Food Ethics in practice! (27apr07)

Was rather flustered arriving at my first Food Ethics Council (www.foodethicscouncil.org) meeting and finding no-one in the allocated meeting room at University College London. It transpired that the meeting had moved across the road - and I hadn't picked up the last minute change on my email.

When I heard why the meeting room had been moved I was rather impressed (not with the University though). The original room was located on the 2nd floor. Apparently this meant that the University would not be able to provide tap water in jugs - we would have to have individual bottles of water. And be required to drink from disposable coffee cups. The reason? Health and safety regulations meant that they couldn't carry glass or china up the stairs and there wasn't a lift! Golly.... Another hitch was that the caterers used in that building couldn't provide any fair trade food.

So the meeting was moved to a ground floor location and we poured water from jugs into glasses and ate fair trade food! It would be great if there were more organisations who avoided bottled water and disposable mugs at meetings. I sometimes get really thirsty rather than break open a new bottle!

A McDonald's Experience

I thought I'd do a bit of comparison on fuel efficienciency between the UK and the US. Went to Heathrow in an 8-seater vehicle - it was on its way to collect a large group. But at 36mpg even that was less thirsty than the flashy black Lincoln that collected me from Chicago's O'Hare airport - it did 21mpg. It struck me that taxi companies would quickly switch to more fuel efficient cars if their clients required it. But there's a long way to go in America - on arrival I saw no less than 6 stretch limos through the aeroplane window before we had stopped moving.

Putting my watch back 6 hours meant I was in time for an evening reception hosted by McDonalds. I met a few of their key players, such as Bob Langert, who heads their CSR deapartment. He looked much younger and fitter than I had imagined - the toned look was apparently as a result of being an enthusiastic tennis player (I didn't ask him how many McDonalds meals he ate in a week!). I've discovered that Bob also has a blog (http://csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com). He gives an interesting perspective on the greening of corporate America.

The main McDonalds event was quite a glitzy affair. The audience sat at tables dotted around the room and the main presenter Frank Luntz, billed as the 'hottest pollster' in America, took an inclusive approach. He roved on and off the stage with his portable microphone asking the audience questions. One was about what we saw as the main priorities for men versus women. Apparently, alarm bells should start ringing if you're a man whose wife puts money top of the list - it generally means she's thinking about divorce!

We had a short briefing session and make up (even the men) in preparation for the cameras, before taking seats on stage. My fellow panellists were: Dr Miriam Nelson, a nutritionist from Tufts University; Glen Prickett from one of America's leading NGOs - Conservation International (www.conservation.org); Tony Long, Director of WWF's European Policy Office (www.panda.org/epo) ; Ed Freeman from the University of Virginia and author of newly published book Managing for Stakeholders; and Karen van Bergen, Vice President of Corporate Relations at McDonalds Europe.

We had been told to be provocative and to give external opinions of McDonalds (apart from Karen!). I took them at their word and explained to the largely McDonalds audience that I didn't share the sentiments of Frank Luntz, who had declared he was a big McDonalds fan. I explained, that I'd been sued by the company nearly 20 years ago (see blog posted on 5 April 2007 titled - A few hours in Naples) and haven't been into one of their restaurants since - nor have I taken my children!

But I have to give credit to McDonalds for changing their game. Even before I had been engaged to talk to their European Management Team last month, I was impressed with how they had responded to Greenpeace's campaign on rainforest destruction caused by soya used in chicken feed (see earlier blog) and by their commitment to more climate-change friendly coolants in refrigeration. Both these issues are covered in The New Green Consumer Guide. And the very fact that they invited me to be on a platform and encouraged a critique of the company, shows that they've moved on. Quite a few of the McDonalds people I spoke to said that the McLibel case had to be one of the biggest mistakes in their history.

Had some time off in the afternoon, so I went on a boat down the river and onto the lake. There was a commentator on board. So now I know that the Trump Tower is being built in Chicago, that the Wrigley family tried soap powder before discovering the potential in gum and that Sears went out of business when internet sales took over.

This excursion was followed by a seismic event. I was taken to supper at a super deluxe McDonalds restaurant down town by Brian Kramer, Senior Manager in CSR at McDonalds and Dr Sebastian Csaki, who works in their Government Relations office in Brussels (see photo). I'm afraid to admit that even my very charming hosts didn't convert me to culinary delights of the restaurant - except the fries, which were delicious. Between us we had a selection of chicken dishes, iced coffee, apple and grape salad with a yoghurt dip and of course the aforementioned fries. There was little resemblance to the menu that I remember when it was simply a choice between a Big Mac, a cheeseburger and a regular hamburger, with an assortment of shakes and fizzy drinks. But there was still mountains of packaging.

