Director of Greenpeace and co-founder of Futerra, Ed Gillespie spoke at the event.

Future Focus Event helps 150 Cornish businesses become a force for good

Over 150 Cornish businesses attended the sell-out Future Focus Event at the Eden Project on Tuesday 20 February. The ground-breaking People, Planet, Profit event saw delegates leave with the resounding message to make their ‘business with purpose, business as usual’.

Delegates heard from an impressive line-up of key speakers including director of Greenpeace and co-founder of Futerra, Ed Gillespie, Tom Kay, founder of St Agnes based business Finisterre, Matt Hocking, Managing Director of LEAP, and Simon Phillips, Founder of the Changer Maker Group. Speakers spoke about global movements to becoming more responsible in business, behaving with purpose and how to embed this within their business ethos and every day operational practice.

Tom Kay, took to the stage to speak about how passion and optimism drove him to create a brand which has employed sustainable principles from the start. Tom talked about the exciting Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with University of Exeter, with the projects ultimate aim being ‘to make wetsuits from wetsuits,’ opening up closed loop manufacturing to the industry.

In the afternoon a group of Cornish businesses got an opportunity to explore new thinking from two flourishing movements with University of Exeter academics and local Business owner Matt Hocking (LEAP), including The Circular Economy and B Corporations.

Tom Kay, exclusively announced that Finisterre have become a certified B Corporation, one of a handful in Cornwall. Hopefully with the help of Future Focus, the University of Exeter and local business leaders more Cornish businesses will get the opportunity to receive particular advice and support on becoming a B Corporation or adopting a more Circular approach to their business.

Future Focus Events, run by Unlocking Potential in partnership with the University of Exeter, bring inspiring and influential speakers together and put them in front of Cornish Businesses to help share global ideas and future-proof business. To find out more about the next event, please email futurefocus@exeter.ac.uk

Date: 28 February 2018