I came up with a five horse race. First Allen Blewitt, ACCA chief executive, and a man who has seen the environment as a major crusade for some time and pushed his organisation through its green reporting awards. He’s out of the stalls fast.

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Then there’s Michael Izza, Blewitt’s opposite number at the ICAEW, who recently managed to get himself invited to speak on the environment in China. That’s a bit of a lion’s den job really, though the Chinese have softened their approach of late, so perhaps it wasn’t as tough as it first appeared. He’s coming up on the rails.

I also thought of John Griffith-Jones, UK chairman of KPMG, who was featured in the Financial Times not too long ago, bragging how he wanted environmental advice to be a major service line for the firm. That’s interesting because it really does make the environment good business.

Marks & Sparks FD Ian Dyson caught my eye, however, as I was reading this week’s profile. He’s at the centre of making our favourite retailer of comfy pants and knickers carbon neutral by 2012 and spending £200m on it. Now that’s a company making a serious commitment.

But then there is the rank outsider – Prince Charles and with him his principal private secretary and KPMG old-boy Sir Michael Peat. This double act actually has a green reporting project on the go – Accounting for Sustainability. This will give accountants the tools to tell us what’s really happening.

It’s a tight race – difficult to pick a winner, just glad we’ve got such a large field to back.

Gavin Hinks is editor of Accountancy Age