Another thing that's changed is the regional differences in McDonalds across the world. Apparently they sell porridge in the UK, shrimp in Thailand and other exotic dishes depending on the location. And if you're concerned about the nutritional content of your food there's lots of information about that on pack. I discovered that the extra large fries contained 47% of my recommended daily fat intake - even that didn't put me off. But, as I found out in the morning session, McDonalds takes the obesity issue very seriously. I'm hoping that climate change and the environment is recognised to be at least as important - at the moment I think those in the organisation who believe this are a relatively rare breed!

It was an interesting experience - I'm looking forward to seeing where the company is heading......

May 2, 2007 McDonalds Head of CSR blogged his version of my visit........

A Visit to McDonald's

Last week, Julia Hailes, a co-founder of SustainAbility, joined us in Chicago at our Corporate Relations Conference.

Julia participated in a panel discussion that explored our CSR past, present and future. We encouraged her to be provocative because we want to be challenged to create game changing social and environmental policies and programs. And she sure delivered. She has strong opinions about McDonald's, and she's not afraid to vocalize them.

I think you would find her recap of her "McDonald's Experience" quite interesting. You can read about it on one of her latest blog entries.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

-Bob Langert - http://csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com/default.asp?item=256774

Youth Media and G Whiz (17apr07)

Met Justin Smith from Youth Media (www.youthmedia.co.uk) in a juice bar on Edgware Road. He's been tremendously successful with his student communications business. We discussed a number of ways in which green messages might be included as part of his package. There's so much that schools, universities and students could be doing to reduce their environmental impact, so it would be great to reach that audience.

On my way back from this meeting I spotted a vibrant coloured mini car - it turned out to be a G-Whiz waiting for test run. Simon Reed, a green design student, had been employed by Going Green (www.goinggreen.co.uk), the company that imports G Whiz, to give demonstrations. When I asked if I could take a Simon's photo, alongside the car, he kindly offered to give me a ride! I don't often jump into cars with strange men but he looked quite safe, so I climbed inside.

We circled Marble Arch, whilst he told me that the car currently has a range of between 40-50 miles before it needs re-charging. To get the battery to full power, however, you need to leave it charging overnight. Although you can get it up to 80% charge in a couple of hours, this isn't advisable because you'll reduce the overall capacity of the battery, if you do this regularly. Later this year G Whiz will be switching to lithium batteries, which are more versatile and will last longer.

Given that I'm rather prone to running out of fuel, I asked what you do if you find yourself caught short. I was told that anyone buying a G Whiz gets one years free membership to the Environmental Transport Association - ETA (www.eta.co.uk) and they'll come and pick up your car and take it home.

Book fair, the Park and Chrome Radio (16mar07)

Earl's Court Exhibition Centre is a nightmare. I went to the International Book Fair for a series of meetings with overseas publishers and agents. Had to queue about 5 times before finally getting to the right part. Even trickier was navigating between floors - it was surprisingly difficult to find the stairs.

The whole set up is a bit like speed dating (I imagine!). Appointments are made for half hour slots, so you have to make a good impression fast and then rush off to the next one. I saw publishers from Korea, Japan, US, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands during the morning. And I wasn't envious of my agent Sara Menguc, who had to keep on going for the full three day event.

My next meeting couldn't have been more different. Jules Peck, who heads the Quality of Life Policy Group (www.qualityoflifechallenge.com) strolled towards my al fresco lunch spot at the Lido on the Serpentine. Beautiful sunny day with tourists playing around in boats and wading in Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain, despite signs saying that this wasn't allowed. I've only seen negative publicity about this water feature but I rather liked it.

Arriving at Slaughter & May's offices I noticed the very bare reception - only decorated by two large vases of long stemmed roses. I wasn't struck by their beauty - rather the opposite. I wondered why the company chose decoration with such a high carbon footprint - and probably an extremely toxic one too. It would have been far more impressive to commission an imaginative and beautiful piece of artwork that wouldn't need replacing on a daily basis. And probably cheaper too.

My email news service tells me that flower exports from Ecuador has led to a dramatic expansion of the international airport in Quito, whith better cold storage facilities and direct flights to London. Frankfurt airport too is adding another 25% to its floor space, so it can handle the steady growth in fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and flowers flown in from around the world. I think we should be cutting out air imports wherever possible - and cut flowers has to be a good place to start. They're hardly a necessity....

