I am delighted to introduce the fourth Annual Report of the South East Sustainable Business Partnership (SESBP). Our region is served by seven sub-regional sustainable business organisations, each promoting and delivering a wide range of services to business.  Through their efforts, and through joint initiatives like egeneration and the annual South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) Sustainable Business Awards for the South East, more and more companies are seeing the wisdom of a sustainable approach to business activity – and reaping the benefits.  These companies offer a clear example to others, demonstrating that sustainable business makes good commercial sense - generating competitive advantage and bottom-line benefits, as well as producing social and environmental dividends.  As legislation, market demand and fiscal incentives reinforce the imperatives for businesses to improve their sustainability performance, the role of the SBP and its member organisations in helping to achieve these improvements is becoming ever more important to business success – and to the sustainable economic development of the South East region.

If you are already involved with your local Sustainable Business Partnership, I hope you will be interested to see what has been happening elsewhere in the region. If, on the other hand, this report prompts you to wonder how your business might benefit from becoming more sustainable, I would urge you to get in touch with your local Sustainable Business Partnership (see report for contact details) – while it will cost you just a phone call or an email, it will produce real and long lasting benefits for your business.

James E Brathwaite, CBE

Chairman, South East England Development Agency