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Journal: November, 2010

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From Virgin Unite to Tellus Mater
I wish I could fly

Kids Company 1

Kids Company 2

Kids Company 3

Kids Company 4

Day started in Southwark, with light snow falling, at Kids Company building at 38-40 Blackfriars Road. Glorious, moving artwork by children, including 'I Wish' clouds. Given the Volans mission of helping the future take flight, I was particularly touched by the 'I wish I could fly' one. This was a meeting of the Trustees of Virgin Unite, together with a number of MDs of Virgin businesses. Very stimulating discussion. I spoke alongside Chris West of the Shell Foundation and Heerad Sabeti of Fourth Sector.... more >

EMERGE, ENEL, GRI, WTO ETC
Another week that was

Amy and Jack Sim

Jack, me

Charmian holds forth at EMERGE

Sara Parkin's foot

Peter Randall Page sculptures at Said Business School

Ice was spreading across Barnes Pond as I walked home this evening after spending the day at the EMERGE conference in Oxford, my session involving a conversation with Solarcentury CEO Jeremy Leggett. Twitter stream here. Charmian (Love) did an excellent session on how-to-get-into-this-sector this morning, during which I sat on the floor next to Forum for the Future co-founder Sara Parkin - and Amy (Birchall) is involved tomorrow. Great discussion with David Grayson this afternoon on a new project we're planning at Volans, which broke some sort of logjam in my brain.... more >

Another Week Blurs By
Dublin, among other places

Dublin: the new Samuel Beckett Bridge

And in daylight

Conference Centre

Another electric car

Inside out view

Ditto

Emergent uniform at SustainAbility?

Chris shoots Gary

Later

Frances and Sam

Holland Park

Anish Kapoorscape

A bit of a blur of a week, signing contract for the new book, a panel discussion to launch Unilever's new Sustainable Living Plan, chaired a panel session at the IUCN/Carbon Leapfrog conference, a trip to Dublin with flights horribly scrambled by fog at Heathrow, a Board meeting at SustainAbility, and - today - Hamlet at the National Theatre, with Rory Kinnear. Went with Carys and Mike Cooper. Quite unbelievably good. I understood the play for the first time. And the AK47s made a bunch more sense than cutlasses. Feeling like sleeping, but here comes another week; this time Rome, I think.... more >

Sao Paulo, New York and Washington, DC
A reasonably intense week

The auditorium where I spoke to 3,500 people

Sustenabilidade

Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco followed me

HSM stand

Renault-Nissan Fluence

Formula 1 sculpture

SESI conference, before people arrive

New Jersey sunset from Amtrak train, New York to Washington, DC

Investors Circle conference cranks up

Daedalus aircraft hangs in Dulles airport

Monday was a bit of a blur, starting with a speech to 3,500 people, then two more speeches - also of 90 minutes, each time with 60 minutes of speaking and 30 minutes of moderated discussion - before I headed out to the airport. Overnight flight to JFK, sitting next to a nice Brazilian banker - who suddenly turned to me after an hour to ask whether I was a columnist in Epoca Negocios magazine, which he was reading. With an illustration of me at the head of the piece, I could scarcely deny.... more >

Brazil, Blue Skies and How Good's Your Driver?
Land of detergent swans, ambushes, glorious fruit

Plane was in early this morning - and I was picked up from the airport and driven to the Hotel Transamerica, which helped immeasurably. Struck, once again, by how the drive in from the airport, running alongside a canalised river that is full of 'detergent swans' (clumps of white foam that can look like swans) and great rafts of bottles, as if thousands of desperate-to-be-rescued Robinson Crusoes are marooned upstream, is like a Time Machine trip to Europe in the early 1960s.  Everyone here full of the Formula 1 event in the city, though the news of a machine-gun ambush of world champion Jenson Button shows that - in some respects - things here haven't changed that much.... more >

Turning the World Upside Down
Between Hallowe'en and Guy Fawkes

Halloween pumpkin in compost bowl

Anish Kapor's 'The World Turned Upside Down'

Model of new WWF UK 'Living Planet Centre'

Pandamonium

Ditto

Ivana, Sam, Patrin, Amy at 2 Bloomsbury Place

Patrin, Sam's camera

Loved the smell of bonfires as I cycled through London last night. Have been profoundly enjoying the Fall (a word I was overjoyed some time ago to find was more English than Autumn) colours as I cycled to and fro this week. One delight is Anish Kapoor's new installation in Hyde Park, Turning the World Upside Down, which my route takes me past. Took a number of photos earlier in the week, but it was only when I rode past the work yesterday - having accidentally left a bag and camera in the office (in fact outside it, but inside the building) - that I realised that if you look inside the mirrored structure you see the world turned upside down. Colour me slow.... more >