John Elkington

Cranking up for a trip to New York on Tuesday for Climate Week and the UN Global Compact’s Leaders Summit. Some background can be found in this article just posted by Ethical Corporation.

Geoff Lye and I have worked together since the early 1990s, both at SustainAbility and at Volans. Extraordinary to see the coverage this week of his travails with British Airways en route to Greece – and to see how much more coverage the media is prepared to give to disasters than to the underlying processes that build up to cause them. His story has been featured in, among others, The Evening Standard, The Sun, The Telegraph and The Times.

Across to Little Rissington and Hill House today, for Pat’s 95th birthday. A joyous day, with wonderful lunch cooked by Lydia, aided and abetted by Gil and Rory. Later we went to look at Caroline’s painting in her studio, and I caught sight of this line of skulls next door, in my long-ago bedroom. Have always wondered why Gaia, Caroline and I have such a fascination with head bones.

For years – in fact since my coining of the Triple Bottom Line in 1994 – I have often said that I am happiest when things come in threes.

In large part that’s because I can remember three things, whereas four or five sometimes stretch the memory.

People have long played with the trio idea, notably including The Body Shop in Australia – which at one point used an image showing the rear ends of three cows.

But I really wasn’t thinking of a trio of hurricanes seeking landfall. According to the US National Hurricane Centre this is unparalleled. “Is this the new normal?” they wonder.

My take on the challenges of being a green thought leader can be found here, thanks to GreenBiz. This latest Elkington Report column explains why I have found the work of Chicago economist David Galenson so reassuring over the years.