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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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John Elkington

Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival

John Elkington · 22 September 2023 · Leave a Comment

Across to Strawberry Hill House with Elaine to see Gaia’s Arachne installation, part of the 2023 Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival. Blown away, across all the senses.

Gaia talks to a Mexican florist as we arrive at Strawberry Hill
She becomes a Pier Piper, for Mexicans and others
Roofscape as we arrive at Strawberry Hill House
Stained glass inside
Gaia, taken by someone else
On the stairs
Peephole
Floral embrace
Ceiling 1
Ceiling 2
Whirling dervish
Interior roofscape
Arachne, taken by someone else
Signposting
Halo effect
Overhead
As small as a man’s hand
Ghostbusters to their posts

Sustainability Transformation @ IMD

John Elkington · 21 September 2023 · Leave a Comment

My 4-page article on the ‘3Rs’ of responsibility, resilience and regeneration makes it into the September issue of I By IMD magazine. Published by IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Six copies arrived in the post room at Somerset House this week. It will be a month or more before this article pops up on their website. Bit by bit …

B Team Celebrates First Decade

John Elkington · 17 September 2023 · Leave a Comment

Rain is coming
As I arrive
Jesper Brodin, Chief Executive Officer of Ingka Group (IKEA) and Chair of The B Team, speaking

Across to 999 3rd Avenue, Manhattan, for the 10th anniversary celebration for The B Team. The message: ‘Time to be Bold’. Couple of hundred people, many of whom I knew, and wall-to-wall conversation with interesting folk. Then I was somewhat bouleversé when Jean Oelwang, who runs Richard Branson’s charitable arm, Virgin Unite, name-checked me from the stage.

One result was that there were queues to talk to me afterwards. Not a situation I particularly enjoy, but nice to be acknowledged. What with things like a lunch with Paul Bunje of Conservation X Labs and a second jaunt to a wine shop in Grand Central Station, to buy a bottle of a Quivira wine for Elaine (according to this blog, we visited the Sonoma Valley winery on 11 April, 2005), I walked around 100 city blocks today – and the walk home was marked by thumping rain. Thank heavens I had brought a large umbrella.

Dropping In On MoMA

John Elkington · 16 September 2023 · Leave a Comment

In very much the same way that I have long loved to visit the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., when there, so I try to do the same with the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, when in New York. Walked there today, around 20 blocks either way. Long queue to get in, but it moved quickly.

One thing I love about the D.C. setup is the waterfall by the restaurant – and today I dropped into Paley Park, near MoMA, with its glorious water cascade.

And now for some images from the MoMA visit proper:

Edited by context: Alfredo Jaar’s He Ram (1991), inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s list of Seven Social Sins
His and, very much, hers
Probably my favourite artwork in MoMA: James Rosenquist’s F-111, warped by panoramic shot
Monet’s Water Lilies, which Rosenquist said was an inspiration for F-111
Bug-eyed helicopter from before I was born
Imbibing a Pollack
My favourite Rothko, at least here – seemingly a lunar vista
Don’t ask me
Jasper Johns’ America (right)
The business end of something
Gentler: Dial-A-Poem
Modigliani’s Anna Zborowska
Ball bearings: unsung heroes of the Industrial Age
Keeping an eye on proceedings
From Trumpian times: Ed Ruscha’s Our Flag, 2017
One of Ruscha’s oil paintings
Another
Bought a MoMA poster of this, which I hope to put up in the office
Time running out … for Big Oil
Behind the scenes
Study in blues
Umberto Boccioni’s The City Rises
Video of Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised, A.I.-generated art
En route ‘home’: Chrysler Building, my favourite New York skyscraper
Family shoot, Track 24, Grand Central Station

Cleaner Fish, Dirty Waters

John Elkington · 15 September 2023 · Leave a Comment

My favourite UN sculpture
Getting ready
Rachel Maia speaks
On my way back to hotel

I always forget how late even major Brazilian events are in kicking off. The second day of the UN Global Compact event for Brazilian business today started 30 minutes late, precisely when I was meant to speak – and time-keeping didn’t improve much thereafter. Great fun, even so.

Note to self, though: ensure you deliver what your title promises. My title was Cleaner Fish, Dirty Waters. The idea was that we spend too much time thinking about cleaning up individual companies, too little time cleaning up the markets into which we then re-release them. But then I said too little on markets.

Knew it myself, but it also attracted a comment from my friend Peter Senge – who it was wonderful to see again. On the upside, I attracted separate three invitations to speak in Brazil while at the event – and did three on-camera interviews for the Global Compact and for Exame, which should keep the messages rippling out.

Not entirely flattering of either Rachel or I, but …
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Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

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About

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

Contact

john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

John Elkington

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