CEO Letters to the Earth
Join our campaign with Letters to the Earth, alongside the commitment of 20 other leaders, to send a message to decision makers at COP 26.
Business Declares is reaching out to share our joint-campaign with Letters to the Earth, in the run up to COP 26.
We are asking CEOs, from Business Declares, the B Corp movement, the corporate sector and network leaders to actively voice their hopes and concerns as a way of inspiring more urgent action within their own work and to bring more attention to the urgency of the climate and nature emergencies both within their organisation and externally.
CEO Galahad Clark from Vivobarefoot published his own letter on Sept 8th as a clarion call to kick off the campaign.
We have seen at Business Declares that this can be very powerful - it’s time to speak out from the heart and engage the business community, who are so instrumental in a more rapid transition. Our ambition is to create a wave of CEO letters leading up to COP 26
Who is involved so far?
The CEOs of VivoBarefoot, Triodos Bank UK, Riverford Organics, Hatch Enterprises, Project X, Forster’s Communications, Bates Wells, NatureSave Insurance, Tribe Capital Investment, Ecology Building Society, Beauty Kitchen and TYF are among those who have already committed to write a letter in the last two weeks.
Join the campaign
There is time to join the campaign – key milestones are :
1. From 28 September: Initial 10-15 letters published from those already pledged to write a letter with media coverage to boost campaign.
2. By 15 October: This is the deadline for CEOs, directors and entrepreneurs to write and send us their Letter to the Earth, do submit your letter here and be part of a collective media story we're planning on 25th October.
3. On 25 October: In the week of the G20, and just before COP26 begins, businesses will jointly-publish their CEO or Director’s Letter on their website, social media channels and newsletters to inspire staff, customers and other business leaders to write their own. A mass media story is created. At COP 26 letters will be presented to delegates and a live performance is being planned in London.
4. On 5th November: Throughout COP26 Letters To The Earth are hosting a range of events where Letters will be read out. They will be places to meet others, share your experiences and write Letters in person.
LETTERS TO THE EARTH LIVE - A unique reading of Letters from around the world featuring special guest performers, leaders and activists. Followed by the opportunity to write and share your own Letter to the Earth.
Friday 5th November, 3-4:30pm.
The Brigaitt, 41 Bridgegate, Glasgow G1 5HZ.
Book your free ticket here.
Write your letter.
For help in writing your letter, check out the letters on this page. For more inspiration, a collection of curated letters has been published by HarperCollins UK and US in an award-winning book, Letters to the Earth, Writing to a Planet in Crisis, introduced by Emma Thompson and illustrated by Jackie Morris.
Letters to the Earth can provide support through a bespoke 1.5 hours workshop for your teams to write letters.
Spread the word. To share with your customers, teams and on social networks, please share using this comms media pack
Excerpts from CEO Letters:
“A line was drawn in the sandy soil upon which you stand. Made by man, it was a line upon which you could not cross, rooted as you were to the land into which you were born.”— Amy Clarke
Co-Founder and chief Impact Officer, Tribe Impact Capital
“We knew, we know why, we have the answers. We need to act, not promise, and pledge, and show leadership.
— Fiona Ellis
Director, Business Declares
“Actions. As mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, businessmen and businesswomen. Actions.”
— Marcela Nava
Project X
“Now is the time to start doing the things that are necessary to avert this crisis from spiralling out of control.”
— Dirk Bischof
Hatch Enterprises
“I despair at this contradiction and struggle to understand how the “most evolved” species can be so stupid.”
— Ben Tolhurst
Director, Business Declares
“I wonder with great concern what type of world my children’s children will live in.”
— Martin Bunch
Managing Partner, Bates Wells
“If we are brave enough to pause,
to gently work with heart and minds as one,
we find the purpose of our lives is to live
our jobs are not in the taking but in the leaving.”
— Samantha Cooper
Director, Business Declares
“We’re writing to you in hope. Faced with the monumental mess we’ve made of our relationship with you, the only alternative seems to be despair. We choose to remain hopeful.”
— Ed Perry and Rosie Brown
Co-Founders, COOK
“No matter how many times we stumble, we will never step back from our responsibility to catalyse change that restores your full beauty and the dynamic balance of your complex, connecting ways.”
— Andy Middleton
Founder and Chief Exploration Officer, TYF Adventure
“It is time for us all, especially our leaders, to give back to Mother Earth the love, care, support and patience she has given all of us.”
— Tessy Antony de Nassau
Founder, Human Highness
“Please know that you have been heard. Not just by me and my team at work but by people everywhere. Indeed, with your devastation in front of them, I dare anyone to say that climate change doesn't matter.”
— Amanda Powell-Smith
Chief Executive, Forster Communications
“Every year we hold more conferences, sign more treaties and make more pledges but we fail to honour our own words. You have heard our empty promises too many times. You don’t want to hear our apologies, you just want us to stop!”
— Tom Greenwood
Managing Director, Wholegrain Digital
“I’m writing this letter as a promise to myself – and to encourage others like me – to say that the time for us to put up with hollow pledges, broken promises and inadequate policies is over.”
— Bevis Watts
CEO, Triodos Bank UK
“This is our chance to make things right. Activists alone can’t solve climate change. The solution requires worldwide cooperation, from businesses, governments, and individuals.”
— Nigel Pocklington
CEO, Good Energy
“Fossil fuels currently cause 89% of global warming. Reducing their use as quickly and effectively as possible is all that matters in the urgent fight to prevent climate catastrophe.”
— Guy Singh-Watson,
Founder, Riverford Organic Farmers
“Morally, societally, economically, financially, everyone now needs to do everything we possibly can. How else will we be able to look our children in the eye?”
— Steve Waygood
Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Aviva Investors
“So this is in part a thank you letter and part an apology for the arrogance that as humans we think we own the earth and can exploit your bounty thoughtlessly and endlessly. I fear we are outstaying our welcome.”
— Inge Relph
Executive Director, Global Choices
“But I have hope. Change is coming. Indeed, we will have no choice but to change our destructive ways and mend our broken planet. The alternative is too dire.”
— Paul Ellis
Chief Executive, Ecology Building Society
“It doesn't have to be this way, but you know that, you can provide an abundance for all.
If we would just use such knowledge as a tool.”
— Luke Hartnack
Founding Director, Psyche and Soul
“On our current trajectory imagining the oceans of COP56 fills me with terror.
Clean oceans and a stable climate is possible.
Will you make it happen, or will you just keep talking about it?”
— Raffi Schieir
Co-Founder and Director, Bantam Materials and the Prevented Ocean Plastic recycling programme
“I try to take heart in the idea that ours is one of the more infant species on your planet home, and like infants we are growing and learning through our mistakes.”
— Jenny Patton
Director, Level Design Studio
“I believe we still have a chance to flourish here.
We must act before our chance to do so has gone.
I pledge to do my part, for this planet is our home.”
— Michelle Marin Chau
Communications Director, Nutri-San