My reason for being at Slaughter & May's offices was to meet Catriona Oliphant. She works there part time and spends what's left of her time setting up a new digital radio production company called Chrome Radio (www.chromeradio.com) She was fizzing with ideas for novel approaches to 'intelligent listening'. The last time we met was over 25 years ago, as we both went to the same school - St Mary's Calne in Wiltshire - and we had no problem recognising each other.

'Rollo' the snake

My children seem to have a social life to rival Paris Hilton. I simply have to arrange how they get to and from friends house and how many I need to cater for at home. Picking up Rollo, my middle son, a few days ago, I learnt that he wanted to get a snake as a pet - a corn snake to be precise. This is not so surprising because the friend he had been staying with had not only got one but christened it 'Rollo'.

Rollo (my son, not the snake) told me that corn snakes are very easy to look after - you just have to keep a few dead mice in your freezer. As further persuasion he said that if we went away for a long period of time, we could just put the snake in the fridge, where apparently it can survive for at least 2 months - presumably hibernating. Rollo was rather baffled by my lack of enthusiasm for storing mice in my freezer. And he wasn't the least bit interested in my query about the conservation merits of owning a snake.

This reminded me of my honeymoon in Madagascar. A highlight of our three week holiday was a trip to a reptile farm with a wonderful array of multi-coloured frogs, snakes and - best of all - chameleons. But we weren't so impressed to discover that this out of the way tourist attractionn was also the largest illegal reptile exporter in the country, contributing to the demise of many already endangered species.

Anyone with any specific information on the conservation merits of corn snakes, let me know. I'm suspicious that it may not be such a good thing. There's also the extra energy that would be needed in keeping a snake house warm - particularly since our house is often pretty cold in the winter months....

Supper Party

Eighteen people to supper last Saturday night. Arranged it ages ago because I wanted to make some introductions.

It was great fun preparing the mostly home-grown feast on the day, with Alex (our marvellous au pair). The main dish was rabbit casserole with flageolet beans - the rabbits were shot by my neighbouring farmer. They were accompanied by potatoes dauphinois, roasted squash and large quantities of greens - all of which had been grown by me or my mother.

First course of fish pate, beetroot and orange salad and mixed leaves was bought from my local delivery service - Somerset Local Food Direct (www.slfd.co.uk). For pudding I made a rhubarb and blackberry pie. And we finished off with local cheeses - Somerset Camembert, Cornish Yarg and Daisy Organic Soft Cheese (www.daisyandco.co.uk), and dark chocolate Easter eggs.

David Gordon, Chair of the Ecos Trust (www.ecostrust.org.uk), where I'm a Trustee, arrived on an old motorbike - I need to check which make. Having recently discovered that most modern motor bikes are extremely fuel hungry, I was impressed to learn that his does at least 50 mpg and some even older bikes will do as much as 75 mpg. Isn't it ridiculous that moderns ones are so much worse? Surely it's possible to design a super powerful bike that's super efficient too....

Walking in the woods

I haven't seen much of the sunny Spring weather over Easter but did manage a lovely walk on Lewesden Hill, outside Stoke Abbott in Dorset. Wonderful beech trees - and one of the had a rope for Connor (my eldest son) and his friend Josh to swing out over the trees. It looked quite scary. On the way back a fox jumped out only a few feet in front of Annette and I as we walked down the muddy track. It was quickly chased away by 'Stout' - my friend's wolf hound....

Easter holidays

Juggling Easter holidays with work commitments is a lot easier with an au pair! Alex is Australian and only with me until mid June but she's wonderful.

Had lunch last week with Arthur Llewellyn (www.hfhmanagement.co.uk), who worked with Green Spirit fuels until December last year, promoting bio-ethanol. He introduced me to a nearby pub, the Mandeville Arms in Hardington Mandeville, which has recently changed hands. The food was excellent, although we were the only customers so word hasn't yet got round.

Last year Arthur was very helpful in giving me information on bioethanol for The New Green Consumer Guide. However, he didn't manage to convince me of its eco virtues - I have devoted a couple of pages of the book explaining why the new ethusiasm for bioethanol and biodiesel could be disastrous for the planet. But Arthur is now interested in biogas or biomethane, which I think has enormous untapped potential. Food waste from supermarkets, factories and households should be collected and converted to useable fuel for cars, electricity and heating. To date this is happening on a minute scale.

