John Elkington
A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.
We are what we read, they say, and sometimes it’s true.
Just notified about a new series of Neste interviews on what we read.
Mine here: https://lnkd.in/ePWHkEWw.
Marcius Extavour here: https://lnkd.in/eiqSQcpQ.
And Geoffrey Weston‘s here: https://lnkd.in/eQM3dUcq.
All members of the Neste advisory council on sustainability and new markets, which I chair.
Happy holidays and new years, all.
A week of ups and downs. Read Yael Neeman’s wonderful, haunting book We Were The Future, a memoir of being raised on a kibbutz in the heyday and then relative decline of the movement. and there have been moment this week when some in the climate action movement must have felt the same, as the Donald ducked out of the Paris climate accord – or at least signalled his intention to leave.
Ironic to hear him say he was doing it for Pittsburgh, not Paris, and then see Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto say his city wanted to remain.
I very much like President Macron’s line, now a hashtag: #MakeThePlanetGreatAgain.
Paul Krugman has suggested that Trump may even have done this out of spite, which his eyes (above) would suggest is not impossible. Some even suggest that it’s pay-back for the infamous white-knuckle hand-shake with President Macron. And I wondered who initiated that …?
Are the politics of the playground playing out in climate change?
*****
On the upside, work continues apace on our impending Carbon Productivity Basecamp, slated for 14 June. And I did my latest round of blogs on Geoffrey West’s insightful new book, Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies.
Encouraging sense of scientific rigour throughout the book, a useful counter-blast to all those CEOs and others who say they are on a sustainability trajectory simply because they think so.
And intriguing to think through what we can do to keep the sustainability movement scaling, in ways that the kibbutz movement didn’t. One shared barrier may be the sense of inevitable sacrifice in pursuit of a higher cause, though just maybe the exponential growth in the affordability of renewable energy might tip the scales over the next generation or three.
Finished Philip Kerr’s wonderful Prussian Blue novel today. Of the twelve in the series to date, one of the very best. Also bought a number of books this afternoon at Barnes Books, including Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny and volume 2 of James Holland’s The War in the West historical series.
And ordered a copy of Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, And The Pace Of Life In Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies by Geoffrey West of the Santa Fe Institute. Here’s a note I wrote on his work back in 2011. He visited us at Volans on 8 February last year.
Spent a couple of days in Leverkusen earlier in the week, with members of the Carbon Productivity Consortium, in this case drawn from Volans, SYSTEMIQ and the Future-Fit Foundation. Extremely helpful discussions with Patrick Thomas, Richard Northcote and Markus Steilemann.
Earlier in the week, we did another Salon at Volans, this time co-hosted with Atlas of the Future. Great fun – as demonstrated in this photo taken, I think, by Lisa Goldapple of Atlas.
Otherwise, have been busily responding to feedback on the Harvard Business Review blog and preparing slide decks for Paris, Oslo and Vevey – where I’m headed in the next couple of weeks.
Nice contrast this evening, as the news of Macron’s win in France came in, was to watch the latest programme in the ITV series, The Durrells. Joyous. Only met Gerry Durrell (and his wife Lee, at a private preview of Phil Agland’s film Korup) once, but always adored his writing and attitude to the natural world.
A catch-up blog, after a Red Queen month. Highlights of recent weeks include:
Meanwhile the magnolia tree stays in bloom in Bloomsbury, the crocuses are up on the Common, the Egyptian geese on the Pond have produced a large clutch of goslings, the decluttering of 1 Cambridge Road proceeds apace, the EU debate gets into its idiotic stride, and the US elections continue to career towards a possible Trump:Clinton shoot-out.
Took the bike into Cloud 9 Cycles in Bloomsbury a couple of days ago. They warned me that the frame may be unsafe, though I responded that the dent in the cross-bar dates back 15 years to when a car hit me, while the slightly distorted front forks, I think, to the Russian collision 18 months ago, since when I haven’t cycled. Not sure which way this is all going to pan out.
As my youngest sister Tessa put it on Facebook: “These three all here even though between them they’ve had a small heart attack, a small stroke and an optic aneurysm in the last few weeks. True grit.”
She is the missing wing woman in the photo: a constant fixture at Battle of Britain of Britain functions in recent years, supporting Tim and jollying along the rest.
Mentioned by several people I spoke to: Nigel Rose, another of the Fewer and Fewer, who died on September 10. [His obituary appeared in The Times on 18 September.] Here is on YouTube on the moment he was hit in his Spitfire. Lovely cooing in the background. Symbolic of what they were trying to protect.
