John Elkington

Bike Wake Door to GRI Face 3 Flags 1 3 flags 2 Graffiti Man in workshop Nelmara Arbex and Ignasi Carreras GRI team BlackBerry (and similar) moment Declarative group 1 Declarative group 2

Back late yesterday from a couple of days in Amsterdam, with the Board of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), chaired by (Judge) Mervyn King of South Africa.  Bumped into several people I knew while arriving in and walking around the city, including Hein Sas and then Franklin van Beuningen of GreenPartners.  (Little sleep in the hotel on the second night, when the street outside the Eden Rembrandt Square Hotel seemed to be full of screamers and shouters from nightfall to dawn.  When I asked the receptionist whether this was normal, he said yes.  Steer clear of this hotel if you can, ask for a room at the back or on the top floor or wear noise-canceling headphones to sleep.) Still, the wonderful GRI team proved to be fatigue-canceling.  Indeed, the two days were a forceful reminder–if reminder were needed–of just how important transparency and reporting can be.  We ended by drafting a fairly energetic Declaration that will hopefully see the light of day.  

Ghost bike, Holborn

Having tried to cycle home this evening, I was turned back by high winds and sluicing rain.  So walked to Holborn Tube – and then saw for the first time  the ghost bike in Southampton Row, where a girl cyclist was killed soon after we moved to Bloomsbury Place.  A couple of our team saw the ghastly aftermath.  The ghostbikes movement strikes me as a wonderfully imaginative, moving response to a largely unseen catastrophe on wheels.

Achilles sprouts horns

The last two days of this week I cycled to and from the office for the first time in quite a while – and mood lifted accordingly.  Weather helped, as did all the bulbs blooming in the garden at 2 Bloomsbury Place.  Then, too, there was the fact that we have more or less finished The Phoenix Economy, which is now with our designer, Rupert Bassett.  Fairly intensive week nonetheless, with my annual lecture at Imperial College and a visit with Charmian to Goldman Sachs, but am feeling more in tune with the universe, particularly after a quiet day in the office with Sam, listening to the likes of Dean Martin on her iPod.  As Sam noted Lou Reed would say, A Perfect Day.

Last night the car failed to start, indeed even the security light had gone off, until I unlocked it and the alarm went off for some 15 minutes.  Because we were on our way to Richmond, we cancelled a call to the RAC and took a cab, driven by a delightful Punjabi nicknamed ‘Lofty’.  He began to tell us about sleeping on the roof of his home as a teenager and doing his homework by moonlight. That conversation started because there was a wonderful Moon last night, with Venus dawdling nearby. Then he proceeded to tell us about Slumdog Millionaire, which was interesting, since Gaia had been exerting every sinew recently to get the child actors to the Oscars – a mission duly accomplished.

Today, a truly wonderful RAC man turned up, protested that after 7-8 years we have only put around 17,000 miles on the Volvo’s clock, and ended up changing the battery, yet again.  Then, inspired by an email this morning from Geoffrey Chandler about his garden, and particularly the scent of witch hazel, we trolled across to the Isabella Plantation, where most things seemed to be in bud, and the witch hazels were in blossom.  Watching a few bumblebees rumbling from blossom to blossom, I began to wish for a life as a cross-pollinator.  But then perhaps that is what I do?

Witch hazel

Catkins 1

Catkins 2

Reflections

Osiers

Path

Banco Itau Sustainability Dialogue 1 Banco Itau Sustainability Dialogue 2 Flying back over England

The press release for the Banco Itaú Award Scheme for Sustainable Finances that I helped launch in Brazil last week ran as follows:

“The first edition of the Itaú’s Award for Sustainable Finances event was held on February 17th in São Paulo, choosing Juliana Rangel, from the newspaper O Globo, and Daniel Wajnberg, of the Institute for Research and Post-Graduation in Business Management of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Coppead/UFRJ), as authors of the best articles on sustainable finances in the categories Journalism and Academia. Juliana Rangel was chosen for her report on “Politically Correct Income”, and Daniel Wajnberg, for his work “Sustainability in Brazilian Banks: a scrutiny of the divulging of the relationships between socio-environmental initiatives and corporate financial performance”. Each winner will receive R$ 10 thousand and a trip to London, with an agenda of studies focused on sustainable finances proposed by SustainAbility.

