I found myself reading the latest report from the St Paul’s Institute, Value and Values: Perception of Ethics in the City Today.  It has attracted some media coverage, much more than it probably expected.  But I think for the wrong reasons.  We all know the media thrive on controversy.  So the controversy surrounding the handling of the Occupy LSX encampment on the steps of the cathedral has provided them with a great deal of fodder to pontificate, to condemn, to speculate, to completely misunderstand, and to feed upon.  And it was in this context that the report (publication of which was delayed for a couple of weeks) landed.

I’m lucky enough to sitting in my hotel in Nicaragua writing this blog.  The hotel basks in the warming sun and 30⁰C heat in Granada on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, Central America’s biggest lake.  And the city of overlooked by the stunning Mombacho volcano.  But I’m not here for a holiday but for work (I know it’s tough but someone’s got to do it).  Part of that work is to look at a coffee farm which has been certified by the Rainforest Alliance and to see for myself the sustainability benefits this brings.  But what has been really striking to me is how a farmer farming coffee here in Nicaragua has problems keeping the farm operating as a viable economic unit.  Problems that would find resonance with many farmers in the UK.  And how sustainability is part of securing the future, but only if the farmer is also able to get more value out of, and become more powerful in, the supply chain.

I thought I’d return to the subject of my last blog, the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.  My reason is that I think it is worth commenting on a number of other topics that were raised during the discussion of the plan.

Despite all of Unilever’s fine words are there still those who will find it difficult to believe that such a large, and powerful, multinational business can be serious about sustainability.  They will question their power, their ability to dominate markets and squeeze out smaller players.  They will question the inherent inequalities in the supply chain and the unbalanced power relationships that exist between a giant like Unilever and small farmers, producers and suppliers.  They will question the current system of global trade and the injustices contained within the drive for a neoliberal free trade regime.

Last week was an interesting one for any watchers of global environmental politics and the role business, large and small, can play in delivering planet saving solutions.  In Nagoya, Japan the 10^th Conference of the Parties (COP10) of the Conventions of Biological Diversity came to a close.  Grand words for a grand event that can easily be viewed as a huge talking shop.  In the 10 years since the treaty came into being global species and habitat loss has continued apace.  So good intentions maybe, but little by way of concerted action.