[Scpg] Mother Earth News/ In 2008 Permanent Publications, / Permaculture Magazine/ Queen's Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category/ highest honour a company can receive and is called a 'corporate knighthood.'

Mon May 2 08:22:56 PDT 2011

http://www.motherearthnews.com/permaculture/hm-the-queen-meets-permaculture.aspx

My first MOTHER EARTH NEWS blog was all about the 
three ethics of permaculture: earth care, people 
care and fair shares, and how they can positively 
shape what we do with our lives. Today, a 
national holiday in the UK due to Prince William 
and Kate Middleton's wedding, I want to tell you 
the story of when Tim and I went to Buckingham 
Palace and met the Queen and various members of 
the Royal Family. Bear with me, this is 
completely connected to permaculture ethics. Life 
works in mysterious ways!

In 2008 Permanent Publications, the company that 
Tim and I founded in 1990 to publish Permaculture 
Magazine, won a Queen's Award for Enterprise in 
the Sustainable Development category for our 
"unfettered commitment for promoting sustainable 
development internationally." In Britain, this is 
the highest honour a company can receive and is 
called a 'corporate knighthood.' To receive the 
award, our company had to prove that we do our 
utmost to run a low carbon operation, procure as 
ethically and as ecologically as possible, are 
financially stable, have never broken any laws or 
evaded taxes, nurture and develop our staff, look 
after our customers and also make a contribution 
to the local and wider community. In other words, 
we had to embody corporate social responsibility 
and tangibly demonstrate earth care, people care 
and fair shares in the business world. Just 
imagine for a moment if every company on this 
planet did this. What a different world it would 
be.
Part of the prize is an invitation to a champagne 
reception at Buckingham Palace with the Queen and 
Prince Phillip and members of their family. 
Poignantly for me, I was walking in my late 
father's footsteps as he too had received a 
Queens Award on behalf of his company in the late 
1970s.
Now permaculture is pretty alternative and can be 
regarded as radical by many. A few people raised 
their eyebrows in surprise when we won. What were 
we doing hanging out in such conventional, indeed 
hierarchical circles? Well, we believe that it is 
essential that permaculture, organic/ecological 
horticulture and agriculture, renewable energy, 
and indeed responsible, ethical commerce become 
mainstream, and hiding out in some alternative 
backwater is not going to make this happen. We 
have to get out there, talk to whoever will 
listen about others ways of living on this 
wonderful Planet and demonstrate why what we 
practise is commonsenseŠ for all our futures.

The invitation arrived and we set off to London. 
The reception was in two of the Galleries at 
Buckingham Palace. Here hang some of the finest 
paintings in the Royal art collection. We stood 
next to Canalettos, Rembrants and other exquisite 
Old Masters. For me, it was astonishing to see 
them at such close range, so finely preserved 
that their vibrant colours made them look like 
they were painted yesterday. Then we were 
introduced to the Queen and Prince Phillip. It is 
a very surreal experience meeting someone who is 
a global icon. I was surprised at how small she 
is yet so undeniably vital. She smiled a lot, was 
not in the least bit stern, and exuded kindness. 
This took us both by surprise. She is quite 
honestly, charismatic. I hadn't expected that. 
Prince Phillip also shook our hands. I wanted to 
ask him about his truffle inoculated oak orchards 
- he is at heart a farmer - but he took me by 
surprise by personally greeting us with, "Ah, you 
are the publishers!" We did, however, talk at 
length to Princess Anne about biomass for 
heating, renewable energy, and sustainable land 
management. A former Olympic equestrian, she is a 
tall and obviously fit woman. She is intelligent 
and practical, a woman more comfortable on the 
farm than in front of the world's press. She 
asked us, "What do you do?" "We are the media but 
we are nice media!" Look of distaste. "Is that 
possible?" she asked. In fact she proved to have 
a quick wit and a marvellous sense of humour. We 
exchanged some swift banter about the press and 
politics as well having a more serious 
conversation about sustainability and farming.
There is no doubt that the Queen's Award for 
Enterprise has been useful. It has opened doors 
and given us opportunities to go places and speak 
to people about permaculture and sustainability. 
In that year, as well as going to Buckingham 
Palace, I was invited to dine in the company of 
some of the UK's top CEOs and politicians at 
Mansion House in the City of London and met the 
Lord Mayor, and also The Palace of Whitehall (the 
seat of our UK government). But most of all, a 
sector of society that would have previously 
written us off as alternative permaculture hippy 
types suddenly woke up and realised that we are 
utterly serious and what we do is ground-breaking 
and innovative. We also discovered that we have 
friends in unexpected places. One of our 
champions to win the award was the Permanent 
Secretary at DEFRA (the UK Government's 
Department of the Environment, Farming and Rural 
Affairs).
Š The world is changing.
To find out more about permaculture please visit www.permaculture.co.uk  

Read more: 
http://www.motherearthnews.com/permaculture/hm-the-queen-meets-permaculture.aspx#ixzz1LD066hKM
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