"(...) A clear, stable regulatory direction is essential for delivering the certitude needed for business to deliver change. Yet I need to hear where the policy can change to drive faster rates of innovation and where it can remove blocks to business models that would deliver greater efficiency with reduced investment cost. This Bee initiative is the kind of flow of information which I believe is essential. (...)"

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik at the GLOBE EU Bee Group lunchtime roundtable "Europe in Search of Excellence in Resource Efficiency" - full speech here

In January 2010 the sobering experience of the COP15 in Copenhagen was fresh in everyone's mind. In this context, GLOBE EU invited a group of delegates from progressive business and industrial interests to a dinner at the European Parliament to take stock and look ahead into the challenges of the EU 2020 Strategy -aimed at making Europe a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy- and beyond: “What would we need to do, us in politics and in the industry, to make Europe more sustainable?”
GLOBE EU and its guests agreed that many corporations clearly show a lack of knowledge and long-term vision to weather today's challenges: from the financial and economic crisis to escalating environmental degradation. But they also agreed that regulatory failures such as COP15  represent an opportunity for the responsible corporate community to take the lead and forge ahead towards the low-carbon and resource-efficient economy, while contributing to empowering policy-makers to deliver the necessary legal certainty as soon as possible.

This is how the Bee Group was launched in February 2010, as a progressive corporate think tank under the patronage of GLOBE EU.  

The long-awaited entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty is a turning point for the European Parliament. After almost ten years, the Members of the European Parliament enjoy new powers to steer and move forward EU policy.

GLOBE EU MEPs are keen to benefit from the experience and insight of the Bees, a community of forward-thinking, environmentally responsible corporate partners, to find answers to manage the transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy. To open the way to this economic model, industry players must think beyond “what we must do” and focus on “what we can do”, and engage in constructive dialogue within their respective sectors in search of best practices and in support of progressive positive legislation. At the same time, legislators must capitalise on existing best practices and reward corporate pro-activeness.

The expertise of lobbyists can be a valuable asset to legislators, but conventional exchanges of information are often haphazardic and time-constrained. Furthermore lobbyists face the challenge of having to hone their messages according to the varying level of expertise of each MEP. This is why the structured dialogues of the Bee Group can add much value to their work as legislators.

The Bee Group dialogues will be open to representatives to all industry and business sectors truly committed to the vision of long-term sustainability and ready to provide expertise and constructive input to policymakers towards this long-term vision - please consult the GLOBE EU Secretariat about the Bee Group Charter.  GLOBE EU and the Bees are honoured to rely on the Tällberg Foundation as an academic knowledge partner of these dialogues.

Rationale

1. Some of the changes towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy are being driven by the current market dynamics, but not all: More often than not, the current productive model and regulatory framework has privatised profits and socialised costs, and does not reward corporate commitments to sustainability. As a matter of fact, the current marketplace is distorted by direct and indirect subsidies to unsustainable products and practices. Without the right incentives and market mechanisms to drive sustainability and resource efficiency, citizens see themselves firstly forced to live in a gradually eroded environment resulting from unsustainable productive practices, and secondly asked to assume the higher costs of environmentally responsible products as consumers.
However, consumers are very price-sensitive when intangible goods such as sustainability are sold. For this reason, the current marketplace often does not reward corporate commitments to sustainability either. Furthermore it is democratically questionable to delegate the daunting task of correcting a deliberately distorted market to the individual citizens – they already elect political representatives to Government and expect them to legislate in the interest of the people.

2. Legislators ought to do better at integrating legislation with the bottom line of forward-looking corporations by delivering incentives to innovate towards resource-efficiency, upscale best practices and new business models, and by preventing free-riders from taking advantage from their lack of ambition. This would enable and protect the fastest, vision-driven corporate actors in each sector, rather than the laggards. Positive legislation able to manage the transition towards a more sustainable model is needed. The Eco-Design Directive, driven forward by industry voluntary agreements and whose scope keeps on widening, from energy-using products to energy-related products and in the future to natural resource-related products, is a successful example of this type of legislation.

Therefore...

• The Bee Group is not a lobby, but rather a forum for business and industry partners keen to put in practice a new definition of proactive interest representation whose aim is to propose alternatives inspired by a long-term vision, not to defend the status quo.

• This forum is best suited to debate medium- and long-term strategies and visions. Its purpose is not to defend any specific interests in the short-term, but to think about the future.

• The Bee Group holds two formats of meetings:

• Working Group Lunchtime Conversations between MEPs and Bee Group partners on a regular basis during plenary sessions in Strasbourg;

• Ad-hoc dialogues or workshops with MEPs, European Commission officials and civil society representatives during EP Committee or Group weeks in Brussels.

Bee Working Groups

1. Resource Intelligent Europe, to be launched next 22nd September. In the run-up to the Davos World Resources Forum in September 2011, this working group will focus on the challenges of the resource efficiency agenda, from resource security and fair distribution to carbon accounting and the functioning of the ETS.

2. Financing the EU 2020 Agenda - launch date tbc.

3. Sustainable Living - launch date tbc.

Calendar of Activities

• 28th September - Sandwich Lunch The Need for an Improved Role of the Private Sector in the EU Research & Innovation Strategy. Mr David Harmon, Member of the Cabinet for International Relations of EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn will exchange wiews with GLOBE EU and the Bee Group on the role of PPPs in the upcoming Research & Innovation Strategy of the European Commission and their contribution to supporting economic recovery and tackling global political challenges. Venue: European Parliament, Brussels, ASP 3 F383, from 12h30 to 14h00.

• 22nd September - The Year Ahead of Davos. GLOBE EU and the Bee Group will hold a lunch to mark the launch of the Resource Intelligence Europe Working Group, which shall focus on the challenges of the resource efficiency agenda, from resource security and fair distribution to carbon accounting and the functioning of the ETS. Venue: Members' Salon, European Parliament, Strasbourg.

• 7th July - Promoting Sustainable Development: Policymakers and industry working together through voluntary initiatives. GLOBE EU Bee Group Lunch conversation with Hans Bender, VP Global External Relations. By invitation only. Please contact the GLOBE Secretariat for details. Venue: European Parliament, Strasbourg.

• 31st May - Bee Group Dinner conversation with the co-Chairs of the World Resources Panel, Ernst v Weiszaecker and Ashok Khosla; plus Anders Wijkman, Club of Rome Vice-President, and Timo Mäkelä, Director of Sustainable Development and Integration, DG Environment. Hosted by Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP and Claude Turmes MEP. By invitation only. Please contact the GLOBE Secretariat for details. Venue: European Parliament, Brussels.

• 29th April - Europe in Search of Excellence in Resource Efficiency. GLOBE EU Bee Group lunchtime conversation with Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik. Venue: European Parliament, Brussels.