Every so often in my life, things seem to go into warp speed, for better or worse. That has certainly happened in the past few weeks, with the diary suggesting that another acceleration is imminent: Germany, Holland and Canada incoming.
Am currently shaking off a bad dose of flu, unsure whether I picked it up in all the air travel this month or whether it came from the 4-way flu jab I had a couple of weeks back as I walked back from somewhere through Fleet Street. Either way, let’s say I haven’t been feeling myself this week.
Still, am also much buoyed by the early responses to my requests for what the publishers cheerfully call “advance praise” for Green Swans. Quite (American sense) moving, some of the comments on the book.
Otherwise, here are some of the things that have been keeping me busy since the last entry – with visits to Amsterdam to speak at the GIIN Investor Forum, Finland to chair the first meeting of the new Neste Sustainability & New Markets Advisory Council, to Copenhagen (to speak at Deloitte’s ‘Dinner on the Edge’ – losing an aircraft engine along the way and having to swap planes at Heathrow – and then, the next morning, to a UN Global Compact breakfast on the future of the restaurant sector), a speech at the London Business School for Michael Norton and a fascinating group of Chinese alumni of the CK Graduate School of Business (speaking alongside Howie Frumkin, head of the Wellcome Trust’s Our Planet, Our Health initiative), and then, on Friday, across to the London Stock Exchange, very early for me, for the launch of their new Green Economy Mark and Sustainable Bonds Market.
Here’s what they say about the LSE initiatives: The Green Economy Mark recognises listed companies with 50% or more of revenues flowing from environmental solutions, while the Sustainable Bond Market (SBM) incorporates new Sustainability, Social and Issuer-Level Segments. These initiatives are designed to support issuers implementing sustainable business models, and investors who are increasingly focusing on environmental products and services supporting the transition to a low carbon economy.
A case of serendipity, the LSE one: was invited by our neighbour Stewart Lloyd-Jones and his partner Tamara Gehring, who works for the LSE.
