John Elkington

This was some time ago, but nice to be reminded by Covestro of the conversations they hosted when dipping into today’s Twitter stream. Here’s the link. And a reminder, too, that I haven’t blogged here for a couple of months. The pace of life has been absolutely incredible.

Among other things, I have done over 100 virtual keynotes in 30+ countries since Green Swans came out. This week, for example, I did one for the Ministry of Defence (a 5-hour session on the climate emergency), then later the same day a session with 20 chief financial officers for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Then later in the week I did keynotes for e.g. the Daily Telegraph and Legal & General, the Institute for Family Business (IFB) and the Circular Economy Hotspot in Catalonia. All on top of normal work. Last weekend I suffered a 3-day migraine attack, which must be some sort of message.

Meanwhile, I have been working on my new book, now over two-thirds of the way through, with an eye to getting it out in 2022. Have been doing some stunning interviews along the way, including with leading surfers – for reasons that will become clear in the course of time.

A podcast I did with Emma Foster-Geering and Dulma Clark of VIVOBAREFOOT launched today here.

On Thursday, I filmed an interview for the Plantiers World Gathering in Portugal, alongside Paul Hawken. The programme went live today.

I was thinking this morning of all the artists who have influenced by aesthetic sense over the decades – and Giorgos Varlamos came to mind. Born in 1922, he died in 2013. We visited his gallery in Athens during our 1970 Landrover trip to Greece – and bought a print of the image above, Hunters in the Woods. It’s still in the summerhouse.

A highlight of the visit was Giorgos taking us through his photograph albums, almost exclusively black-and-white images. An inspiration for my later albums, largely created in Tessa Fantoni’s albums, bought from her store in Clapham, though my father had kept albums for many decades prior.

I remember talking to Giorgos about how he had developed the image, which was printed from a woodcut, if I remember correctly. He said he had crunched up newspapers as a visual reference during the process, so that the cross-hatchings had an echo of newsprint – and therefore of meaning.

Not sure I approve of the subject matter these days, having sold my two shotguns some time before we went Greece-wards. Having once had some “pet” pheasants, which I had discovered nesting in a hedge at Moses Farm House, near Lurgashall, I had earnestly foresworn shooting pheasants. But then, some years later, shot one on Little Rissington airfield, in large part because she took me by surprise. Still feel a pang of regret.

The Bank of the West publishes a piece on our thinking about COVID-19 and sustainability.