False modesty aside, there are a fair few things I feel I have contributed over the years, but the triple bottom line continues to amaze me with its stamina. It’s more or less exactly 15 years since I came up with the term, after perhaps 18 months of wrestling off-and-on – with the help of Andrea Spencer-Cooke – in an attempt to explain the core sustainability challenge to business audiences. The term has popped up repeatedly at conferences I have spoken at this year, most recently at the Oslo Sustainability Summit, where I spoke on Tuesday. Now The Economist is on the case.
Journal
Walking Over the Opera House
Oslo Opera House
Elaine and I walked around the Oslo Opera House twice today, once in full sunlight, once in the twilight. What an astounding building it is. Photos will follow when I have a certain cable to hand.
Oslo Sustainability Summit
BI, interior Blurred shot of Elaine and Joel (Bakan), en route to our session
Met Bill McKibben today, after being blown away by his presentation on the 350 campaign. Resolved to get both Volans and SustainAbility involved, if it kills me. Then did the session at BI, the management school, with Joel Bakan, who I first met some time ago when I chaired a discussion panel at the London premiere of his film, The Corporation. Great fun.
Introducing my session, I spotlighted Jorgen Randers, who had kicked off the event, as a “dinosaur”, in the sense that 1972’s Limits to Growth study had been seminal in my evolution, a mere 37 years ago. He got an ovation. Then, to spread the insults around, I noted that Elaine and I just realised that today was our wedding anniversary – another ovation.
Last night, Joel and his wife Rebecca played guitar (him) and sang (her) at the US Embassy, where many of us had repaired for dinner. They hugely endeared themselves to me by doing one of my favourite Grace Slick/Jefferson Airplane songs.
After our Summit debate, Joel and I did a session with students. Then on to the British Embassy for a reception, where we were treated – among other things – to a rap band and a duet playing Tchaikovsky.
Searching for Lost Anchors
Jan-Olaf at the wheel Elderly couple cut across our bow Andreas takes the wheel A sight that would once have struck terror Vikings
A second yachting venture, this time in the opposite direction, to retrieve two anchors that Jan-Olaf had lost on a previous voyage. He had called in heavy-duty help, in the shape of Odd Fellow II and a diver, who soon found the first anchor, in nine metres of water, but discovered that the second had gone at least 50 metres down, and could well be irretrievable. Later, when we got back, Elaine spotted a yacht called Volans: then she and I headed across to the Hotel Bristol, ahead of the Sustainability Summit tomorrow.