Journal

  Janet and Elaine walking down to Trill Farm

Drove down to Frampton, Dorset, to drop our bags at a rather grand B&B, before heading further west to Trill Farm, near Musbury, Devon, for a celebration of the launch of the Trill Farm Trust,  This has been set up by Romy Fraser, who founded Neal’s Yard Remedies – and recently sold a majority holding to Peter Kindersley.  Wonderful dancing to ceilidh band as the sun set. 

Apart from Romy and Amrit Ahluwalia, who used to work with SustainAbility many, many moons ago and then worked with Romy, we bumped into people like Ed Posey of the Gaia Foundation, Richard St George (who used to work at the Centre of Alternative Technology) and Schumacher, Jude Smith Rachele of Abundant Sun, nd Sue Clifford and Angela King, who run one of my very favourite NGOs, Common Ground.

Driving back to Frampton very late, we found all the petrol stations closed and ourselves almost running on vapours – but found a station just about to close after some 25 minutes of heightening anxiety.

Reflection   Dancing   Sue, Angela and Elaine Stilts 1 Stilts 2   Old man puppet chases a bottle of gin   Vine

A video of the panel session I took part in as part of the launch of the launch of the ITT watermark initiative in Stockholm (see 24 August blog entry) can be found at http://www.ittwatermark.com/. 

Andrea and Barry Coleman   Pamela and Charmian

Day started with a brainstorm session at SustainAbility on the future of our accountability, reporting and stakeholder engagement work – a timely and vibrant discussion.  Then, after drafting an article or two, walked across to Volans for a session with Andrea and Barry Coleman of Riders for Health.  They updated our team on some of the stuff they are now doing and on their plans for the future.  I really love what they do – and it was interesting that at last night’s dinner someone from a major mainstream organisation waxed lyrical about them, without initially knowing that we knew them. 

A fairly energetic day, starting with a train trip down to Newdigate for a meeting of the Trustees of the Environment Foundation, hosted by (Sir) Geoffrey Chandler.  Others there were Malcolm Aickin, Ian Christie, John Lotherington (of the 21st Century Trust), Tim O’Donovan and Halina Ward.  A key decision was to push forward with the theme of ‘Democracy & Sustainability’.  Geoffrey’s wife Lucy and their dog Pickles ducked in and out during the day, as did a Great Spotted Woodpecker.  

Later, Tim drove me across  to Dorking station for the trip back to London, where I met Elaine in Berkeley Square, before heading to the Lansdowne Club, to meet Melody Haller (who I first encountered at a Wall Street Journal conference in Santa Barbara, California) earlier this year, and her husband Michael (Tyler).  A fascinating group of people, working in areas as diverse as advanced silicon technologies and neuroscience. 

I have always had antibodies to the world of clubs, but was fascimated when Michael noted that Britain had conceded independence to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, drawn up with Benjamin Franklin in this building’s Round Room.  Sadly, we were all too busy talking to take up his offer of a guided tour. 

Malcolm and Foundation files dating back to the Year Dot   Halina and Pickles   Some Chandler trees Posted at 11:45:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 27 August 2008 by John Elkington. Digg | Permalink

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Dreading vertigo, I went along with Elaine, Gaia and Hania to see the film Man on Wire this evening.  We were totally enthralled by it – and couldn’t stop discussing it as we walked from Soho to Charlotte Street to have dinner at Roka, in Charlotte Street, with Hania’s long-standing friend Emma. 

The food was exquisite, with a green plum sake that reminded me of a dinner I had many years ago in Tokyo with the Vice-Chairman of Sony.  Then we had three different sakes, each made from a different part of the rice grain and each from a different part of Japan.  After the first, he asked me what I thought of it.  I replied that it was like putting your tongue into an icy mountain stream – and being able to taste, in at least three dimensions, every pebble back to the source.  A quite remarkably delightful evening – and another today. 

Elaine’s ‘jewel’ Posted at 10:29:00 p.m. on Monday, 25 August 2008 by John Elkington. Digg | Permalink

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