John Elkington
A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.
Louise (Kjellerup) Roper and I joined the COP26 Fridays4Future march through Glasgow today, in fairly intense rain at times. Wonderful experience, everyone in good spirits and very friendly. Tremendous drumming. Organisers estimated 100,000 people took part – the striking thing was how it was all age groups, all in this together. As indeed we are.
GreenBiz published my latest column today, focusing on the role of awards and prizes in the next phase of change.
Maybe it’s the continuing saga of my eye surgery, with a couple of recent trips to Moorfields, that has me seeing the world in a slightly kaleidoscopic way? But I think it’s more a question of the general acceleration ahead of COP26, opening this week.
While cleaning up my computer desktop ahead of leaving for Glasgow, I came across these images from recent weeks. The Sacha one came through today from Conservation Without Borders, ahead of the ITV documentary this evening on Sacha’s flight, led by Joanna Lumley, filmed before the tragic crash on 18 September.
The next two images link to a presentation I did to senior partners at lawyers Slaughter And May, and then I did another session for lawyers Mission de Reya, this time spotlighting the work of young environmental activists.
The goose reflects the fact that all around the signs of autumn are pressing in. In that spirit, we have had three new windows put into the house, one on each floor, to better insulate, thermally and acoustically.
The last two images are from an evening out we had with the team, at the Conduit Club – the first time we had been there since the move from Mayfair to Covent Garden. A delightful evening.
Among things that have been in my mind recently have been my first air trip, this one to Zürich, to present to bankers Julius Bär, with a frenzy of form-filling before I went; a continuing series of talks (e.g. one for chairs of Deloitte client companies, another involving moderating a panel of CEOs for WBCSD); and thinking about the next book, which suddenly seems to have got itself together after a number of abortive starts.
Delighted to see Green Swans in Deloitte’s new listing of must-read books, alongside some other excellent choices. Details here. I was also asked to nominate a book – and picked Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future. Delighted to see it in the list.
My first TEDx Talk can be found here. There were tech problems that threw me, but the main problem was that the more formulaic my speaking has to be and the more I am coached the edgier I become.
