John Elkington

Delighted to see TOPIA running a version of my Costa Rica vs. Russia piece.

My trip report on our recent trip to Costa Rica can be found here. The third image shows the group we travelled with, including our guide and driver. We were seeing glimpses of a paradise while the Russian invasion turned parts of Ukraine into hell on Earth. Clashing worlds of regeneration (Costa Rica) and degeneration (Russia).

I’m pretty sure that this was recorded last year, and am also pretty sure that I’m not a professor at IESE, but I did speak there – and this is a good capture of what’s going through my brain at the moment.

Up early yesterday to head across to the Business Design Centre in Islington for my first major face-to-face speech, after over 250 virtual ones through the lockdowns of the last couple of years. This was the edie Sustainability Leadership Forum. Chaired by Soli(taire) Townsend of Futerra. She kicked off by talking about the need to let emotion into our work, so I gave her a very public as she brought me onto the stage.

Went rather well, I think, with three of our team in the room: Sophie, Josh and Álvaro. edie.net’s summary here.

Then, with others, we went on to the House Commons to launch the next round of the Bankers for Net Zero initiative that we have been co-evolving for the past couple of years. Bumped into Nick Robins, a former colleague and friend, now a Professor at LSE, as we were walking across to Parliament – and, unexpectedly, very much enjoyed the evening.

Welcome to the world, TOPIA, and delighted to have several posts in the launch edition.