Actor and humanitarian activist Benedict Cumberbatch has told the AIB Sustainability Conference in Dublin that he believes sustainability is the “number one key growth industry” for business.

In a live interview with author and journalist Dearbhail McDonald, Cumberbatch said that as a result of the ” neoliberal capitalist complex” society finds itself in, “I think you have to monetise change, you have to create a system of wealth around it. It’s a market-driven economy we have – economy has trumped politics.

“It’s not just lobbying power – the lobbyists are in power – so if you’re to appeal to them […] and if there has to be a narrative, then guess what? Green is the new gold. Environmental sustainability is the number one key growth industry. And if you put your money into it, you’ll see a return. This is an investment. This isn’t just ‘doing good’, this is going to make you money. That’s the motivator.”

On location

The multiple Academy Award and Golden Globes-nominated actor, who has appeared in The Imitation Game, Atonement, 1917, Doctor Strange and The Hobbit film series, was also asked whether any aspect of movie making made him think about sustainability.

“When you see four blocks of New York being torn down and put in a skip,” he replied. “When you see the amount of food being laid out for a crew. When you travel to a foreign country and you see the disparity there.”

He referenced filming Doctor Strange in Nepal, not long after the earthquake there, “not just to ground the crew in this new direction that Marvel was going in with my character, and the true spiritual home of this man’s mind journey, but also to support the culture that was on its knees, and show it was ‘open for business’. […]

“To see the level of poverty, and to see people struggling but with such extraordinary grace under pressure – that also goes to my experiences in South Africa when I film there. It opens your eyes to social inequality and also to environmental needs.”

‘You’re not alone’

As for advice to business owners, and the wider public, that may be unsure of the role that sustainability can play in their day-to-day lives, Cumberbatch offered the following words.

“We need to listen,” he said. “We need to drop our defences. We need to lean into what nature has to teach us and what those who are more attuned and tapped in day-to-day to nature have to teach us, indigenous peoples from around the world, and convene and have community. You’re not alone, so find people.”

Other speakers at the AIB Sustainability Conference included author, broadcaster and physics professor Brian Cox; Colin Hunt, AIB chief executive; Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE, mayor of Freetown Sierra Leone; Alice Charles, director for cities, planning and design, Arup; Colin MacDonald, founder and CEO, Fine Grain Property; Sibéal Bird, European sustainability director, Kerry Group; and Ciaran Marron, CEO, Activ8 Solar Energies. Read more here.



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