Lecture: The Prince of Wales's Business & the Environment Programme

H Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., will be in London today to deliver the London Lecture of The Prince of Wales's Business & the Environment Programme (BEP).

Lee Scott will outline his vision for how global businesses can harness their huge influence in order to promote corporate sustainability. 400 senior executives, including 100 alumni of the BEP, which is developed and run by the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, will attend the lecture.

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world, with 1.8 million employees, 60,000 suppliers and 176 million weekly consumers worldwide. Its environmental goals are: to be supplied 100 per cent by renewable energy, to create zero waste and to sell products that sustain resources and the environment. The company has called on its own 60,000 suppliers to reduce their impact on climate change.

Polly Courtice, Director of the Cambridge Programme for Industry commented: 'As the leader of one of the world's largest corporations, Mr. Scott is in a position of extraordinary influence. The decisions taken by such large and iconic organizations can make a huge difference to society and the natural world and can demonstrate what can be achieved by corporate leadership. This is why we have invited Lee Scott to share his view of where the company is on its corporate sustainability journey.'

After the lecture, the Prince of Wales will be hosting a private dinner for the speaker which will be attended by the Rt. Hon. David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Professor Ian Leslie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Polly Courtice, Director of the Programme for Industry, as well as number of senior executives.

The Business & the Environment Programme was set up by The Prince of Wales in 1994 at Cambridge University with the aim of bringing together leaders from industry and the public and voluntary sectors to explore and debate the potential for business to be both profitable and sustainable. 1,300 senior executives from over 30 countries have attended the seminars and now form an active alumni network of senior decision-makers in business and civil society.

Previous speakers at the London Lecture have included Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of WHO, James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who gave the 10th Anniversary Lecture in 2004.

About the Business & the Environment Programme and the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry

Prince of Wales's Business & the Environment Programme (BEP) is run by the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry, which provides executive programmes and policy and strategy dialogues for leaders in the private and public sector internationally. The Programme for Industry is a Department of the University of Cambridge.

BEP is internationally recognised as the largest and longest running executive learning programme in the world on sustainable business. The aim of the Programme is to help organisations integrate the concepts of sustainable development into their business thinking and practice. Its Senior Executive Seminars are held annually in the UK, continental Europe, South Africa, Australia and on the east and west coasts of the United States. The Prince of Wales is President of the Programme and takes an active interest in its activities.