John Elkington

These three images were from the dinner we had on the first evening of the GRI conference in Amsterdam, with the members of the GRI Technology Consortium (1), and from our dinner on the second evening at West-Indisch Huis (2 and 3).

In  my short speech during the first dinner, held in a delightful Italian restaurant, Incanto, I thanked our best, Michael Meehan, for arranging the storm that had burst upon the city shortly after we arrived. I love wild weather, when I’m indoors with a good view.

Went across to Amsterdam on Wednesday, to take part in the fifth GRI Global Conference. Spoke at a panel session on Wednesday afternoon, featuring the new GRI Technology Consortium, which I now chair.

That evening, we had a dinner of Consortium members on the top floor of a glorious restaurant, Restaurant Incanto, with lashing rain and a wonderful lightning storm raging all around. GRI Chief Executive Michael Meehan and I both both did brief  welcomes. Sat next to – and had a great conversation with – Ernesto Ciorra, Head of Innovation & Sustainability at Enel Group, the Italy-based international energy company.

On Thursday, I serendipitously had a glorious lunch with GRI co-founders Bob Massie and  Allen White (now of the Great Transition Initiative), thanks to Felipe Arango of BSD Consulting. Extraordinary to think back to the early days of GRI, when Bon was still at CERES and, as Bob reminded me, I persuaded the founding group to go triple bottom line, rather than just environmental.

Then keynoted the third primary session, before many of us took off on a low-slung, glass-tipped boat through the canals, to the West-Indisch Huis, the original headquarters of the Dutch West India Company, a poorer relation of the Dutch East India Company. But the building is lovely, arranged around a courtyard, where a harpist played. Various comments about colonialism, but a joyous evening nonetheless.

On the boat I had a mind-spinning conversation with Liv Watson, once a skateboarding champion, among other things, and now at Workiva. She has been a longstanding champion of the XBRL reporting language – and is now immersed in Blockchain. At dinner, I sat next to Roberto de Ocampo, a former Finance Minister in the Philippines. Great conversation.

Came back early today. Intensified security in Schiphol after the news that another EgyptAir flight has gone down, this time in the Mediterranean, again likely to be terrorism.

Am in Amsterdam for the 5th GRI annual summit, speaking at a GRI Technology Consortium event yesterday, then at at a dinner last night, and again this afternoon at the third plenary session. During the proceedings, I got online wind of the posting of Joel Makower’s interview he did with me a week or so ago, about our recent California trip.

Chaired a roundtable session on new business models at Unilever’s event today on ‘Mobilising Collective Action’ – part of their Sustainable Living Plan initiative.

Then, in the evening, attended the dinner for the 3rd Unilever SLP Young Entrepreneurs Award. Fascinating discussions at the table – and afterwards we were encouraged to take away the pots of plants that formed the table’s centrepiece. I took a capsicum plant and a small, transparent container of cacti and succulents. Wondered for days where the seashells and peat in my backpack had come from …

Boaty McBoatface was funny, momentarily, but thrilled to hear that Britain’s new Antarctic vessel will be called the RRS Sir David Attenborough. Last time I came across his spoor was several weeks ago, at a WWF Council of Ambassadors meeting in the Bishop of London’s home. The next seat to mine was marked out for Sir David, but he failed to materialise. Now he has, in rather magnificent reds, whites and green, with splashes of yellow – and with a helicopter pad on his nose.