Efficient resource management is a priority for businesses and governments looking to secure a more sustainable future, tackle climate change and boost the balance sheet. The Futuresource 2009 conference and exhibition, hosted by CIWM (Chartered Institution of Wastes Management) and ESA (Environmental Services Association) at London ExCeL in June, is bringing together politicians and business leaders to discuss waste, recycling and resource management strategies that can deliver against these three key objectives.

“Futuresource 2009 is centred on green growth,” says CIWM chief executive, Steve Lee. “Brown, Obama and the European Parliament have all acknowledged that industries like ours and the services we develop in coming years will be critical to sustainable economic growth and reducing the impact of climate change. Over three days, we will be showcasing ideas and technology that will shape the future and create new jobs in the waste, recycling and resource management sector. Thanks to the interactive conference programme and extensive networking opportunities, professionals from both the public and the private sector will also be sharing their knowledge and experience with policymakers to help set the resource efficiency agenda for years to come.”

The dynamic format of the new Futuresource conference is designed to allow the real issues facing the industry to be roundly debated. Senior Government ministers,

including Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, and Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Nick Herbert MP, will outline the policies and priorities shaping the national and international landscape.

The real implications of delivering these will then be debated in a series of lively head to head sessions. Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government Association’s environment board and Mark Wallace, director of the Taxpayers Alliance, will debate whether local waste services are really being delivered in the public interest, and Michael Warhurst of Friends of the Earth and Hakan Rylander of Swedish waste disposal firm SYSAV will be discussing what role energy from waste should play in the future. On day two, the very real challenge of funding waste services and infrastructure in the current economic climate and the pros and cons of co-mingled recycling collections are the two head-to-head topics, with speakers including Malcolm Ward, ESA Chairman and CEO, Cory Environmental, Richard Skehens, managing director of Grundon Waste Management Ltd, and David Workman, Director General of the British Glass Manufacturers’ Confederation.

In other sessions, representatives from the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly Government will be joined by UK and continental waste management experts in a review of the UK’s progress in terms of the European league table, and speakers including Lord Smith of the Environment Agency, SITA UK chief executive David Palmer-Jones, and Julie Hill of the Green Alliance, will be among the speakers asking what we are trying to achieve and whether we have got our priorities right.

Key stakeholders are the focus of the afternoon sessions on day two. Leading industry spokespeople from household names such as Ford and Sainsbury’s join Shanks Group CEO Tom Drury to discuss what services UK business want from the sector, and the challenge of communicating with the public and other stakeholders to change behaviour will be explored by speakers including WRAP chief executive Liz Goodwin and Jim Meredith, WRG’s Group Chief Executive.

The final day of Futuresource 2009 involves a programme of 12 presentations and discussion sessions grouped thematically into energy from waste, municipal waste collection and management, commercial and industrial waste management, and local authority performance and service efficiency.

Commenting on Futuresource 2009, Dirk Hazell, chief executive of ESA, said: “We are offering a packed conference programme with some of the UK’s and Europe’s leading thinkers on waste management and resource efficiency, backed by a comprehensive trade exhibition with over 300 exhibitors representing the sector and its major client base. Every aspect of the green revolution will be under one roof for three days and the scale of our new event reflects the central role our industry has to play in the sustainable development of UK plc and the global environment. It will be the start of something big.”

Email: pat.jennings@ciwm.co.uk