A quick visit to Rosie Boycott, who rents a house nearby. She wanted to talk to me about energy efficient lightbulbs, which will be the subject of one of her first regular environmental columns in the Daily Mail. When we'd finished our discussions I didn't need much persuasion to have a couple of games of squabble (which is like a fast version of scrabble). Rosie had a journalist friend staying who was almost professional - she won both times!

Large family gathering for Easter lunch at my brother's house. His environmental credentials are elevated by having LED lights in his kitchen that only use 2 watts of electricity. They're the next generation of energy efficient lighting - still expensive but the price is coming down fast and light quality improving. He's also got solar tubes on his roof for hot water - he installed them himself for less than £1000. On Easter day they apparently reached their maximum temperature because it was so sunny outside.

The following day I took the children to stay with friends just outside Bristol, who have two boys of similar age to mine. Amanda Mitchison helped me enormously with first round editing of The New Green Consumer Guide - she is an experienced journalist and writer, currently writing a children's book. Her husband Jeremy Bristow produced Climate Chaos, the BBC documentary on climate change, with David Attenborough that came out last year.

Amanda managed to get me digging in the vegetable garden. It made me keen to get planting. Love having lots of delicious home grown produce but finding it difficult to get time to prepare the ground and sew the seed. My next door farmer has kindly offered his rotavator, which I think I'll accept...

Some thoughts

Eco-hypocrite

I think that having 5 private jets and an airport in your garden really does preclude you from encouraging people to do their bit for the environment. John Travolta’s carbon footprint is apparently around 800 tons a year, which is about 100 times more than the average Brit. But he claims to be concerned about global warming. I know that we’re all eco-hypocrites to some degree but he really does take the biscuit.

Sustainable fish check!

Have you seen that you can now use your mobile phone to find out if the fish you’re about to order comes from sustainable sources. Friend of the Sea (www.friendofthesea.org ) have set up a project which enables consumers to write the name of the fish and send it to 07781489880 by SMS and they will respond to tell you if it’s a ‘Good Choice’, unsustainable or whether there are any conservation concerns!

Home grown curry

ASDA has launched a campaign to grow all of the ingredients needed for a curry in the UK. It’s testing new growing techniques and setting aside land in the hope of producing the UK’s first commercial crops of plants and spices normally only found in much hotter climates. Sounds good but I’d like to know how much energy is being used to heat the greenhouses – probably a lot more than it would take to import the ingredients from wherever they’re grown naturally……

Standby TV equipment

Apparently the investor’s on Dragon’s Den had never been united in their desire to invest in a business or product but they were the other night. And the object of their enthusiasm was a specially designed plug that enables your TV, Video, DVD player to power down to zero energy when in stand by mode, thus saving energy. I’m not sure if it’s the same one but I’ve been sent a weblink to Bye Bye Standby (www.byebyestandby.co.uk), which is selling something similar. I’ve put myself down on the pre-order waiting list – although I’ve made it very easy to turn off the TV and related systems we still don’t always remember. Apparently these gizmos can be used for computers too. But probably not for Sky boxes because they need to be able to download stuff at night – I’ve asked about this, so if I’ll write about it if I find I’m wrong. Of course it will be even better when these devices are fitted as standard but until then I think it’s worth making the investment (payback time is less than a year).

Halogen light bulbs

Halogen light bulbs are a bit of a bug bear of mine. I think people have far too many of them, they seem to wear out fast, get very hot and worst of all aren’t energy efficient. But following my complaints about this to John Coffey who runs Energy Saving World (www.energysavingworld.co.uk), they’ve started stocking energy efficient halogen replacements. The bulbs are called GU10s and can be bought from their website. Try them and see what you think – my horror of halogen bulbs means I don’t have any, so I can’t relay my experience. Let me know if you have any feedback.

A few hours in Naples (29mar07)

Should I even admit to flying to Naples for a stint of no more than 3 hours? Perhaps even more heretical was that I went to make a presentation to the European Management team at McDonalds.

This is a company I haven’t been very fond of in the past – they tried to get the original Green Consumer Guide taken off the shelves. We had said that McDonalds was ‘implicated in tropical rainforest destruction’ by using beef from cows reared on Amazon rainforest land. But when Greenpeace made similar allegations in 2006, this time relating to soya used in chicken feed, McDonalds responded very differently. I talked to Greenpeace to get their views – they said “What struck us was that they didn’t just get their own house in order, they tried to get others on board too”. Greenpeace are now targeting Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken who have, to date maintained a stony silence on the issue.

