Journal

And a close encounter with coffee in the Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens Palms Irises Getting ready for the event Outside the Gardens Wendy Arenas Wightman being interviewed at Semana Margarita Marino de Botero says she is pre-Internet, but uses iPad

It’s decided: I am falling in love with Colombia. Took a cab this morning to the José Celestino Mutis Botanical Gardens, though taking a cab here can be a matter of some courage. The roads aren’t great and the driving is worse. I have seen two multi-vehicle collisions since arriving. But I arrived in good time and the driver kindly guided me into the Gardens.

I was taken around the Gardens in the early morning sun by Juanita Rico, from Semana magazine, and then María López Casteno came across to meet us. She is the daughter of the owner of the Semana Group and is in charge of sustainability-related activities there, among them Semana Sostenible. Great energy as the participants arrived at the conference centre: I met some wonderful people.

Then, as in anxiety dreams, one of those things happen that you really wish wouldn’t: given a small cup of espresso, I somehow managed to upend it over my tie and shirt. Retreating to the restroom, which had plenty of hot water, paper and dryers, I made the best of things. That said–as I mentioned later in the day–the aroma of good coffee was constantly with me.

The morning session was in effect a Breakthrough Lab, with some 60-70 people, and a ‘fishbowl’ session in the middle. María and Felipe (Arango) led the early part of the event and the discussion was wonderfully engaging. When it ended, a number of us headed off to the Semana offices for a lunch of some 20 people, hosted by María, including Wendy (Arena Wightman) and Felipe (Arango), but with a goodly mix of people I had not yet met.

Among those invited was Margarita Marino de Botero, the Colombian environmentalist who was one of the members of the Brundtland Commission. Very lively conversation around the table, after which some of us talked to Felipe López. He presented me with a signed copy of his autobiography, noting that I seemed to be the man who had persuaded his daughter to “save the world.” Initially, I was not entirely sure that he thought that this was a good thing, but it became clear that he was proud of her and of her mission. María recalled that she had read Cannibals With Forks six years ago and the lights had come on. It’s at moments like these that I struggle to see how the impact of some things we do can be capturing in any normal set of impact metrics.

Coming home

Some of the participants

On 25 April 2010, Volans was visted by Amazonia campaigner Martín von Hildebrand, and then on 21 May this year we were visited by his partner, Wendy Arenas Wightman. Having flown in from Cartagena earlier today, I took a cab across to Usaquen this afternoon for a session with Wendy and board members from Alisos and from the Amazonas 2030 Partnership. It felt like coming home–and we are already thinking through how we can work together in future, alongside some of the other organisations Wendy has helped introduce me to here in Colombia.

Even the Indians find it hot in Cartagena

All along the watchtower Streetscape Graffiti Flowers in Hotel Santa Clara Heat and humidity at work on camera Flowers on roof of hotel Martín Burt of Fundación Paraguaya Carved apple Ruth Oniang’o speaks at the Forum Ruth and Maggie (Margaret Catley-Carlson, Patron of the Global Water Partnership) Apparent ghost ship in harbour, thanks to humidity

Flew in to Bogotá and then Cartagena on Friday, for the meeting of the Nestlé Creating Shared Value Advisory Board on Sunday and then the 2013 Creating Shared Value Forum today. A key part of the Advisory Board meeting involved reviewing finalists for the Nestlé Prize in Creating Shared Value. Great to hear an update from the last winner, Martín Burt of Fundación Paraguaya. The weather was very hot, to the point where even colleagues from India commented on it.

We were staying at the celebrated Hotel Santa Clara, where each of us were given a copy of the novel Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel García Márquez. Had never read anything by him, but was enthralled by this book. It starts off in the ruined chapel of the nunnery that would later be turned into this 5-star hotel, and the building is a major character throughout the novel. Began reading the book on the flight from Cartagena to Bogotá, then finished it on the flight on to Frankfurt a few days later. Highly recommended.

The Shared Value vs Sustainability saga continued, to a degree, though Michael Porter’s framing of the potential contribution of Shared Value has softened considerably. Since the Advisory Board meeting was off-the-record, there is a limit on what I can sensibly say, but it is clear that the chasm between what win-win solutions can achieve in a dysfunctional economic system and what we will ultimately need to do is becoming a bit clearer to people. The question now is how we bridge that chasm, which is a question I have been working on for much of this year, with a proposal about to go out to companies and foundations.

For me, one of the highlights of this year’s CSV Forum was the presentation by J. Carl Venter of Circle of Blue, where I am also on the Advisory Board. Their impressive Chokepoint series of reports has covered China, India and the USA. Disturbing,  but highly recommended reading.

Carl had visited a nearby slum and spent the day talking to local residents, finding out about how water and sanitation issues affected their lives. His photographs, shown at the Forum, were one of the most moving elements in the process. Apparently, the police escorted him out of the area later in the day, perhaps because they feared for his safety, but also perhaps because they feared that the authorities might be embarassed.

Overall, I was struck by the growing traction that the CSV agenda is now getting, with Colombia’s President Santos and his wife both speaking at the Forum. It was great to have some time to catch up with the extraordinary members of the CSV Advisory Board. And it was fascinating to see at least a little of Cartagena, with its amazing–and often grisly–history.

The ramparts I walked along had not a little to do with the raiding of Sir Francis Drake in 1586, while the slave traffic through the port was prodigious in the day, with only Cartagena and Veracruz authorised to trade slaves at one point. Among other things, these wretched people were used to cut cane, build fortifications, and work in the terrible mines of the West Indies, Venezuela and Peru. Ending the slave industry must have seemed an impossibility at the time, just as getting a grip on climate change often does today, and I met people who said that various forms of quasi-slavery are still endemic in some parts of Latin America. But I take some comfort from the fact that that infernal triangular trade was brought to an end.

