Marjorie Scardino in place of Anita Roddick - women in business

Marjorie Scardino, CEO Pearsons

I was originally asked to speak at the Merrill Lynch 'Shaping the Future' event last year. Anita Roddick was scheduled to be the key note speaker and I was rather looking forward to seeing her again. She wrote the foreword to our Green Consumer Guide, published in 1988 and I had seen her quite recently as a fellow judge for ITV Eco Heroes Awards. She died only a few weeks before the Merrill Lynch event and it was re-scheduled for April this year.

Marjorie Scardino, CEO of the Pearson Group replaced Anita. She decided to take 5 principles that Anita lived by as her theme. They were:

1. Take risks: don't be afraid to fail and learn from your mistakes
2. Be yourself: It's OK to be different and be able to laugh at yourself
3. Communicate simply: How you communicate is just as important as what you say - clear, simple language spoken with passion
4. Businesses can lead: They can be a novel force for change
5. Never be satisfied with the status quo....

I found these simple mantras rather inspiring, perhaps because I like to think I run my work life along the same lines.....

But these weren't the only themes of the evening. Aimed at women business leaders it's no surprise that there was some discussion about why there weren't more women in top management positions. In percentage terms the numbers look pretty small. Camilla Cavendish from the Times was also speaking at the event. She agreed with me that part of the explanation for this may well be that there are far less women than men who aspire to be at the very top.

When Marjorie said that her maternity leave had been little more than a week, I thought that it's not so surprising that there aren't more who want to follow in her foot steps. I certainly don't - being self employed is a lot more flexible than working for a large organisation. I did work in the weeks after having my children but it was mostly from home....

I'm not sure what Anita did about maternity leave - I suspect she kept going at a pace.... She was like a whirl-wind... And an inspiration for the rest of us...

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop

Easter Holidays

Monty, Rollo and Connor Bryant (my sons) with friend Baz Simpson at the Science Museum 'Science of Survival Exhibition'

Snow fights and snow men are unusual activities for an Easter holidays. We've managed to fit them in around camping - it wasn't that cold - Easter egg hunts, a rope assault course, dens, bike rides and a trip to London.

Went to see Mamma Mia in the West End. With adaptations of Abba songs throughout, it wasn't at all what I had expected but we all loved it. Having been a bit late booking tickets our party was split, which made the half time break even more frenetic than normal as the children saw it as a final opportunity to get more sweets, ice-creams and drinks. Yikes they're expensive - even worse than the cinema. Actually, I'm more prepared when we go to the cinema - there's a blanket ban on all snacks unless we've managed to smuggle them in from home.

One of the most fun things we did was to go the Science of Survival Exhibition in South Kensington - it opened to the public on 5th April, but we had an advance viewing. I helped advise on a small part of it and have been filmed talking about the different issues - each display has a looped video. I thought the launch would be a seated press event with presenters telling us about the exhibition. In fact, it was much more hands on. And bringing my children was positively welcomed.

We were all able to try out the interactive games and look at the displays without having to compete with much more than film crews and journalists. Part of the fun for my boys was being interviewed about what they thought. They loved it. But I noticed that what they really enjoyed was running around from one set of buttons to another - I'm not convinced they really took in very much of the detail. Wondered if it might have helped to do a quiz at the end to see how much they'd managed to find out - and to have a prize for anyone scoring high marks. I know that I'm not alone in being motivated by a bit of competition!

Followed the Science Museum with a trip to Pizza Organic opposite Gloucester Road tube. It was great. Delicious pizzas, salads and apple juice - and clear information about their policies on sustainable fish sourcing and organic ingredients etc. But didn't notice that they'd thought about their light bulbs - halogen throughout!

Wasn't able to have pudding because the boys had got an idea to go busking. I'd told them that I'd earnt quite good money in Paris in the 80s when I'd danced alongside someone singing Beatles songs (I can't sing). They raced up to Hyde Park and then got cold feet and spent a lot of time planning what they were going to do. Eventually they did start singing - 'We will rock you'. The first coin in the hat was from some women I gave the money to! But after that they managed to attract the attention of three teenage girls who were clearly hugely amused - and gave them a pound each. That was enough - headed home!

In amongst this I went to an all day workshop on air freighting food, am about to having a meeting on degradable plastics and am giving a talk to Merrill Lynch on 'Shaping the Future'. Another 10 days of school holidays left.

Between the Sheets

I spend quite a lot of time staying at hotels or other people's houses, often for only one night at a time. And I realise that I'm getting quite obsessed about sheets. Well actually, not just sheets - pillowcases, towels, bathmats and anything else that has to be laundered. Most of you will have seen little notices in hotel rooms saying that you should leave your towel hung up if you want to use it again. It surprises me that when I've discussed this with people, they often say that hotels only encourage you to use your towel again to save on laundry costs. Maybe, but it also saves energy and water too. I always hang up my towel but, much to my annoyance, I quite often find they wash it anyway! So now I try to make it look like I haven't touched it - and only use the hand-towel, unless I'm having a shower. Another issue is bed linen. Usually the hotel rooms I stay in give me a double bed. That's quite nice from a comfort point of view but what about all the extra laundering. They give you four plump pillows with neatly pressed covers - and a large double sheet. I carefully put all but one of the pillows in the corner of the room so it's absolutely clear that they don't need washing. Hotels obviously have to be scrupulous about cleaning linen and towels but what about friend's houses? I've discovered that re-using sheets is a bit of a taboo, which even if practiced, not many people own up to. One friend I stayed with insisted on washing all four pillow cases on my bed even though I'd only used one because they had to be kept in a set. How mad is that? You might be wondering what I do with guests who come and stay with me! Well, it depends who it is. I have a few regular visitors, like my mother, who don't mind sharing sheets but if I get someone who I know really minds, I do give them newly laundered ones… so don't panic if you're invited. If you think this is all rather trivial, I beg to differ. The energy and water used for laundering is a big part of a hotel's carbon footprint. By encouraging people to be careful with what they use, hotels can save nearly a third of their laundry bill. There are also energy and water savings measures they can take during the washing - like reducing the temperature, using quick wash cycles and avoiding dryers. So next time you slip between the sheets or pick up one of those luxurious, large bath-towels at a luxury hotel, you might spare a thought for the laundry impacts.

Originally published on Telegraph Earth site..
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