Journal

Have just posted my latest Substack article, on my trip this week to Rotterdam to speak at the 2024 World Energy Council Congress. A real serendipity engine – and my mind is still buzzing.

A few highlights of a hyper-accelerated period

Leaving tomorrow for three days at the World Energy Council’s Congress in Rotterdam, where I am due to speak on Tuesday. Since we got back from Normandy – and delightful to see Hania, Jake and Gene again this afternoon – I have been working on my big rethink. Such things seem to happen to me every 5-6 years, the last time coinciding with my product recall for the triple bottom line via the Harvard Business Review.

This time around the driver seems to be a growing concern that however much excellent work we do with individual businesses, it’s can be a bit like putting cleaned-up fish back into polluted waters, in that market dynamics push them away from ambitious goals. We seem to be experiencing something of the same even with Unilever at the moment. All part of the ESG and sustainability recessions I have been talking about.

So I am focusing my thinking on how we can design markets that push companies in the right directions. Along the way, I plan to dig into the histories of attempts to build markets for carbon, biodiversity, fair trade, organic food, water, impact investment and eco-tourism, among others. A strong sense of being. back on the learning curve again.

In the process, am playing with AI in developing the thinking, including ChatGPT for word-based research and Artiphoria for image generation. One of my favorite images this week was one I generated for a Substack post on the Anthropocene, featuring a polar bear hitchhiking away from the Big Thaw in search of ice and deeper snows.

Happily, interest in my new book, Tickling Sharks, seems to be building – with several people this week – in places as disparate as America, Germany and the Czech Republic – saying they were attracted by the fact that I am unusual in. being able to cover the past, present and future of the sustainability agenda. Did an excellent fireside chat on the theme with Elisa Moscolin at a Sage offsite in Clerkenwell on Tuesday morning.

Then, on Wednesday, Elaine and I went across to the Science Museum for a session on the science of taste – with an additional sparkle added by the tasting of Prosecco, English Sparkling Wine and true Champagne. Absolutely fascinating. And perhaps the most interesting bit was when Professor Smith circulated strips of paper and asked us all to put them on our tongues. Some people winced with the bitterness, others experienced a slight sourness, while Elaine, I and some others simply tasted paper. A striking example of how different people’s palettes can be.

Am also managing to read a fair amount at the moment, while buying more books than I could ever possibly read. Am reading Jonathan Clements’ Rebel Island, on the history of Taiwan, at the moment – utterly fascinating. Before that I read The New Cold War by a family friend, Robin Niblett. And am planning to read Daniel Suskind’s book, Growth, on the Eurostar tomorrow.

On the fiction front, I also just finished Tom Brady’s fast-paced thriller, Yesterday’s Spy. Given Iran’s attack on Israel this week, it was riveting to read about a different Iran, back in the Shah’s day.

What an extraordinary time we had of it in Trouville and Deauville. Utterly relaxing – and glorious to get to know our grandson Gene a bit better. Can’t wait to go back.

A few days away in Normandy

Read much of Robin Niblett’s book, The New Cold War, on the Eurostar to Paris yesterday. Wonderfully written, but pretty bracing. That said, it’s surprising how quickly I have relaxed in the new surroundings of Trouville – it used to take me several days to “land”. The weather has been kind, if also pretty bracing when we were on the beach this afternoon.

And bad news landed while we were at lunch in Les Voiles in Trouville, which threw an unexpected shadow over the proceedings. Still, we made our way across to Honfleur to see the Naturospace butterfly collection and to walk around Honfleur, which I had wanted to visit again since we passed through some time in the 1980s.

My latest Substack post, discussing last week’s trip to Porto Alegre, Brazil, can be found here. Great fun! And spurred a number of new lines of thought.