I was picked up in Naples by a driver who was fulfilled my stereotype of a Southern Italian man – he even kept his sunglasses on in the tunnels! It was a short visit but a momentous one. I haven’t been to a McDonalds restaurant for at least 20 years and hadn’t envisaged putting them on my client list – even though I do work with a number of other multi-national companies. Perhaps this is truly an indication that the world in 2007 has really changed – for the better.

On my return to the UK I found messages about an article being written in the Financial Times about my ‘date with McDonalds’. They’d heard about it from an answer I gave at the National Trust Question Time event the previous day. I was amazed. Tongue in cheek they likened my rapprochement with McDonalds to that of Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams!

National Trust Question Time on Climate Change (28mar07)

Arriving at the Royal Geographic Society early turned out to be a good thing. I was able to participate in discussions about topics covered in the Question Time style debate ahead of time - and meet a number of people from the National Trust who were involved in organising the event.

Talked to Fiona Reynolds, Director-General of the National Trust, on the way in - she was very friendly. Other panel members were David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment; Professor Philip Stott from the University of London; Steve Howard, the CEO of the Climate Group (www.theclimategroup.org); and Alex James, best known as bass player in the band Blur. It was chaired very ably by Rosie Boycott, journalist and first woman editor of a national daily newspaper - she has also written the Foreword to The New Green Consumer Guide.

The debate started with a question I get asked all the time - 'what's the point of us in the UK doing anything to combat climate change, when there's exponential growth going on in China and India?' People will often then point out that we only represent 2% of carbon emissions worldwide. I remember cursing the radio when I heard Margaret Beckett, who was then the Environment Minister, quoting this statistic - it's clearly de-motivating. She should remember the phrase 'look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves' or in this case 'look after your own CO2 emissions and the climate will look after itself!'.

At the RGS I pointed out that the 2% figure quoted for the UK doesn't include emissions from all the products we buy from China. So challenging Chinese manufacturers on energy efficiency issues will help reduce their contribution. Equally, they may not follow our lead in cutting carbon emissions but they're even less likely to take any drastic measures if they feel they're acting alone. And a member of the audience said he thought that Britain should be leading the move to scale down carbon emissions just as we led its scaling up in the Industrial Revolution. I agree.

Other questions were asked about the impact of air travel, carbon off-sets, food miles, supermarket shopping and most contentious of all, wind power! David Miliband is an enthusiastic supporter, but Fiona Reynolds restricted her enthusiasm to smaller scale wind projects. I was alone in saying that I think wind turbines are beautiful - but the applause indicated that the comment resonated with the audience.

Dinner afterwards with fellow panellists and other interested parties at Kensington Place before heading off to Gatwick for the night. Horrified to discover that I'd left my passport in a case being taken home by my mother. Decided not to make the trip back into Central London and arranged a taxi to pick it up. But it meant I only got about 3 hours sleep before heading to Naples.

London Meetings - 28mar07

For the only time this week I managed to lie in. Then found a man at Luxembourg airport who I hoped would help me access Wifi for the first time with my new tablet laptop (I bought it on Ebay). But it seems I haven't set the computer up properly, so won't be able to download emails until I get home. Addiction to e-messaging means there's a nagging feeling that I've missed something important.

Flew to City Airport for the first time - amazingly convenient. Met Rishi Bhattacharya from Edleman PR for lunch at the Avenue Restaurant in St James Street. He's going to be helping with PR around the launch of The New Green Consumer Guide, alongside my publisher - Simon & Schuster. I didn't manage to dissuade him from ordering what I assumed to be unsustainable cod from the menu - but have to admit that with crusted herbs and salt it looked really delicious. Wondered if the Avenue has a policy on sourcing sustainable fish - I didn't see anything written about it. Although policies of this sort are currently exceptional, I predict that they'll be almost universal in a few years time.

My next meeting was with Nick Hayes, director of Sustainable Development at the Building Research Establishment or BRE as it's more commonly known (www.bre.co.uk). We'd arranged to meet at Starbucks but when I went into the coffee shop it smelt of stale milk, so we adjourned to the Ritz instead! Actually I had another motive too, which was to recharge my mobile phone. It turns out that the Ritz has a special machine that will do this in 10 minutes, so it was a good idea. Nick was worried that his credibility in the office would be compromised because the Ritz insist on ties being worn. I selected a bright red one from those offered and then took a photo of him.....

