Below is a transcription of the speech given by Adam Woodhall at the Climate Justice Demo in front of the Tate Modern museum.  You can watch it here.

"This is a really important day in taking climate action in the world, but I’m going to start off with something that might surprise you a little bit in what I’m saying because fossil fuels are great.  And no, I’m not a fan of the Donald.  

The reason why I say that is because actually if it wasn’t for fossil fuels we wouldn’t have the society that we have at the moment.  This phone that I’m holding in my hand, the Boris bike that I cycled today, the kettle that was powered by the energies from fossil fuels mainly, all of them due to fossil fuels.

So they are really important.  They have been crucial to getting us to this point that we are now.  But they’re not right for our future.  We’ve got to go on a transition and today what I’m going to talk to you about is how maybe we take that transition from disproportionate use of fossil fuels to a low carbon future. 

I like the society I live in. This phone’s pretty cool.  Cycling around on the Boris bike’s great.  Being able to go into that fabulous museum behind you is brilliant.  So it’s how do we keep that and also have much less fossil fuels because that magnificent building behind you was actually obviously a power station.  It was fuelled by oil.  In fact, at its peak it would use 16,000 tonnes of oil a day and it was going for over 100 years nearly.  

“To change the world, you have to throw a better party than those destroying it.” So says Louisa Ziane, Chief Brand and Finance Officer at Toast Ale, the company that makes beer using surplus bread and donates its profits to campaign against food-waste.
 
She and four other inspirational circular economy business leaders took to the stage recently at Circular Economy Club (CEC) London’s event, Fast Five, held at the new co-working space, Sustainable Bankside to showcase some of the UK’s most successful rapid growth circular businesses.
 
They shared insights, triumphs and challenges of rapidly growing successful businesses from circular principles while tackling major world problems such as food waste and resource management head on. It seems no one told these business leaders that you can’t do everything at once.
 
Adam Woohall of Inspiring Sustainability was compere for the evening of presentations and Q&A, with securing investment and managing growth emerging as major themes.

Ten years ago I launched myself into the world of sustainability, and it’s been an amazing roller coaster journey.

In 2006 there were some things I already knew—for example, that sustainability is good for people, profit and planet—but over the years, I’ve learnt many things, just 10 of which are below.

These highlight aspects of my personal story and the wider narrative as I, and sustainability, have developed.

I had a conversation with Tim Haywood, Group Finance Director and Head of Sustainability at Interserve. The topic was ‘inspiring sustainability’ and I certainly left the conversation feeling stimulated and motivated. If you want to hear the full interview, look at the Podcast page.
 
Interserve is a worldwide construction and support service business of 80,000 people in the FTSE250. After a career in finance, Tim joined the company six years ago as FD, and five years ago, took on the sustainability portfolio. Outside of work, he has a passion for gardening, is a competitive rower and loves his family.