John Elkington

Landed or ready for take-off?

The only time I went gliding, shown in the photo above, with me in the front seat, I was around 17, I think, and the turbulence made me feel quite green.  Imagine the photo was taken by Tim, who insisted that I try gliding rather than what I had wanted to do, which was to parachute. A form of aversion therapy? If so, it turned out to be remarkably effective.

Lisbon airport The 2BP Magnolia blooms Birthday Sam Our Magnolia stellata blooms Flowering currant – scent of Spring Fallen sapling Ripples and raindrops Fish on bicycles 1 Fish on bicycles 2 Reeds 1 Reeds 2 Rusty predators Puddle Magnolia again

What a week!   Monday involved flying to Madrid and then Lisbon, because of the BA strike, to speak at a conference on ‘Business and Poverty’. Hadn’t realised that this is European Year for Combatting Poverty and Social Exclusion. Met some wonderful people and keen to spend some sensible time in Lisbon at some point.

Otherwise, the remaining two working days were a mix of writing, meetings, A SustainAbility Board meeting (after which a bunch of us had the most delightful decompression over a couple of bottles of wine that BP found in the SA kitchen) and Sam’s birthday on 1 April, when I also fell for one of the most elaborate April Fool’s stunts I have ever come across. Well done Alex (Nick).

Have spent much of the Easter holiday writing, among other things the first of a series of Fast Company blogs to appear later in the month. Today, in fitful sun and rain, Elaine and I walked around the Barnes wetlands, which sported a number of rather delightful sculptures on wildlife themes. My favourite, by far, were the fish on bicycles. They have apparently been there for some time, but it’s been a quite a while since we last walked around. 

Flying fish goes underground in DC

A flying fish (the emblem of Volans) winged its way through the ether this morning, in the form of an email from (Zheng) Jieying in Washington, D.C., where she had spotted this ad in the Metro. Uplifting.

Uncorking – with fire extinguishers (Samphoto) Lubricating the lily 1 (Samphoto) Lubricating the lily 2 (Samphoto)

A memorable day, in all sorts of ways – but primarily because the birthdays of Sam and Volans coincided, as they will do, hopefully, in perpetuity. The office was soon awash with seried ranks of flowers and the air vibrated with incoming calls, mainly for Sam. Outside, the magnolia tree is bursting into bloom, although there is still a serious nip in the air and April is characteristically showery. A lovely grilled haloumi lunch just along from the British Museum. Ale(jandro) and I finished off the text of our new report, The Biosphere Economy, and between times I continue to work on another, The Transparent Economy, for the Global Reporting Initiative.

Streaked Trunks 1 Reflections Sawn 1 Sawn 2 Trunks 2 Skunk cabbage Beauty Skunk cabbage 2 Willow Seeking pollinators Gate

After finishing the first full draft of the GRI report, and completing the latest round of five media columns, Elaine and I drove – though the Volvo needed a jump-start, having been left undriven for many moons – to the Isabella Plantation. Faint scent of skunk cabbage and occasional buzz of pollinators as we walked around. Some spawn visible, bit not much. Wondered whether the ducks eat it? This evening, I worked on the slides for the Lisbon conference on Tuesday.