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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Generation In Burberry’s

John Elkington · 11 November 2016 · Leave a Comment

One of the Regent Street sngels
One of the Regent Street angels

Lovely lunch with Colin le Duc of Generation Investment Management, at Thomas’s inside Burberry’s. He’s off to California. useful discussion of the implications of the Trump regime – and of where we’re heading next with Project Breakthrough. Latest video interview just posted on the web site: Richard Johnson’s interview of Rachel Botsman of Collaborative Consumption.

Rachel Botsman
Rachel Botsman

UNGC Breakthrough Symposium

John Elkington · 10 November 2016 · Leave a Comment

Cambridge Union panorama
Cambridge Union panorama (click on image to expand)
A ring of facilitators
A ring of facilitators
David  Christie (with cake) and some of Innovation Arts team
David Christie (with cake) and some of Innovation Arts team
Lisa Goldapple of Atlas of the Future, with our report
Lisa Goldapple of Atlas of the Future, with our report
PA futurist Rob Gear votes for his 3 technologies
PA futurist Rob Gear votes for his 3 technologies

Great couple of days in Cambridge, where we were co-hosting the first Breakthrough Symposium with the UN Global Compact – as part of their annual series of LEAD company events. Co-facilitated with David Christie of Innovation Arts – and with support from our partners Atlas of the Future and Hüman After All.

Slightly taken aback by the venue, to start with, but in the end it worked well. And the Symposium’s first morning coincided with the announcement of the US presidential elections result.  Our American friends were in total shock, but we kept the juggernaut rolling.

The first morning involved a trip across to PA Consulting‘s R&D site in Melbourne, which covered everything from from drone-monitored farming through to 3D printed biscuits, and was an invigorating start to the process.

Met some great people – and moderated three panels, including people from the Braskem, Covestro, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Enel, iDisrupted, Provenance, PA Consulting, Singularity University and Tradeshift.

Great visual capture of the event, with a number of rounds of discussion groups on the floor above, but I’ll aim to distil those in a later blog. So more anon.

Keep Calm: We’re Experiencing A Paradigm Shift

John Elkington · 7 November 2016 · Leave a Comment

keepcalmposter_franckboston_sstock

Here’s a link to my latest GreenBiz column on the recent Commonwealth Secretariat climate change event I attended – and on falling in love in a car park.

Also published today, here’s a Fast Company/Co-Exist review of our work at Volans.

Business for Peace Summit 2016

John Elkington · 1 November 2016 · Leave a Comment

oslo_business2017

Sent a link today to a short video capturing some of the essence of this year’s Business for Peace Summit in Oslo. In the middle of it all I’m captured saying that if I have a skill, it’s probably listening – “and, sometimes, remembering what I’ve been told.” Hope that’s both true and lasts.

Clocks Go Back

John Elkington · 30 October 2016 · Leave a Comment

A garden as it used to be
Bruce and Rosie’s garden as it used to be
Barnes Bridge
Barnes Bridge
Autumn leaves 1
Autumn leaves 1
Autumn leaves 2
Autumn leaves 2
Barnes 1
Barnes 1
Barnes 2
Barnes 2

Clocks went back today: spent the additional time in bed reading Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage. That in turn led me to dig back into the history of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, a band which I knew of and which was featured in the V&A Sixties exhibition, but which I’m pretty sure I hadn’t heard before.

Strikingly parallel to (and presumably an influence on) the Byrds in their Clarence White era and the Flying Burrito Brothers, two of my favourite bands.

Lily Rosenzweig came to lunch, during which a cameraman came to shoot a picture of Bruce McLean‘s garden next door from our top floor. Spied Bruce popping up behind an image of the garden when he and Rosie first moved in, in the Sixties.

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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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