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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Bees, mulberries and frog at Lambeth Palace

John Elkington · 16 July 2014 · Leave a Comment

LP1

Lambeth Palace gardens, 9 July

LP2

Sculpture, 9 July

LP3VS

Violette Szabo featured on SOE Memorial, Albert Embankment, 9 July

LP4 bride

Japanese wedding photo shoot, Westminster Bridge, 9 July

LP dock 1White Hart Dock 1, 16 July (as are all below)

LP dock 2

White Hart Dock 2

LP dock 3

White Hart Dock 3

LP hivesLambeth Palace beehives

LP dragonfly

Dragonfly chair by pond

LP rowan

Rowan berries

LP swallows

Swallows over pond 1

LP swallows 2

Swallows over pond, 2

One of the loveliest places in London can be found in the gardens of Lambeth Palace. As a member of the Committee of Reference for the Friends Life (originally Friends Provident) stewardship funds, I went there on the evening of 9 July, for a reception celebrating 30 years of Stewardship.

Walking back to Westminster afterwards, I saw for the first time the Special Operations Executive memorial, featuring a wonderful bust of the ill-fated Violette Szabo. Shortly afterwards, I came across a photo shoot for a Japanese couple – poignant, since the key reason why Szabo joined the SOE was that her husband had been killed during the battle of El Alamein in North Africa.

Then back to the Palace today – walking past the evocative White Hart Dock – for a meeting of the Committee of Reference, with the extraordinary Archbishop Justin Welby in the chair.

A very energetic debate ensued, on a range of environmental, social and governance issues related to the investment portfolio managed for the last 10 years by F&C. Afterwards, we had a presentation from the Schroders team who will shortly take over the role.

In the break between the two sessions, a number of us wandered into the gardens, where I ate a number of early ripening mulberries, the sat in the flight paths for the bees from the Palace hives, and finally exchanged the time of day with a delightfully laid-back frog.

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Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

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About

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

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john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

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