Inclusion key to counter global 'perfect storm'

Unprecedented cooperation between business, academia and policy makers with inclusion at the core will be needed to face global challenge of the next 20 years

Building a sustainable future for a world with nine billion inhabitants will require unprecedented cooperation between business, academia and policy makers with inclusion at the core, concluded delegates at a one-day conference led by Imperial College Business School and the Advanced Institute of Management Research.

A keynote speech by the UK Government's Chief Scientific Advisor, John Beddington, outlined the challenges all of mankind will face over the next 20 years. He told the audience of academics, business leaders and NGO representatives that four drivers are combining to create a "perfect storm."

With global population set to reach close to the nine billion mark by 2030, demand for energy will increase by forty per cent and for clean water by thirty per cent - against a background of man-made climate change.

"This combination of drivers is indeed the perfect storm," said the professor. "And it will be the challenge for every person, every country, every region and every continent on earth."

But while the scale of the task is almost incomprehensibly enormous, that perfect storm of challenges creates perfect opportunities, argues Professor Gerard George of Imperial College Business School who hosted the conference.

Said Prof George: "Clearly a twin-track approach is going to be needed. On one hand we will need large partnerships across big business, academia and policy-makers. But we will also need entrepreneurship at the micro and community level.

"We will also see new business models emerging that create social wealth as well as economic wealth. Some of these new models will be implemented this summer in a five-year project in Kenya where they will be tested and the lessons learned disseminated in future events."

Innovation for Inclusive Growth was sponsored by Ecocit, BP, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council.