“Also awarded were Flávia Pardini, a journalist working for Revista Página 22, of São Paulo, whose report “The Parts and the Whole” was chosen as the best report in the modality Magazines; and Thiago Schneider de Jesus, of the Regional University of the Northwest of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Unijuí), for his work “Sustainable Finances: Prospects and Challenges for Financial Institutions”; chosen as the best academic text in the modality of Post-graduation. Both will be entitled to a prize of R$ 10 thousand.

“The remaining finalists were, in the category Journalism, Gitânio Fortes (Folha de S. Paulo), Juliana Arini (Época), Maria Teresa Costa (Correio Popular) and Sammya Araújo Anhamus (Metrópole). In the category Academia, the finalists were Ana Paula Pinheiro Zago (Federal University of Uberlândia – UFU), Franklin Roosevelt Mendes Thame (National Scientific Computation Laboratory – LNCC), Jesuína Figueira Cézar (Institution for Research in Accounting, Economy and Finances of the State of Espírito Santo – FUCAPE), Jorge Emanuel Reis Cajazeira (Business Management School / FGV), Vera Lúcia Franco Veiga and Aluísio Xavier (Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro – UFF).

“Developed with support by Instituto Ethos and with consultancy by SustainAbility – renowned internationally for creating the concept of the “triple bottom line” –, the initiative aims at providing incentives for the academic and journalistic production on the theme, collaborating for the expansion of debate on better initiatives for the economic and social development of corporations, communities and governments. The prize-awarding event counted with the participation of John Elkington, founder and director of SustainAbility.

“The Judging Commission of this first edition was composed by the academicians Cláudio Boechat (Dom Cabral Foundation), Mário Monzoni (FGV), Priscila Claro (IBMEC), Rosa Maria Fisher (USP), and journalists Dirceu Pio (Revista Brasileiros), Heródoto Barbeiro (CBN and TV Cultura), Kiko Brito (O ECO) and William Waack (TV Globo). The winning works are accessible on the site (www.itaufinancassustentaveis.com.br).”

The following evening, I did a panel session at the first in a series of Sustainability Dialogues hosted by Banco Itaú, with speakers from Ashoka and Artemisia.  Then the following day, Thursday, I flew back home.  Found myself sitting next to a social entrepreneur who had been featured the previous evening, on his way to Turkey.  The number of times that this happens is increasing all the time: this evening I sat next to a woman I met recently from Goldman Sachs and a couple of weeks back it was someone I knew from the fair trade movement.

Both in Brazil and since I have mainly been working on the new report on the Phoenix Economy, although there have been a fair few meetings as well, including one with Ian Cheshire, CEO of Kingfisher, on Monday.  We have been quietly testing out our conclusions with business leaders before committing them to print. A palpable sense that Spring is in the air, but other people’s ill-health and economic turmoil clouds the horizon.  The human herd continues to stampede rather than migrating, but it’s only a matter of time.  

Meanwhile, bets are being taken on when the magnolia tree outside our office will break into leaf.  It was in bloom when Elaine, Sam and I first went to see 2 Bloomsbury Place last Spring, so a sense, yet again, that the giant wheel of time is turning all around us.

Barnes flowers Mrs T in Prospect: Magazine cover on floor below us Magnolia view

View from 23rd floor Ditto Ricardo Young Silva Award winners Pool on the 24th floor Interviewed 1 Cables Bushes on the 24th floor Interviewed 2 Reflection

Flew into Sao Paulo yesterday morning, with Jodie Thorpe, for the launch of the first Banco Itau Awards for Sustainable Finance.  Did a speech at the launch event at the Banco Itau Cultural Centre.  Then today did a TV interview on the top floor of the hotel, the Golden Tulip Paulista Plaza, with helicopters going to and fro – including one landing on the roof.  What should have been a 20 minute sequence turned into something much longer.