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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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You are here: Home / About / Professional / Volans

Volans

JE British Museum wings 2

An inspiration: Antony Gormley statue, British Museum

Now based in London’s Somerset House, Volans was founded as Volans Ventures Ltd early in 2008 to stretch our horizons and ambitions—and carry forward a range of projects beyond my continuing involvement with SustainAbility. The team began to evolve late in 2007, in conversations between John Elkington, Pamela Hartigan, Geoff Lye and Sophia Tickell—quickly drawing in Sam Lakha and Kevin Teo.

Two early strap lines were: ‘The Business of Social Innovation’ and ‘Helping the Future Take Flight.’

For further details on our current team, activities and offerings, please take a look here.

Background

As for our name, we have the flying fish (Piscis or Pisces volans) to thank for that. In Latin, volans meant ‘flying’ or ‘flying thing’—which seemed appropriate as we began to work toward a big jump forward in our field and working lives.The family name Exocoetidae is used for flying fish. It comes from the Greek exo-koitos, “lying down outside” or “sleeping under the stars”, which, according to Wikipedia, derived from the common occurrence of sailors finding stranded flying fish lying on the decks of their boats.

Volans is also a constellation in the southern sky, first described in Johann Bayer’s Uranometria in 1603, which brought to mind thoughts of navigation and the deep structure of things.

Since 2011, Volans has focused on what it has dubbed Breakthrough Capitalism, launching with the first Breakthrough Capitalism Forum in 2012. This saw the launch of our second book, The Zeronauts: Breaking the Sustainability Barrier. The book included 50 Zeronauts, among them Elon Musk of Tesla.

Tesla 2

Just looking in Palo Alto: a favorite Zeronaut is Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX

I have driven a Tesla, in Vienna, and no question this is astounding, breakthrough automobile technology. But what really brought Musk into the Breakthrough space, for us, was his astounding offer to share Tesla’s patents with competitors. His goal: to boost the chances that electric recharging infrastructures will roll out across key markets much faster than would other wise be the case.

Our thinking on all of this has been further distilled in reports (for example, Breakthrough and Investing in Breakthrough), in further events (in places as disparate as Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Bogotá, Colombia, London, Mumbai, Nairobi, Potsdam, Singapore and Toronto) and in a new book, this one co-authored with former Puma Chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz (The Breakthrough Challenge: 10 Ways to Connect Today’s Profits with Tomorrow’s Bottom Line).

JE Jorge Martin winged figure 2

Volans 2: A Jorge Marín sculpture I loved during a memorable walk around Mexico City

The original idea behind Volans was to be able to take bigger risks with a smaller team. With the inevitable ups and downs associated with any start-up, it has been great fun (as the picture below, taken across the road in Bloomsbury Square, suggests) – and I think we have quite an impact already. It is also a huge pleasure that both Volans and SustainAbility are now certified B Corporations.

V Team 2

Volans Core Team when we were about 6 years old

JE No speed limit anymore 2

Sam’s card to me as we began to form Volans

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From the Journal

Mudlark

2 February 2023

Walking home across Waterloo Bridge this evening, with Chinese students all around, I caught sight of this mudlark on the Thames foreshore, in front of the South Bank complex. One of those moments.

Manic Tuesday

31 January 2023

Have rather fallen out of the habit of posting here, partly because have been finishing off the new book, Running Up The Down Escalator, and partly because 2023 has taken off like a rocket. Today was somewhat typical in that respect, with Elaine reminding me at 06.30 that I should be at a Pi Capital […]

We Are What We Read

21 December 2022

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.

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

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