"Stop being so jolly nice!"

Future leaders should avoid being “nice” and should be “big, bold, dangerous, compelling, sexy, aggressive and rock and roll”. This was the advice from Tim Smit, founder and Chief Executive of the Eden Project, to students graduating from the Forum for the Future Masters in Leadership for Sustainability.

Speaking at the ceremony, Smit passed on his top tips on leadership for sustainability to the 12 graduating scholars. These included The Tinkerbell Theory (get enough people to believe something and it will happen), Last Man Standing (use your charm persistently until you get what you want) and Accept Every Third Invite (because the best things happen when you meet people you didn’t know you needed to).

The Masters in Leadership for Sustainable Development is run by Forum for the Future and is undertaken by 12 students each year. The course was set up 12 years ago and has educated over 100 young people, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in the sustainability sector, including Joanna Yarrow (co-founder of Beyond Green), Stephen Hale (Chief Executive of Green Alliance) and Solitaire Townsend (co-founder of Futerra).

Reflecting on the changes that have taken place in the last year, Sara Parkin, Founder Director of Forum for the Future and the driving force behind the course said: “When these 12 students started the course ten months ago the sustainability sector was still in advocacy mode. Today there’s little doubt that we’ve successfully transitioned into implementation.”

Smit agreed and said that future generations would look back to this time as being “as important as the Renaissance or Reformation”.

The ceremony concluded with a presentation from Mary Sandbrook, widow of Richard Sandbrook – a founder Trustee of Forum for the Future – to Jenny Pidgeon, voted by her fellow students to receive the Richard Sandbrook Memorial Prize for the person most likely to effect dramatic change.

For more information about the Masters in Leadership for Sustainable Development please contact Laura Hill at masters@forumforthefuture.org.uk or click here to download the prospectus.