Business Times 26 Sep 08;
AS Singapore revs up for its first Formula One race and thousands of locals and visitors converge on the circuit from today, at least one person is looking at the whole experience of burning rubber, noisy fast cars and food and material waste through green eyes. Green for the environment, that is.
Camilla Hall is better known as the woman behind the entertainment and food entrepreneur Michael Ma of IndoChine fame. But behind the scenes, Ms Hall is a passionate greenie.
She is always fighting for the time, and a listening ear, of the slick set that patronises her chain of outlets to ponder the environment amid the partying.
Expecting lots of influential people here over the weekend, Ms Hall has brought a renowned environmentalist to Singapore to speak on sustainable development during the high-octane charged race week.
With the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, Ms Hall's Diane Fay social network will host Ashok Khosla, a man whose first course on the environment at Harvard University is said to have inspired former US vice-president and Nobel laureate Al Gore to be an environmentalist.
Dr Khosla, a former director of the United Nations Environment Programme and president of the Club of Rome, will speak on The Future of Business and the Business of the Future, at a public lecture today at 4pm at the NUS Law Faculty Lecture Theatre at the Bukit Timah Campus.
Dr Khosla is the founding chairman of Development Alternatives Group, a consortium of organisations whose mission is to create technologies, enterprises and markets for large-scale generation of sustainable livelihoods.
He was awarded the 2002 United Nations Sasakawa Environment Prize, the 'Nobel Prize' of the environment world, and the Schwab Foundation's Award for Outstanding Social Entrepreneur in 2004.
An anxious Mrs Ma told BT yesterday she will be 'extremely satisfied if even a handful of the visiting bigwigs go home with a better understanding of the need to protect the world's resources and work towards sustainable development in their respective industries'.
Those interested in attending the lecture can contact the organisers at sppnsh@nus.edu.sg or call 6516-4767.
