• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

  • About
    • Ambassador from the future
  • Past lives
    • Professional
      • Volans
      • SustainAbility
      • CounterCurrent
      • Boards & Advisory Boards
      • Awards & Listings
    • Personal
      • Family
      • Other Influences
      • Education
      • Photography
      • Music
      • Cycling
    • Website
  • Speaking
    • Media
    • Exhibitions
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Reports
    • Articles & Blogs
    • Contributions
    • Tweets
    • Unpublished Writing
  • Journal
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search

Rewilding Chelsea

John Elkington · 25 May 2022 · Leave a Comment

Rewilding Britain Garden (detail, with beaver dam)

How wonderful that the judges decided that the best garden of the 2022 Chelsea Flower Show was the Rewilding Britain Garden. Even before I knew it had won the top award, it was the one I picked when asked by a Royal Horticultural Society guide for my favourite stand.

And how wonderful, too, to be invited to the Chelsea Flower Show last night, by the RHS – for their President’s dinner, hosted by Keith Weed, former head of sustainability at Unilever.

This was towards the end of a day that began with a car ride out to the Four Seasons Hotel in Hampshire with Volans colleague Charlene Cranny, to kick off a session on ESG agenda for private equity firm Oakley Capital. Fascinating, broad-ranging exchange. Torrential rain as we returned suggested the Flower Show could be damp at times.

Sculpted stag and post van in grounds of Four Seasons
Boxing hares
Charlene’s hot chocolate as we waited for cab home

Elaine and I had seen the Gardener’s World programme coverage of the gardens earlier in the week – so it was beyond wonderful to be able to walk into some of our favourites. Among mine was the RAF Benevolent Fund exhibit, though obviously with Battle of Britain pilot father I had something of a vested interest. The extraordinary story behind the sculptor, John Everiss’s, involvement is told on the linked webpage.

Also loved the Bees for Development stand, where we talked about the organisation’s evolution and work with the founder, Dr Nicola Bradbear. Walked off with their 2021 impact report and will follow up. Fascinating to see beekeepers becoming champions of environmental restoration in Africa.

A parallel venture is Honey Care Africa, whose triple bottom line mission attracted me to them when I first encountered their founder, Farouk Jiwa, at the World Economic Forum some twenty years ago.

Blocks of beeswax on Bees for Development stand
One of the first stands we visited at the Flower Show
A familiar figure pours tea
Part of installation our daughter Gaia was involved in
Queen goes to pots
Wheels within wheels
Rain sluicing down, to general cheer
My ancestor Charles II holding court
Watchful statue in support of the RAF Benevolent Fund
Prey’s eye view of predators
Wooden horses
Girls, with water trickling through right hand one’s hands
Battersea Power Station across the Thames
RAF statue, ever watchful, on our way out

Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

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.

Recent Comments

  • PATRICK DICK on Reminder of Glencot Years
  • Milton Marino Gómez Ortiz on Tickling Sharks
  • John Elkington on Green Swans A “Must-Read”

Journal Archive

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.

Contact

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

John Elkington

Copyright © 2025 John Elkington. All rights reserved. Log in