At one point, apparently, Cartagena became a ghost city, but it doesn’t feel like that now. I didn’t get to see the Museum of the Inquisition, but it was hard not to recall the centuries of pain inflicted in this city of tourism and pleasure. Although Ann Veneman invited me to join her on a tour of the city, I had sadly brought a mass of work to do, and spent any free time pushing forward with that.

One natural highlight: the sound of the frogs in the hotel courtyard at night, though they had apparently had to be imported from some other part of South America. All in all, though, I think I’m beginning to fall in love with Colombia.

Speaking at the K-Fair in Dusseldorf and Green Business Congress in Brussels

The Rhine when Celina and I walk down to the shore ahead of dinner Richard (Northcote), Celina (Chew) and Patrick (Thomas) of Bayer MaterialScience The field of battle: where I spoke for PlasticsEurope Another angle Patrick demonstrates flexible cabling Graffiti-proof coatings Wind turbine blade, like a giant eel Partial exoskeleton: robotic swimming device, like a mermaid or walrus tail ET-like exhibit Another angle Patrick Thomas in green tie Video of Solar Impulse landing or taking off All aboard the ICE train

Things have been moving so fast recently that life risks turning into a bit of a blur. That said, I enjoyed my trip to the K-Fair in Dusseldorf, where I was hosted by Bayer MaterialScience–speaking both for them (see this YouTube edited highlights video) and for PlasticsEurope. I spoke in a series including such people as Joschka Fisher (who I once debated in Wiesbaden, way back in 1989), Bertrand Piccard (the motive force behind the amazing Solar Impulse aircraft) and Yoshiyuki Sankai (who works in the field of exoskeletons).The theme was dreams for the future.

Great to catch up with BMS CEO Patrick Thomas, Richard Northcote and Celina Chew, who we have been working with on Project SunRise. First worked with Patrick way back in the early 1990s, when he was with ICI Polyurethanes.

After a couple of days in Dusseldorf, it is all aboard an ICE train (not the one shown) and off to Brussels for a CEO lunch and then to speak at the Green Business Congress, whose theme this year is ‘Mission Zero.’ Appropriate since we have just agreed to do a project for Interface, whose founder the late Ray Anderson launched the original Mission Zero, and was one of the Zeronauts featured in The Zeronauts.

Then a dinner with members of the C&A team we are working with, hosted at the wonderful Belga Queen restaurant. Got the time wrong, so had to race, but was guided by my ‘Brussels angel”, Bob Starc. Then, after another night in a hotel, off to catch the Eurostar home.

Banner for the Green Business Congress

To Cambridge and a 6-hour Skype call

Jorgen Randers on left And on right Paul Gilding lsitens to Tom Gladwin’s ‘Sustainability Blues’ Ditto Ditto ditto

Despite my wilting blogging output, it’s time to catch up on  a busy week, as the rain continues to gurgle in the gutters outside. It has been a week of highs and a low. T

he low was when I attempted my first-ever PechaKucha presentation (20 slides, with the computer giving you just 20 seconds per slide) at a green entrepreneurs event and left feeling it had misfired.

But a wave of highs soon had me cheering up. Maybe I had been tired: the previous day, Monday, I had ended off with a 6-hour Skype call to New York for the final judging of this year’s Buckminster Fuller Challenge awards. The session ended at 22.00 and I confess Skype isn’t my favourite environment, but will try almost anything in memory of the hallowed Bucky.

Also among the ups were two days in Cambridge, the first with Jorgen Randers and perhaps 20 other contributors to his book 2052. Great to catch up with Jorgen, and with other contributors (and friends) like Paul Gilding, Tom Gladwin, Nick Robins, Mathis Wackernagel and Peter Willis. On the evening before the session, picking up a thread of deep pessimism in Jorgen’s analysis in the book, I asked what the average age (and sex) of we contributors had been? The answer, in essence, was older white males – and my reaction was that, even if the outlook is dire, the mood and creativity would have been significantly improved had we had more women and more younger voices.

One set of images that sticks in my brain came from Australian David Butcher, a former CEO of WWF Australia and Greening Australia, He lives on an Illawarra property which is 30 percent tropical rainforest, and described to me seeing (I think from a bridge across a river on the property) a red-bellied black snake catching and eating an eel, and (separately) a large python dangling from a tree to catch passing birds on the wing. He only rumbled what was going on in the latter case when he saw the explosion of feathers.

The following day, Paul, Tony Juniper, Karl Wagner and I did an all-day session with some 12-15 chief sustainability officers, and similar, for the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. A wonderful opportunity to take the temperature of a sample of these key change agents. They came from companies like Jaguar-Landrover, Lend Lease, Nestle, Sainsbury and Unilever. My sense is that many of them have been banging their head against some fairly dense walls and ceilings, but there were many examples of great work being attempted.

The first time I had been at the Moller Centre, part of Churchill College, which turned out to be an excellent venue for both meetings. A nice link back to Winston Churchill’s support for Denmark in the Second World War. He apparently borrowed the Maersk fleet for the duration and, if I was correctly informed, made good the losses (which must have been pretty substantial) after the war.

Another great thing this week: Jo(sephine) Living, our new OnPurpose Fellow, has joined the team for six months. Still recall Susie Braun, our first OnPurpose Fellow, with huge gratitude and affection. Checking the Volans website, it strikes me that we need to update her entry – she went on to become a senior strategic planner at Comic Relief.