win-win-win –  gravity pressurizing water for all of Canterbury, eliminating deep-well pumping and making irrigation electricity-neutral. And Air NZ chimed in with the development of bio-textiles for uniforms.

Generation Y & Z delegates from Wayne Francis Trust and Ngai Tahu challenged all sectors to help their 15% of the population forward with the global  message of 350 ( 350 ppm  the safest concentration of CO2 for all eco-systems), with October 24 the global celebration of this campaign. Inspired by the extraordinarily successful Obama campaign youth-base , they were invited to social network with LA-based Zaproot TV, the unconventional news show covering the modern Green Revolution with millions of viewers world-wide.

And finally Canterbury University’s deputy Vice Chancellor Ian Town — “The future is in the hands of the people we’re training today”. Finalising its sustainability strategy, he indicated new investment will be in extra-summer student-ships (a 50%  fees for sustainability courses challenge coming from The Press’s own David Williams). Celebrating collaboration between UC and Lincoln University, more dialogue with all sectors was invited and an outcome may well be a think tank, where cross-sectoral ideas are debated, thrown around, and given back to this Christchurch, city-state community. All symposium content was web-cast and is available to all on  HillarySymposium.com.

Given the Institute’s mission of leveraging exceptional mid-career leadership on Climate Change solutions (2008-12), its international event later this year in Leggett’s home-town, London, will continue momentum and progress from both will be fed into the Copenhagen mix in December. June 5th, Christchurch, 2009 celebrated the fact carbon-positive, economic opportunity from climate change is absolutely doable.

Institute Trustee and Symposium facilitator Peter Townsend thanked all for their contributions individually and as financial partners in the event and Hillary Summit Chair David Caygill’s closing acknowledgments reflected on the governor’s demonstrably fine choice of Jeremy Leggett as the Institute’s first Hillary Laureate and upon the day’s other key message.  Leadership is needed from all levels of society, a sentiment with which Sir Ed would heartily concur.

Mark Prain, Executive Director, The Hillary Institute for International Leadership
June 5, 2009