Green Pledge: Mediators to commit to sustainable dispute resolution systems

John Sturrock QC

The World Mediators’ Alliance on Climate Change will promote ways to reduce unnecessary travel and use of physical resources while encouraging greater use of online platforms for mediation, as a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly and speedy way to help those with disputes to find constructive outcomes. 

In particular, the seminars will promote the Mediators’ Green Pledge which has now been translated into a dozen languages. The Pledge itself has been signed by nearly 500 mediators from over 50 countries. The seminars will be facilitated by John Sturrock QC, founder and senior mediator at Core Solutions, who is one of the promoters of the pledge. 

He said: “As we are hearing this week in Glasgow, there is an urgent need to shift from rhetoric to action. Sometimes we feel there is little we can do in the face of global uncertainty. But we can all do that little extra and mediators have much to offer in the development of low carbon solutions in the years ahead. We want to see the Mediators’ Green Pledge become a real movement for change.”

There will be contributions and examples from mediators around the world and the seminars will conclude with keynote talks by William Ury, of Harvard and Getting to Yes fame, and Lim Tat, the well-known international mediator based in Singapore. Kai-Uwe Karl, senior counsel at GE, will also speak about a proposed corporate pledge.