Bristol was the venue for the Schumacher Centenary Festival over the weekend of 8 - 9 October with a day of inspirational talks and workshops on Saturday at the Colston Hall followed by more workshops and films at @Bristol on Sunday. Rathbone Greenbank was pleased to be a sponsor of the event again this year and hosted a stall at the Colston Hall on Saturday.

Talks included Satish Kumar’s colourful memories of his time with Fritz Schumacher who was the inspiration behind him remaining in the UK to carry on his message of “economics as if the planet and people matter”.

Polly Higgins continued this theme by describing her efforts in attempting to get atrocities against the environment (or ‘ecocide’) recognised as an international crime in the same vein as genocide. There has been widespread coverage of this issue following the mock Ecocide Trial held at the Supreme Court in London in September.

Caroline Lucas described her work and the inspiration behind it that is ‘Small is Beautiful’, while also expressing her concern that not much has changed since it was published and the time to act is now.

Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, joined the Conference by video-link to echo the urgent need for direct action following his arrest for protesting against a pipeline planned to take oil from the tar sands of north-western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

After lunch, talks began with the launch of the World Wide We, an innovative social networking site aimed at connecting people who want to act for positive change.

The audience then heard from Rob Hopkins, who spoke about the achievements of the Transition movement. There are now almost 400 Transition initiatives in operation in the UK and around the world, finding a multitude of ways to make our communities more resilient to climate change and the depletion of natural resources.

The talks concluded with a call to arms from Prof Tim Jackson (author of ‘Prosperity Without Growth’) who argued for a more equitable approach to economics and the solution to the current global financial troubles. He asserted that economic growth had lost its fundamental ties to human and environmental capital, leading to a rise in social inequality and a fall in quality of life.

It was fitting that in the centenary year of E.F. Schumacher’s birth, Tim recalled his essay 'Buddhist Economics' and reiterated its message that finding the right route for development is far more important than growth for growth's sake.

The day's proceedings were wittily summarised by Matt Harvey in his closing poem.

Chris Bullock/Kate Elliot