John Elkington

Our front garden Bluedgrass Magnolia Magnolia 2 Magnolia 3 Hole Phoenix Pagoda Tree Will and Elaine Dr Shirley Paintbox Will For Caroline 1 For Caroline 2 For Caroline 3 Rivulet Shadows   We drove across to Kew for lunch with Will (Rosenzweig), then took a long saunter around the Gardens in glorious sun.  One magnolia tree was a revelation.  Spent a fair time on the Princess of Wales Greenhouse, taking photographs for Caroline to paint, possibly.  A long time ago, when SustainAbility’s logo was a trigram (representing the triple bottom line) and a spiral (representing life, evolution and creativity), I took pictures of spirals everywhere I went.  Today there was only one.  But there was a phoenix, too, in the Japanese pavilion.  Then back to work on a slide presentation on the Phoenix Economy – which I plan to use at SustainAbility on Monday and then at the Skoll World Forum later in the week.

A glimpse of passion (taken by Sam)   I spoke at World Entrepreneurship Summit this morning, at Goodenough College.  Organised by Rebecca Harding and the World Entrepreneur Society.  Met some interesting folk, then walked back to the office for a busy day.  Glorious, sunny, blue sky.

The Phoenix 50 image   A very busy week at 2 Bloomsbury Place, with The Phoenix Economy finally off to the printers.  Am thrilled with how much progress we have made in the last week or two.  Then the week also saw a stream of visitors, a fair few of whom spent some time in the office – among them Carl Ganter of Circle of Blue, Kiva co-founder Jessica Jackley and Will Rosenzweig of Physic Ventures.  We also had a farewell lunch for Smita (Sircar), who has played such a vital role over the past year, particularly recently on the report – and is now moving to South Africa with her husband.  Then a visit to the British Museum with Will and Elaine to see the murals from the tomb of Nebamun and then dinner there.   Will, Sam and magnolia Carl and Jessica Ale and Carl British Museum 1 British Museum 2

This Moment in Time The Phoenix Economy at The Value Web   Early on Wednesday, across to the Oval for the start of a two-day event entitled ‘This Moment in Time’ – organised by The Value Web, who I have worked with on a number of occasions at World Economic Forum summits.  They use a process developed by Gail and Matt Taylor of MG Taylor, founded in 1979.  Had to leave half-way through the first day, but Sam and I went back for the concluding party on Thursday evening.     Very struck to find my photo up on the white-wall, with the message ‘Still Here’.  A number of the ideas I had surfaced the previous day had also made it onto the walls, including the notion that systems adapt (so the Vatican, for example, might anoint James Lovelock as Saint James of Gaia some time around 2029), that we might build God as a supercomputer with anyone able to input (prompted by a note with ’42’ on it in one of the break-out spaces) and, no surprise this, the Phoenix Economy.     Very much liked Gail Taylor.  Among other things, we discussed Hari Seldon, the psychohistorian in Asimov’s Foundation series, and worked to collapse a 30,000 years of civilizational collapse into just 1,000 years.  Struck by the fact that the Canterbury Court business cenbtre, where the event was held, used to be a radar factory.  At its best, what we are doing is evolving a new form of radar for our societies and economies.  Came away hugely energised.   Trends Elephant in the room Paradigm shifting Which Beatle are you? Scale St James Could we build God? Sam Wordle taken by Sam Gail and orange man Still here

Today’s Financial Times carries a story on the decision of the Hearst Corporation to close the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, which I built ties of affection with while spending time over decades with family in the Seattle area.  

The news also reminds me of a wonderful conversation I had with Frank Herbert, who recalled the time when he was a cub reporter with the Post-Intelligencer, and was sent to report on a dune stabilisation project in Oregon – indeed in exactly the place (Dune City) that Elaine, I and the children had visited just before flying back to London, landing in London just in time to get to Frank’s hotel before he flew back to Seattle.  More on Frank Herbert here.