Journal
Just When You Think It Can’t Get Any Better
Recommended by Paul Bunje of the X Prize Foundation, I had only read of Planet Labs – but after visiting, am stunned I didn’t know more. Their motto: ‘Using Space to Help Life on Earth.’ We met one of the founders, Robbie Schlinger – and I came away totally sold on what they are doing.
Reminded me of the project I did for WRI on space and information technologies ways back in the 1980s, which resulted in a report called The Shrinking Planet.
Robbie had spent 9 years at NASA, where he helped build the Small Spacecraft Office at NASA Ames and was Capture Manager for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). He later served as NASA’s Open Government Representative to the White House and as Chief of Staff for the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA.
Love the spirit of their approach: “We care deeply about creating positive change and commercial value. At Planet, ethics are at the foundation of everything we do. We have fun, love space and are committed to transparency for the planet, for our company, and for our customers and partners. Our philosophy is to move fast: design, build, learn, repeat.”
Their Dove satellites fly in the face of conventional space industry wisdom. “They’re not works of arts, Ferraris,” is the way Robbie explained it. Instead, they’re tiny, are sent up in considerable numbers, or “flocks,” and can be programmed to operate like compound eyes in space.
Then on to RBS, or the Royal Bank of Scotland, to see their man in the Valley, John Stewart. They’re scouting, too, but they’ve put down strong roots. Their aim: :”To help customers solve problems they don’t yet even know they have.” 99.9% of Californians in the business are “nuts,” he suggested, but the result can be astonishing breakthroughs. One of his interests: quantum computing.
His aim is to make all of this relevant to someone on a dark, rainy morning in Bradford, without a cup of coffee in their hand or a small dog at their heel.
Then the Breakthrough scouting team split up for the first time, with Ingvild (Sörensen) and Sam (Lakha) making off to Facebook, while I went to see Emma Stewart at Autodesk, where she is Head of Sustainability Solutions. She is also involved in a new initiative designed to operationalise the triple bottom line, Impact Infrastructure.
The background: Impact Infrastructure, Inc. was founded in March 2012 and has offices in Manhattan and in Toronto’s Annex at the Centre for Social Innovation. The company’s primary goal is to create a standardized suite of business case analysis tools to promote the development of more sustainable and resilient communities. They talk in terms of “Sustainable Return on Investment” analysis (or SROI).
Then across to the Caltrain station to catch a train to Menlo Park, for a serendipitous dinner at a Turkish restaurant with the reconvened scouts, and Janine Benyus, Beth Rattner and Courtney Morehouse of Biomimicry 3.8 and Biomimicry Institute (where I’m on the Board, as is Stefan Heck, mentioned in an earlier post in this series). They had just been to see Google X, or X as I think they now call themselves.
We were also joined by Richard Northcote and his colleague Alice from Covestro, who are working on the next leg of the Solar Impulse‘s flight – this time from Hawaii to San Francisco. We are working with Richard and Covestro on the con kept of carbon productivity. The evening fairly flew, particularly when I switched us to the Turkish wine.
Wonderful people – and a sense of being part of a true paradigm shift.
A Singular Morning & Afternoon Among Lemons
And this morning it’s Singularity University, out in Mountain View, specifically at Moffett Field. We have to pass armed guards to get into the Ames Research Centre, where SU is based, within spitting distance of Google’s expanding headquarters. Knew that SU had recently become a B Corp, but nice sense of sorority as we pass the (new) sign in their reception area.
A great session with Nick Haan, on many different aspects of Singularity University agenda and activities – exploring the degree to which there is overlap between their 11 Global Grand Challenges and the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Answer: though not an exact fit, they are highly aligned. And the spirit of SU is exactly what is needed to bridge the gap between where we are on the SDGs and where we need to be by 2030.
Delighted to take a way a printed copy (I am unreconstructed) of their Impact Report,which I had only seen online to date.
Then back to Palo Alto, past Hangar One – a skeletal monument to an earlier round of grand visions. In its heyday, this was used to house the naval airship, Macon. So big that, back in the day, fog would form under its ceiling. In recent years, it has been the preserve of NASA, which has been struggling with some of the materials used to build the original structure, including asbestos and PCBs.
Later in the day, we meet Stefan Heck of Nauto and, up in the hills, a,on the lemon trees Thomas Odenwald – formerly with SAP. Targeted at the insurance industry, NAUTO aims to be a “Google for the outdoors.” Its connected camera network and artificial intelligence-driven smart cloud is designed to help prevent accidents before they happen, reducing false liability claims and providing coaching to improve driver performance.