Like me, BRE are under siege from businesses wanting help with their environmental activities - in their case the focus is unsurprisingly on buildings. They have set up an impressive system for assessing sustainability issues relating to retail stores - and are working with a number of big companies putting this into practice. Taking a holistic approach they're talking to me about helping them consider issues around sustainable product sourcing.

Luxembourg Finance Industry conference (27mar07)

Luxembourg seemed to be one big building site. From the moment I arrived at the station I was stepping through rubble, being diverted around construction workers and looking at gaping holes in the ground. On my brief tour in the town centre I was also struck by the apparent fecundity of Luxembourg citizens as there were a huge number of shops catering for children and pregnancy. But I've been told that the average number of children per couple is around 1, which is incredibly low. Perhaps the wealthy pregnant women of Luxembourg are just more inclined than most to splash out on maternity clothes.....

The purpose of my visit was to deliver the key note speech at a conference organised by the Association for the Luxembourg Finance Industry (ALFI), held at the Hemicircle conference centre. Although there were apparently 780 delegates, not much more than half of these actually listened to the speeches - there was a great deal of networking....

I can't be sure I managed to persuade those who were listening to put the environment far higher up their list of priorities. However, there were numerous questions from the floor, whereas the previous session hadn't manage to solicit any - and lots of people came up afterwards with great enthusiasm. Also, I've since received an email from one delegate that I didn't meet on the day signed from 'a fan'! At the lunch following my speech I sat next to the Dutch Ambassador - he was clearly well informed on EU environmental initiatives and what the major challenges were for Luxembourg.

One point a number of people made was that fuel in Luxembourg is 25% cheaper than in bordering countries. Apparently the smallest country in Europe (is that right?) is used by many as a filling station... I think a hike in fuel prices would be a good thing. Although that may be a challenge it may be even harder to convince the finance industry that being proactive about their environmental performance could actually increase profits - it certainly hasn't done any harm to M&S's share price!

Outside Brussels with P&G (26th March 2007)

An early start to Bristol airport - dawn arrived as we drove through the outer environs of Cheddar gorge. But weather - I assume fog - delayed my flight to Brussels. Whilst sitting on the floor playing with my upgraded mobile phone (it even has a pedometer), I was greeted by Archie Montgomerie, who I've been talking to recently about the potential for biogas and greening the Bath & West Show.

Shared the car sent by Procter & Gamble with Martin Charter from the Centre for Sustainable Design. We also shared thoughts about the substantial briefing papers we'd been sent in advance of this first meeting of the Expert Advisory Panel, set up by P&G's Fabric & Homecare division.

The Groenhoven Estate (www.groenhovenestate.com), near Brussels describes itself as a high tech mansion with a 20 hectare garden, set in the midst of 1000 hectares of nature. Although only 25 minutes from the airport the taxi driver regularly consulted his map and still managed to get lost. But it was a splendid building - 500 years old and clad in an ultra modern glass exterior, with mirrors and solar panels. There was also a large and original Rubens hanging in the stairway.

As well as Martin Charter, the other panel members were Richard Holland from WWF International; Dr Torben Madsen, Director of Centre for Environment and Toxicology in Denmark; Christina Garcia-Orcoyen Tormo from the Fundacion Entorno & Business in Spain; and Dr Philippe Ossett, from Ecobilan in France. The rest of the dozen or so people around the table were from different parts of P&G. Our day included several presentations and a lot of discussion.

The food was delicious but beef on the menu for both lunch and dinner prompted a discussion about the inefficiency of meat production - 54 calories of fuel for just one calorie of protein for beef, compared with 2 calories of fuel for one calorie of protein from soya. Richard Holland, a fish eating vegetarian (a pescarian?), pointed out that when I'm asked if there is one thing you can do to save the world, I should say 'avoid eating beef'. I think he's right but I haven't cut meat from my diet yet - just restrict myself to good quality stuff and try not to eat it too often!

Whereas most guests stayed at Groenhoven, Richard and I were sent off to a truly delightful B&B nearby - but it wasn't like any B&B I've ever stayed in before. Called Oase , which is Dutch for 'oasis', it had a water theme (www.kriancy.be). My room had a huge water bed, the loos were filled with rainwater and at least some of the hot water was heated by solar. Despite these eco-measures, the Jacuzzi and sauna would have meant this mini spa was a high energy and water user! Nancy, who was part of the husband and wife team who run it, told me they also collect bottled water from all over the world. I was sorry I didn't manage to photograph this unusual collection but by then I was en route to Brussels Nord and a train to Luxembourg.