The Climate Party: How Blue Earth Summit Is Rewriting the Rules of Investment

In the latest episode of Profit Meets Purpose, Sustainable Times sat down with Will, co-founder of Blue Earth Summit, to explore how this bold and fast-growing event is reshaping the way business, investment, and sustainability intersect. Founded by three entrepreneurs with roots in media, marketing, and finance, Blue Earth Summit was born from a desire to connect the dots between innovation, purpose, and the urgent need for climate action, while also making the journey inspiring and accessible.

Listen to the full episode here. 

In a warehouse in Woolwich, South East London, once home to a fireworks factory a new kind of sustainability summit is unfolding. “We’re not from the events industry,” says Will, one of the summit’s three co-founders. “We’re from media, marketing and throwing parties.” But this is a party with a purpose. What began in Bristol as a grassroots effort to connect the worlds of outdoor culture, entrepreneurship and impact investing has, in just five years, grown into a convening force with real momentum. Now held in London, with investors, policymakers, and founders converging under one roof, the summit is on a mission to transform the way the world works.

At the heart of Blue Earth lies a belief that change won’t come solely through policy reports or protest marches. It will come through connection, storytelling, and capital.

“We saw that the private sector was often the odd one out,” Will reflects. “The third sector had the awareness, the public sector had ambition, but the innovation, the solutions, needed money. That’s where we saw the gap.”

Will’s background, alongside his co-founders, is a tapestry of creative communication and venture building. The trio previously ran a media and marketing agency, working with everyone from BNP Paribas to Europe’s oldest surfing magazine. Their understanding of how to tell a good story, and more importantly, how to convene people, became the foundation for something far bigger.

But Blue Earth isn’t just another sustainability talking shop. Its DNA is rooted in the outdoors. “Those who spend time in nature are more likely to protect it,” Will argues. But early criticism challenged the team to rethink access.

“We had to ask: who actually gets to enjoy the outdoors? That question reshaped our approach. Now access and equity are central to what we do.”

The summit’s three pillars, Inspire, Connect, Act are visible in every detail. It’s not all surfboards and stories. There’s a steely pragmatism underpinning the ethos. Investment, Will says, is the real measure of action. Blue Earth has helped early-stage climate tech founders, like the now multi-million-pound firm Urban Chain, connect with investors in unconventional, human ways. “When you take investors out of their usual settings and meet them on a trail or a board, the power dynamics shift,” he says.

“You talk to their passion, not their ego.”

This approach seems especially timely in an era where the climate movement is facing backlash accused of being elitist, purist, or simply ineffective. “The climate movement has alienated people,” Will says bluntly. “It’s judged who is and isn’t allowed in. But if you want to scale real solutions, you need to bring everyone in. That includes banks, fossil fuel investors everyone. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck where we are.”

His critique is not of the mission, but the method. Instead of lecturing, he argues, we should talk about progress and freedom. “People aren’t lying awake thinking about 1.5 degrees,” he says. “They’re worrying about bills, about resilience. If renewable energy can offer freedom from energy shocks, that’s how you win people over. Not fear. Freedom.”

Looking ahead, the ambition is audacious. Will believes the summit will be the birthplace of the next unicorn a world-changing company that might just reshape the way energy, food, or mobility systems work. “If energy becomes free and abundant,” he says, “everything changes.”

In an ecosystem saturated with climate anxiety and bureaucratic pledges, Blue Earth Summit feels like a breath of fresh air. It doesn’t deny the crisis. But it dares to celebrate the possibility of a positive sustainable future.

In Will’s words, “We’re not throwing a climate funeral. We’re throwing the climate party of our time.” And everyone’s invited.

Blue Earth Forum is back in London, 24-26 June 2025. An event for planet positive, climate tech startups looking for investment to apply to attend, connect and pitch to over 50 impact investors. Find out more here Blue Earth Forum