Intriguingly, Stefan’s book Resource Revolution speaks of a Third Industrial Revolution, in contrast to Klaus Schwab’s ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and my own preference for the ‘Sixth Wave’ advocated by Carlota Perez. A fascinating conversation about a broad spectrum of emerging technologies, their benefits, and their unintended externalities (both positive and negative). Stefan spoke of “bimodal impacts,” justifying both “utopian and dystopian” views of the future.
Then up into the hills to see Thomas Odenwald, among other things of Fronesys, who twice led SAP’s green IT activities, working on the ‘Boardroom of the Future.’ We discussed the perils of the early adopter. Developing a suite of sustainability-oriented software tools, Odenwald and SAP thought that it would be a case of “build it and they will come.” But, he said, they didn’t come. At least not yet.
Fascinating to hear how he is working on a project to bring similar technology to bear on problems like elephant poaching in Africa.
Then back into San Francisco to meet Morgan Clendaniel, Editor of Fast Company‘s Co-Exist platform, meeting up in the restaurant that Joel Makower had suggested on our first evening in town – which seems light years ago. He had been suggested as a contact by Fast Company‘s UK Editor, Bob Safian. Great suggestion, great conversation.
To Sausalito For Paul Hawken And A Sealark
At the end of the day, we Ubered across the Golden Gate for supper with Paul Hawken at the Poggio Trattoria, over a bottle or two of Planeta Etna Rosso wine. Always glorious to walk along the Sausalito waterfront, taking in boats old and new. Among the oldest was The Sealark, a battered old tug whose colours were radiant in the evening sun.
On the language front, love the idea that Sausalito has gone under so many different names through history: Saucelito, San Salita, San Saulito, San Salito, Sancolito, Sancilito, Sousolito, Sousalita, Sousilito, Sausilito, and Sauz Saulita. The last one (spuriously) chimes with the area’s history in edgy activities like bootlegging and rum running.
It’s always an immense privilege to talk to Paul – as it is to Janine Benyus, a shared friend and colleague, who we will (serendipitously) meet in Menlo Park later in the trip.
We catch up on: Project Drawdown, designed to move us from “complacency to agency” on climate change; on another new book Paul is writing; and on his work with Interface (very exciting). Plus a number of the breakthrough companies he sees as particularly interesting, including Tri Alpha Energy and GrapheneNano.
A perfect end to another extraordinary day.
The Real Future Sounds Ridiculous
A day spent oscillating between San Francisco, Palo Alto and Sausalito (the subject of a separate post). The morning kicked of with a visit to Hampton Creek Foods, whose motto is “What would it look like if we started over?” Their product range started with plant-based substitutes for egg and egg-based food ingredients.
We were met by their Chief Happiness Officer, a large Golden Retriever. One interesting part of the conversation was around language – and how they avoid mentioning the fact that their products are vegan/vegetarian, even thought they are. This was a theme we encountered often during our California trip.
Then across to Palo Alto for a session with Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of Institute for the Future. Have long admired their work, back to the days of Paul Saffo’s time there, and it was great to catch up on some of the work they are now doing. Intriguing to dig a bit deeper into their 10-year forecasting cycle.
Among other things, Marina described the multiplicity of cultures in the Silicon Valley area, from the tech-obsessed through to the counter-cultural and humanistic. And what is striking is how these worlds can blur, as in people like the late Steve Jobs.
We also discussed the critical role of investigative reporting, with the Panama Papers, deservedly, getting a good deal of attention in the media at the moment.
Then into a great session with Gil Friend, who I have known and admired for many years – both at Natural Logic and now in his role as Chief Sustainability Officer at the City of Palo Alto. He has introduced us to a number of the people we are seeing on this trip. I don’t envy him the politics in his current work, but he is part of a growing movement of CSOs and similar in the world of local government. He referenced the work of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN.org).
As an example of the sort of dilemmas that people like him have to wrestle with, he noted that if Palo Alto pushes ahead with its plans to ensure the overwhelming majority of cars in the area are electrically-powered, companies like Tesla will do well – but poorer people (for example gardeners and maids) who can’t afford electric vehicles and have to commute in long distances will be disadvantaged.
We didn’t discuss it, but maybe the EV drivers will respond by buying robots to do the house and garden?
Then back to San Francisco for a session with Kavita Gupta and Chantal Buard of Amplifier Strategy. We met at The Battery, here it was interesting to hear about the evolving social innovation platform, Battery Powered. A great initiative – and one wonders how much of a following wind it may have been given by recent protests against companies like Google, as captured in Douglas Rushkoff’s book Throwing Rocks At The Google Bus.
His sub-title nicely (if uncomfortably) distils the issue: ‘How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity.’