Money can grow on trees: what’s good for nature is good for business

Capitalists don’t care about the environment. Industry, agriculture and commerce have long exploited nature’s resources. The pursuit of profit pays scant regard to the underlying cost of using up the planet’s capital.

That’s the familiar story that we hear about capitalists. But a growing number of voices are claiming that big business and nature in fact make perfect partners.

Intelligence Squared, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, brought together some of the world’s leading conservation experts, along with voices from the worlds of finance and industry, to ask whether working in tandem with nature is the soundest investment that business can make.

CHAIR

Matthew Taylor - Chief Executive of the RSA and soon-to-be Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation

FEATURING

Tony Juniper - Sustainability adviser

Nick Dearden - Director of the World Development Movement

Peter Kareiva - Chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy

Jeremy Oppenheim - Senior partner at McKinsey

Lucy Siegle - Ethical living columnist for The Observer

This event was recorded at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in London, on the 9th of February 2015

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