Journal

Drove across to Little Rissington this morning, to see Pat – now heavily sedated on morphine. House was full with my three siblings, three nephews, our cousin Toby Adamson, a nurse Tanya and another, Sharon, from Kate’s Home Nursing. Kate’s have been beyond wonderful at a taxing time.

Left the trip back until quite late, around 21.30, but hit all sorts of problems on the way back to London. The Oxford ring road was closed eastwards, so I found myself driving right through Oxford and Cowley to get back on track. Then the signs said that the M4, where I would normally head after the M40, was closed. So I stayed on the M40, only to find the junction with the M25 was closed, too. Having been watching Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials on BBC1, am beginning to hanker after my own airship.

Interesting day, kicking off with a Volans session with Sam Lizars, across in Harp Lane, working out where we want to head next. Then a wonderful dinner across at the Four Seasons Hotel, Park Lane, with Zouk’s AGM the following day. Enjoyed the dinner tremendously and learned a good deal about electric vehicles, battery technology and the like at the AGM event.

A slightly frenetic trip to Canada in the wake of their election, where Justin Trudeau managed to squeak back in. First north of Montréal to a QG100 strategic retreat at the Estérel Resort. Beautiful weather outside, though belting down with rain when I headed back to Montréal. My car didn’t arrive, so I hitched a lift south with some delightful Mexicans: Emilio Cadena, Yoelle Rojas Quintero and Alejandro Mendoza of Grupo Prodensa. Had met – and liked – them already at the QG100 event, which made it easier – but very much enjoyed their company as we sped back citywards.

While in Montréal, Lorraine (Smith) took me to a fascinating exhibition of Haida art at the McCord Museum, after which we walked through the library of McGill University, where Elaine’s father, Stanley, studied before WWII.

Then I flew to Edmonton, where there was snow and the signs by the road showed a temperature of -11 degrees C. Was speaking at a major event, SPARK 2019, organised by Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), exploring ways for the fossil fuels driven province to migrate towards new forms of energy. ERA are a major funder of clean technology. But as I had arrived at Edmonton airport, I got an email from one of the CEOs I had met the QG100 event, asking if (1) I had arrived in Alberta yet, and if so, (2), whether I had been lynched yet? Actually enjoyed myself, even if part of the process was a bit like telling turkeys about incoming Christmas, and learned a lot.

Then back to Montréal, where I stayed overnight, then walked across to Lorraine’s apartment via the waterfront. There I spotted both Moshe Safdie’s ‘Habitat’ complex across the water (which I was fascinated by in the late 1960s/early 1970s, particularly when doing my M. Phil. At UCL in city planning. And then, also across the water, I spotted Buckminster Fuller’s dome (now called The Biosphère) – which I had forgotten was in the city. Stunning.

Fascinating brunch with a range of Lorraine’s friends, including at least one Mohawk, before heading out to see a hydroponics farm, La Boîte Maraîchère) in driving rain (luckily it is indoors), and then on to airport.

Spoke at the World Pension Summit today, held at the Louwman Museum, an extraordinary tribute to the age of the private motor car, and organised by Pensions & Investments. The dinner on the first day was held at the M.C. Escher Museum, somewhere I had always wanted to visit – and which we could wander around at our leisure. A reminder of what an extraordinary mind his was.

After taking part in a Volans salon on the role of Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) in the 2020s, I head off to Dusseldorf for the K-Fair, Europe’s biggest plastics exhibition. Clear that the industry feels under growing pressure, as it should. Spoke at a Covestro event alongside Lise Kingo of the UN Global Compact and Covestro CEO Markus Steilemann. I had interesting meetings with Markus and his new Chief Commercial Officer, Sucheta Govil, while there.

Easy to see why people find plastics so obsessively interesting, but they feature as one of my ‘Black Swan’ case studies in the new book, Green Swans, due to be published by Fast Company Press in April 2020. Few sectors are now in more urgent need to exponentially evolving Green Swan solutions.

Speaking of which, I dropped in on UBQ Materials’ stand – which was throbbing with people. Their carbon-positive plastics have come on by leaps and bounds, offering multiple colours and all made from domestic garbage. They sent me a coat hanger made from UBQ, to use at the Swedish Fashion Council conference I was meant to be speaking at in Stockholm, but that was cancelled at the very last moment, the day before I was meant to travel.