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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Journal

Giorgos Varlamos

John Elkington · 30 August 2020 · Leave a Comment

I was thinking this morning of all the artists who have influenced by aesthetic sense over the decades – and Giorgos Varlamos came to mind. Born in 1922, he died in 2013. We visited his gallery in Athens during our 1970 Landrover trip to Greece – and bought a print of the image above, Hunters in the Woods. It’s still in the summerhouse.

A highlight of the visit was Giorgos taking us through his photograph albums, almost exclusively black-and-white images. An inspiration for my later albums, largely created in Tessa Fantoni’s albums, bought from her store in Clapham, though my father had kept albums for many decades prior.

I remember talking to Giorgos about how he had developed the image, which was printed from a woodcut, if I remember correctly. He said he had crunched up newspapers as a visual reference during the process, so that the cross-hatchings had an echo of newsprint – and therefore of meaning.

Not sure I approve of the subject matter these days, having sold my two shotguns some time before we went Greece-wards. Having once had some “pet” pheasants, which I had discovered nesting in a hedge at Moses Farm House, near Lurgashall, I had earnestly foresworn shooting pheasants. But then, some years later, shot one on Little Rissington airfield, in large part because she took me by surprise. Still feel a pang of regret.

Bank Of The West Profile

John Elkington · 27 August 2020 · Leave a Comment

The Bank of the West publishes a piece on our thinking about COVID-19 and sustainability.

Kew Gardening

John Elkington · 26 August 2020 · Leave a Comment

Some 50 parakeets mob 2 herons (Elaine Elkington)

Wonderful flapping slice of birdlife today as we enjoyed a full team away day in Kew Gardens. A possible new member of the team was with us as we walked by the Palm House. I have long felt that sightings of herons heralds some sort of good fortune – and now glimpsed a heron flapping into a tall tree beyond the Lily House. Then two herons exploded out of the tree, being chased by over 50 parakeets. Elaine managed to take this photograph before they disappeared raucously into the distance.

DOOMED, 59 Years Ago

John Elkington · 25 August 2020 · Leave a Comment

As I woke up this morning, in the midst of an odd dream, I was in a bar-cum-post-office, buying a single stamp to send mail to the notorious Sir Henry Morgan, the long-dead pirate (and ancestor of a friend from the 1960s and 1970s, Daphne Young).

In the dream, I was talking to Pete Townshend of The Who about the launch of WWF in 1961. I promptly looked up when it was that year when I would have read the front page of the Daily Mirror – triggering my subsequent environmental adventures.

It was 9 October. But next year. Must work out how to mark the milestone. And lovely to see this horseback photo of Sir Julian Huxley and my long-ago colleague friend Max Nicholson.

Green Swans Land In Selfridges

John Elkington · 23 August 2020 · Leave a Comment

Wonderful to see see Selfridges group managing director Anne Pitcher flagging Green Swans as her favourite book in the business section of today’s Sunday Times. Article behind a paywall, I’m afraid.

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Introduction

I began this blog with an entry reporting on a visit to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, on 30 September 2003. The blog element of the website has gone through several iterations since, with much of the older material still available.

Like so many things in my life, blog entries blur the boundaries between the personal and the professional. As explained on this site’s Home Page, the website and the blog are part platform for ongoing projects, part autobiography, and part accountability mechanism.

In addition, my blogs have appeared on many sites such as: Chinadialogue, CSRWire, Fast Company, GreenBiz, Guardian Sustainable Business, and the Harvard Business Review.

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About

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

Contact

john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

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