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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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To Cowes For Circularity, Chips And Portholes

John Elkington · 1 July 2016 · Leave a Comment

Portholed door in Cowes
Portholed door in Cowes
Cannon along the front
Cannon along the front
Seal eyeing us
Seal eyeing us up
Spotted along the way
Spotted along the way (Volans comes from the Latin for flying, like Pisces volans, the flying fish)
Chains on ferry ramp across from Foundation's building
Chains on ferry ramp across from Foundation’s building
So we know where we are
So we know where we are
Spotted on a desk on the way through
Spotted on a desk on the way through
One of the portholes on the top floor
One of the portholes on the top floor
Spotted in a gallery window on way back to ferry - and bought
Spotted in a gallery window on way back to ferry – and bought
From spray-soaked ferry window on way back to Town Quay
From spray-soaked ferry window on way back to Town Quay

Up early and down to Southampton with Richard on crowded train. Happily he had kept a seat for me on way out from Waterloo to Clapham Junction. Then took Red Jet ferry to Cowes for our meeting with Andrew Morlet, Joss Blèriot and Clare Mucklow of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. delighted to see a seal on the waterfront as we looked for somewhere to have what turned out to be fish and chips.

Great session, after which we headed back towards the ferry. As we walked, I caught a glimpse in a gallery window of a photograph I had seen before in the media or books, and we ducked inside. Proved to be a 1911 Beken photograph of the Susanne – and apparently iconic. Bought a print.

Then was so preoccupied with manoeuvring the print out of the taxi back at the rail station that I left my camera on the back seat. Once home, it wasn’t at first clear where I had left it: on the ferry, in the taxi, in a café at the station, on the train. In any event, several phone calls and an email finally tracked it down via the cab company.

[And, as luck would have it, I was able to pick it up from the delightful driver the following week when in Hampshire on holiday. First time I had been in Southampton for decades. I was first there in the early 1960s to sail from Hamble on the Sperling (yacht appropriated from the Germans at the end of WWII: only facts I can find out about it now are here) with my father, then in the ENDS days am pretty sure I visited Exxon Chemicals at Hythe.]

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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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