Uncategorized

Great couple of days in Barcelona, speaking at the Ship2B Foundation‘s Impact Forum. Picked up from the hotel by Ship2B co-founder Xavi(er) Post and taken on a long perambulation around the city.

One of the places we passed through was Plaça de Sant Felip, with its extensively pockmarked walls. Was told that this was where executions were carried out in the Civil War, but the size of the impact holes had me thinking of the bomb damage we still see in London – so was interested to see this blog later. Interesting how stories can mutate.

Fascinating visit to the City Council to see Francesca Bria, Barcelona’s chief technology and digital innovation officer. We share interests in such people as Nikolai Kondratiev and Joseph Schumpeter, Chris Freeman and Carlota Perez, and Manuel Castells.

Really enjoyed the 2017 Impact Forum on Thursday, themes around ‘Change Is Happening’ and held in the Mazda Space, alongside the old central market building – which is where we had lunch. Sadly, I had to be whipped away to be taken across to the airport.

As we arrived at the airport, I suddenly realised that my assertion that I had only once been to Barcelona before, in 1968, en route to Ibiza, was wrong. I have spoken at least one of the local business schools, but many years back. Checking back through this blog, I found an entry for 18 February 2004, on a visit to speak at ESADE.

I’m beginning to wish for a biochip memory implant …

3D graphics image by Quince Creative, https://quincemedia.com.

One of the ideas for a new book I have been playing with has been around the parallels between the bids to end slavery and to create the National Health Service in Britain, on the one hand, and the increasingly urgent need to ward off runaway climate change on the other. Some headlines on that line of thought in this piece posted this week on LinkedIn.

On Monday evening, I spoke at the 6 Heads anniversary event a Freshfields’ HQ. Tom Burke and I did an opening session on the ‘Unlock the Impossible‘ theme.

Then on Tuesday up to Nottingham with the team to run the first of our three city-focused events for Innovate UK, this one focusing in air quality.

Among other things, I did an on-stage conversation with Robyn Scott of Apolitical and then a panel session with Jane Lumb (Head of Energy & Sustainability Policy, Nottingham City Council), Mark Saunders (UK project Director, Ferrovial’s Centre of Excellence for Cities) and Phi Ellis (co-founder and COO of the cycle light company Blaze).

Nice drink on our way back to the station at the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, billed as the oldest inn in England. Whatever, it is the only inn or pub I have ever in that has rooms carved out of the living rock – in this case the sandstone outcrop on which the castle stands. enjoyed a round of drinks bought by Jean-Marc de Royére of Air Liquide.

Otherwise, this week has largely been about phone calls as part of the next phase of our Carbon Productivity work – with a new line of thought starting to surface as a result.

A delightful supper with Alois Flatz on Thursday evening, who I have known since his days with Sustainable Asset Management, and then Zouk Capital and now Generation Investment Management.

 

A reminder, via a Greenpeace tweet this morning, about the incredible, potentially unstoppable power of the right sort of incrementalism. Here’s the story of a man who rebuilt a forest.

When I introduce audiences to our Breakthrough Compass (see below), my natural inclination is to encourage them to lean into the Breakthrough innovation space, top right.

But any implied disparaging of the right sort of incrementalism is unintentional. I always say this is where we all start. It’s the mulch from which the seeds of the new often spring.

Am thrilled with the filmed interview of Julia (Hailes) and I that Chris Wash and the SustainAbility team have done for the 30th anniversary celebrations.

The conversations between Julia and I, between Julia and SustainAbility CEO Rob Cameron, and between SustainAbility Director Denise Delaney and I can be found here. [Only the first is available in 2024, the one between Julia and I. But we are trying to track down the others from the archive.]

Filmed in the front room of the Volans offices in Bloomsbury Place, they are an extraordinary reminder of the role we all played in the early days of the sustainability movement and agenda.