John Elkington

Week started in New York, where the city was on high alert following a bomb attack. Reminded me of when we went to the World Economic Forum summit in NYC early in 2002, shortly after 9/11.

Spoke at the UN Global Compact event ahead of the Private Sector Forum, launching our new Project Breakthrough platform and website. Thrilled with the way it has all come together.

Interested to hear people like Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau, film-maker Richard Curtis and actor Ewan McGregor speak.

Then out to JFK for slight to SFO. A joy to find myself sitting alongside photographer David Maisel, whose work I had long known and admired. Enjoyed a 5-hour conversation ranging across multiple dimensions.

VERGE, in Santa Clara, also turned out to be a joy. I took part in a panel on the Internet of Things, chaired by Chris Coulter of GlobeScan, then the next day did a plenary session alongside Joel Makower. Significant moment in the middle of the session where Joel offered a fist-bump, and I didn’t take it up due to cultural gaps. We did a 101 later.

Have been reading Ramez Naam‘s brilliant sci-fi trilogy (Nexus, Crux, Apex), so if you had asked me who I wanted to meet ion the Bay Area he would have been high on the list. We spoke immediately after his speech – and he came up to compliment me after ours.

Am leaving for Copenhagen tomorrow morning, so no time to elaborate, but other highlights included a visit on my last day to (Google) X, where I met Sarah Hunter. Also had a fascinating session with Globality, including co-founder Joel Hyatt.

Yesterday, Saturday, I took the CalTrain up to Millbrae, where Ian Keay picked me up. After also picking up his wife Alda (Angst), we drove in their BMW i3 electric car to Mission Bay and The Ramp restaurant. Two Anchor Steam beers and magnificent fish and chips.

Then they drove me out to SFO, past a blazing car, for the flight back to London.

Across to Westminster Abbey earlyish for the Battle of Britain thanksgiving and rededication service. 76th anniversary. Very moving.

Music included Keep the Faith, Aubade from Illyrian Dances, Purcell’s Trumpet Tune and Air, Romance from Symphony 5 by Vaughan Williams, Intermezzo from Original Suite by Gordon Jacob, Greensleeves, Elegy on the RAF March and the March Theme from the Battle of Britain film.

The Battle of Britain Roll of Honour was borne from the Grave of the Unknown Warrior to the Sacrarium, scored by veterans of the Battle – including Tim, guided by Gray and Tessa. found that I was sitting atop a memorial to someone who apparently played a prominent role in another BoB: of all things, the Battle of the Boyne.

Afterwards we went into the Dean’s Yard, for a flypast by a Hurricane and a Spitfire, and then on to a lunch for family and friends.

Then, for me at least, it was a scamper back to Barnes and out to Heathrow T5 for the flight to NYC.

Today’s Times carries a full-page obituary for someone who had a real influence on me – though we never met. (Better still, The Scotsman‘s version isn’t hidden behind Rupert Murdoch’s paywall.)

When I wrote to Professor (later Sir) Fred(erick) Holliday while coming to the end of my MPhil course at UCL, back in 1974, he took the trouble to write back, and at length.

I had written to him at Stirling University because I was thinking about plunging not into city planning, which I had been studying, but into either oceanography or fish farming. His advice: Don’t.

I needed a lot more more science to do oceanography, he said, and fish farming was at too early a stage for him to advise that route, either. But he was encouraging on the environmental front – and that was the route I took.

Looking back, though, his biggest impact on me was probably the example he set in replying to a young person writing in out of the blue. A number of other people I wrote to at the same time responded in like manner, though some didn’t.

Ever since, I have replied to everyone who wrote to me – and seen a fair proportion of them, too. It’s amazing how many of our best people have come via that route.

So a belated thank you, Sir Fred.

Last night, across to King’s Cross and the Skip Gardens again for a session with the Puig family members, early on in their quest – co-evolved by Leaders’ Quest and Volans. Then today a series of things, including a stunningly engaging session with the Hackney Sparrows and a closing couple of hours with the family members where I ran through a personal perspective on the evolution of impact economy.

Have always tried to honour those who influenced my thinking over the years. The Oz obscenity trial happened in 1971, when I was doing many weird things in between university stints, and while the Oz trio weren’t direct influences, they represented a counter-culture that was.

They were also prominent in Covent Garden, where we used to go for Middle Earth concerts in the late 1960s – and where I would work for John Roberts and TEST from 1974 to 1978, first in King Street and then Floral Street.

Richard Neville was the only one of the Oz trio I actually met, in Oz, naturally. This was in during one of our Murray Edmonds travelling circus tours. He came up to talk about sustainability after the event – and we got on remarkably well. Liked him a lot. So even sorrier to see news today of his death yesterday.