Blake Lee-Harwood
Blake Lee-Harwood
In 2007 Asda needed support in bench-marking their achievements in sustainability against other retailers and also needed specific help in thinking through the issue of labour standards in the factories overseas that provide garments to George (the Asda clothing brand). Blake provided a bench-marking methodology to help steer future management decisions on sustainability along with advice on specific issues. In order to begin addressing labour standards, Blake organized an NGO-engagement trip to Bangladesh where Asda executives met representatives of worker groups, development charities and campaign organizations. The visit generated a significant increase in mutual understanding of some highly-charged issues and contacts which are still used today. As a result of earlier consultancy work, Blake was invited to join the Asda Corporate Responsibility Advisory Board – a high level group which provides strategic advice on all aspects of sustainability and corporate responsibility.
When the UK government decided to take a global leadership role in tackling climate change it needed to mobilize several parts of the civil service to deliver on an ambitious plan. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office – the diplomatic service for the UK – took on the role of influencing other nations through ‘public diplomacy’ by engaging non-state stakeholders such as the business community, faith groups, environmental NGOs and the media. The FCO recognized the value of the ‘campaign approach’ to communicating a complex subject like climate change and sought an individual who could apply the principles of ‘campaigning’ to the specific context of a diplomatic service. Blake was invited to help as a consultant with the FCO’s plans and over a period of 18 months organized a global programme of workshops and training materials which inspired, informed and supported UK diplomats working on the climate change brief. As a result of the successful project at the FCO, Blake was invited to work with the Department for International Development (DFID) on shaping an international advocacy programme around development and climate change issues.
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership is a global campaign network dedicated to achieving sustainable fisheries through engagement with the seafood industry. The organization faced a specific challenge in organizing an international advocacy initiative to improve the sustainable management of so-called ‘feed fisheries’ – the fish stocks that are used to provide fishmeal and oil for animal feeds and other uses. Feed fisheries have little public profile but are hugely important from a global perspective – they account for a third of all fish caught in the oceans. Blake devised an advocacy programme that engaged with all aspects of the supply chain including retailers that sold products such as salmon that had been fed on fish meal and oil from ‘feed fisheries’. The project also engaged feed manufacturers, agriculturalists, aquaculturalists, campaign groups and the media to raise awareness of a complex (and occasionally obscure) subject with global significance. The project is still ongoing but already the profile of the issue has been raised, there have been several engagements with industry (which is in general quite sympathetic to the introduction of sustainability standards) and a range of stakeholders now have this issue on their radar and are developing policies.
The Open University is the largest open-learning university in Europe and covers a wide array of formal academic courses as well as developing complementary projects like TV series. The OU was keen to create a unique defining project around environmental change which would play to the strengths of the university while building a useful legacy for the future. The chosen vehicle for this ambition is ‘Creative Climate’ – a web-based diary project which encourages users to record their experiences of environmental change. Although the OU is highly experienced in producing web content around issues like climate change it needed other partners to help shape the project and Blake has been recruited as a consultant to help navigate the maze of potential external stakeholders and build parts of the outreach programme to government, NGOs and business. The project continues to develop with the intention of maintaining ‘Creative Climate’ until 2020 as a diary site, a space where visitors can interact and a resource for those seeking information. Eventually the project will build into a fascinating archive of the human response to rapid environmental change while inspiring action for the future.