Our first World Economic Forum

We are really honoured and delighted to join the World Economic Forum as Social Entrepreneurs today. The reason we wanted to become a part of this network is to share what we have learnt in building and creating truly sustainable communities and businesses. We also want to learn ourselves by talking with and listening to world leaders about how best we can help in the global mission to transition to a sustainable future. This is a particular focus of our work right now in the run up to next June's UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

It was brought home to us just how high level the World Economic Forum is as we arrived this morning. We saw the tight security with many police and then as we took our seats both the Chancellor and President of Austria and the Prime Minister of Ukraine addressed the plenary. It is so high level there were even questions from the floor from Ministers! It was fascinating to hear them all speak about the very same things that are on our minds – energy and resource security – and how to create sustainable economies in their respective countries and regions. After presenting us with our award this morning, Hilde Schwab, chair and co-founder of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship advised us to please talk to everyone here as we are all on the same level. We have already made some great government level contacts and will definitely keep networking.

We wouldn't be here at the World Economic Forum without all the skill and effort of the fantastic team at BioRegional and all our amazing partners as together we commit to try and achieve sustainability or what we call "one planet living". We hope we can say thank you to them by really multiplying our joint efforts this week at the World Economic Forum.

Sue Riddlestone and Pooran Desai

Editors Note
Sue Riddlestone and Pooran Desai, BioRegional Development Group, United Kingdom;
Regional Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, Europe, 2011

BioRegional Development Group invents and delivers real-life sustainable communities and businesses. This includes the multi-award-winning BedZED eco-village in London where BioRegional have their main base and seven companies including green property developer BioRegional Quintain, kerbside recycling for SMEs, clean tech for the paper industry and local charcoal supplies to national retailers. BioRegional developed the “one planet living” sustainability design and delivery framework out of their practical experience which is now being used by manufacturers, retailers, local authorities and events such as the London 2012 Olympics and in fifty countries around the world. BioRegional have sister organizations or representative offices in North America, China, Greece, Mexico and South Africa.