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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Back Online – And, Behold, It’s A New Year

John Elkington · 2 January 2016 · Leave a Comment

One of Caroline's landscapes
One of Caroline’s landscapes, as a New Year entry point

So here we are in 2016. Unhappily, some form of mass hack took down elements of my blogging site over the Merrymas season, so many thanks to Chris Wash for both bringing it back online and migrating the whole thing to a more secure platform. Having gone almost a month now without being able to post blogs, I will begin by melding a variety of storylines together to bridge the gap.

But, the spirit of entering the New Year in a blaze of energy and creativity, the painting above is one of my sister Caroline’s sold-to-someone-other-than-me works, and one which I regret having missed.

It’s hard to capture the pace of the end of 2015, where I did something like 17 keynotes in 7 weeks, and ended with a trip to Mexico City to work with Grupo Bimbo (subject of a separate blog). Suffice it to say that I have had a long siesta pretty much every day since the holidays started, except on days where we went to see my parents in the Cotswolds, for example, or entertained Gaia, Hania, Jake and Paul.

One key activity has been reading, something I’ll aim to distil in a separate entry. And writing. In the wake of my most recent column (they go out in GreenBiz in the USA, Monday Morning in Denmark, and Eco-Business in Singapore) of the legacy of the late Maurice Strong, I have been writing around our evolving exponential solutions theme, including evolving the next round of our program outline for the UN Global Compact (on which more anon) and another column, to appear in January.

The late Maurice Strong
The late Maurice Strong

Meanwhile, here are several images that capture brief encounters during the closing days of 2015 – the Ai Weiwei images stemming from a team day-out, the River Café ones from a delightful lunch hoisted by Will Rosenzweig:

The Power of Unreasonable People in Waterstone's
‘The Power of Unreasonable People’ spotted in Waterstone’s
Ai Weiwei chandelier made from bicycles
Ai Weiwei chandelier in the Royal Academy, made from bicycles
I think the stool is meant to represent Taiwan
I think the stool is meant to represent Taiwan
A gas mask carved in marble, wry comment on China's air quality
A gas mask carved in marble, wry comment on China’s air quality
River Café Christmas tree
River Café Christmas tree
Jetty and Thames as we walk back
Jetty and Thames as we walk back

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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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