What kind of initiatives should the Forum be aiming to implement?

FT.com asks this question in an online poll.

Some of our existing initiatives have been quite active in the last year or so. The Disaster Resource Network used our business expertise to lend a hand in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami. The education initiative has now become the Global Education Initiative - the Jordan Education Initiative helped 10,000 students in 300 schools and has been replicated in the Palestinian Territories and Rajasthan. After working with our business partners to establish AIDS programmes in the workplace, the Global Health Initiative now wants these companies' suppliers and distributers to do the same. They have 2 catchy announcements coming up in the next few days...

But back to the original question - what kind of initiatives should the Forum implement?

Comments

[Arthur Smith]

I believe the most important thing you could do is a renewable energy initiative - perhaps in partnership with REN-21 (I have no relationship to them, but they seem like the right sort of group from what I've read of their stuff). The Forum's Greenhouse Gas Registry is a nice start - but you only seem to have a handful of companies signed up to that so far. This could be a similar registry, but with a measurable set of goals for investment to quantify how well different companies and organizations are doing in this ergard.

A commitment to renewables investment (say, 10% of corporate energy expenditures as a standard) could make a huge difference.

Lest this is restating the obvious, we need large-scale renewables investment for three major reasons:

* The world seems to be running low on oil - evidenced by recent high prices, and the predictions of the "peak oil" crowd.

* Whether or not we're already running low on oil, the remaining supply comes from a small group of nations with a troubled history; allowing them to hold other nations hostage, or encouraging military adventurism by energy consuming nations, is not good for world stability.

* If we switch from oil to other fossil fuels somehow, we still have the carbon dioxide problem; global warming is one of the most serious threats to our future here, so developing alternatives is essential.