Sustainable developments in Birmingham

Birmingham-based FRSA, David Middleton, faces a hectic early November promoting the values of sustainable development across the city. On 1 November he co-leads a half-day multi-sectored conference at the MAC in Birmingham and also an In ConveRSAtion event with the RSA’s Sustainability Network. On 7 November he launches his third novel, The Hwanung Solution.

The conference will explore “the art of the possible” in creating low carbon, sustainable communities. David says: “Communities have to change to meet new challenges such as pollution, growing population, pressure on resources and the consequences of climate change. By showing new ways already deployed by some people, we hope to encourage others to do the same.” The event is chaired by former West Midlands CBI Director, Beverley Nielsen, a Director of Birmingham City University. Speakers include four FRSAs - Noha Nasser, Geoff Henderson, Susan Harris and David. Noha of Mela Associates, is the RSA’s “Bridging Cultures Expert”. Geoff’s Urban Hax has the mission “to build a community of makers, tinkerers, innovators and hobbyists.”   

Susan Harris, Leader of the RSA Sustainability Network, will also head an “In ConveRSAtion” event immediately after the conference to consider potential forward actions and opportunities for the RSA network in the West Midlands. 

On 7 November, David is joined at Waterstones Birmingham by internationally respected arctic explorer, Mark Wood, to launch David’s third novel. David says: “Like the first two, this is a fast moving, Bond-like adventure and a covert way of carrying messages to a wide audience about the enormous challenges we confront. The Hwanung Solution is about climate change, especially its impact on the Arctic, people who live there, and the political and military consequences of new maritime routes as sea ice melts.

The novels are based on an idea born 25 years ago. Ahead of the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, a small group of people met in Birmingham to consider how they might contribute to it. Their “Tree of Life” was taken to Rio as a WWF initiative. Ambitions to inject sustainable development values into the scripts of television soaps to convey important messages to the public went nowhere. “But I never forgot the basic idea and the books are, 25 years later, a reincarnation of that idea,” says David. 

David was Co-founder and CEO of the Midlands Environmental Business Network, and CEO of the UK branch of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.