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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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On Being A Lighthouse In Amsterdam: GRI 2016

John Elkington · 20 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

Felipe Arango called Bob Massie to his left, Allen White (far right) and I his "lighthouses"
Felipe Arango (far left) kindly described Bob Massie to his left, Allen White (far right) and I as his “lighthouses”
With Cecilia Mora
With Cecilia Mora
With Allen, Judge Melvyn King and Bob in the courtyard of the old Dutch West India Company HQ
With Allen, (Judge) Mervyn King and Bob in the courtyard of the old Dutch West India Company HQ

Went across to Amsterdam on Wednesday, to take part in the fifth GRI Global Conference. Spoke at a panel session on Wednesday afternoon, featuring the new GRI Technology Consortium, which I now chair.

That evening, we had a dinner of Consortium members on the top floor of a glorious restaurant, Restaurant Incanto, with lashing rain and a wonderful lightning storm raging all around. GRI Chief Executive Michael Meehan and I both both did brief  welcomes. Sat next to – and had a great conversation with – Ernesto Ciorra, Head of Innovation & Sustainability at Enel Group, the Italy-based international energy company.

On Thursday, I serendipitously had a glorious lunch with GRI co-founders Bob Massie and  Allen White (now of the Great Transition Initiative), thanks to Felipe Arango of BSD Consulting. Extraordinary to think back to the early days of GRI, when Bon was still at CERES and, as Bob reminded me, I persuaded the founding group to go triple bottom line, rather than just environmental.

Then keynoted the third primary session, before many of us took off on a low-slung, glass-tipped boat through the canals, to the West-Indisch Huis, the original headquarters of the Dutch West India Company, a poorer relation of the Dutch East India Company. But the building is lovely, arranged around a courtyard, where a harpist played. Various comments about colonialism, but a joyous evening nonetheless.

On the boat I had a mind-spinning conversation with Liv Watson, once a skateboarding champion, among other things, and now at Workiva. She has been a longstanding champion of the XBRL reporting language – and is now immersed in Blockchain. At dinner, I sat next to Roberto de Ocampo, a former Finance Minister in the Philippines. Great conversation.

Came back early today. Intensified security in Schiphol after the news that another EgyptAir flight has gone down, this time in the Mediterranean, again likely to be terrorism.

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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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