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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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Journal

ERM Podcast With Mark Lee

John Elkington · 18 October 2024 · Leave a Comment

My latest podcast, this one anchored by my old SustainAbility colleague and friend Mark Lee, now with ERM.

Blue Earthlings 2024

John Elkington · 17 October 2024 · Leave a Comment

What the Woolwich Arsenal was largely known for
I thought these were by Antony Gormley, but they’re Peter Burke’s ‘Assembly’
Beyond the river wall
The Riversimple hydrogen car being shot (source: Freddie O’Shea, via Blue Earth Summit)
Blue Earth stage
Jamie Arbib of RethinkX in full flow
Will Travers of The Born Free Foundation dives in – with Clover left, then Dominique, me and Bella (source: Freddie O’Shea, via Blue Earth Summit)
Dominique Palmer (source: Freddie O’Shea, via Blue Earth Summit)
A wider view

Still routinely amazed by the Elizabeth Line, which I took this morning to arrive early in Woolwich for the 2024 (fourth) edition of the Blue Earth Summit. And the regeneration of this area of Woolwich itself proved a very pleasant surprise, given that it’s probably more than 50 years since I was last here, when I was looking into urban regeneration while at UCL. The process seems to have been wonderfully well handled, at least aesthetically.

I initially thought Peter Burke’s Assembly sculptures down by the river wall were Antony Gormley’s. Given that many of the figures seemed to be slightly eviscerated, I also thought the piece might be a commentary on the damage caused by the Arsenal’s weaponry over the centuries. But I appear to have been wrong on both counts.

Very much enjoyed the session involving Jamie Arbib of RethinkX – and fascinated to hear from him about his forthcoming new book. Very much aligned with where my own brain seems to be headed these days.

Then came our session, on ‘The Future of Environmentalism’, where I moderated a panel consisting of Bella Lack, Clover Hogan, Dominique Palmer (who spoke at our 2020 Tomorrow’s Capitalism Forum, chez Aviva Investors) and Will Travers of the Born Free Foundation.

My opening words: “Hello, Earthlings, or perhaps I should say Blue Earthlings!”

To kick things off I asked how many people in the room considered themselves “environmentalists” – noting that I had tried very hard to avoid people slapping the label on me when I was working into the business world in the early stages of all this, because of the discount factor they would likely then apply to anything I said on related subjects.

Most hands shot up – and when I then asked whether the influence of environmentalists would increase over the coming decade, an even larger set of hands went up. No great surprise there, perhaps, given that natural selection was at work across our audience, but an interesting baseline.

Proved to be a great panel and wonderful session. Indeed, it’s very tempting to conclude that the future is now in safe hands and hand over, but the nature and scale of what confronts us all makes this very much a pangenerational task. Time to play the role of the “perennial”, as sketched in Mauro Guillén’s provocative book, The Perennials.

While in Woolwich, I bumped into a wonderful cacophony of people, known and not. Had lunch, among others, with Julia Hailes and her son Connor. Grabbed the chance to catch up with Jenny Poulter of Volans on our new nature-focused initiative, and with Volans team member Stirling Powers, son of Hugo – whose Riversimple hydrogen car was prominently displayed outside.

Great, too, to catch up with people like Nick Hounsfield and colleagues from The Wave – and with Ramón Van De Velde, who as CEO of The Lost Gardens of Heligan kindly hosted a Volans away day last year. He’s now involved in surf therapy – as his top boldly declared.

Belfast’s Sustain Exchange Summit

John Elkington · 16 October 2024 · Leave a Comment

Belfast City Hall
Waterside view from the ICC venue
Welcomed by a Tesla in new colour – with Philippa Spiller of Podiem on right
Welcomed, too, by an astrochimp
An industry whose legacy I remember well, flax harvesting and retting
My AI slide
Kicking off: “Now It Begins”
Making a point
And another, apparently
Panel session, chaired by Lucy Siegle – Chris Hines of Surfers Against Sewage between us
After my session with Ulster University Business School students

Did something of a whistle stop visit to Belfast yesterday and today, to speak at the Sustain Exchange event organised by Kevin Kelly and his team at Podiem at the ICC Belfast. First time I had been back to the city since the 1980s, when I visited as one of the judges of the RSA”s pollution abatement technology awards, having also spent three years as a child in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, near Limavady.

Rather moving to see an exhibit in memory of the flax and linen industry (whose legacy, via a carpet of wriggling elvers, triggered my foundational epiphany at age 7) on the floor above the one in the ICC venue where our event was held. That experience led on to many things, along them by ongoing support for the Sustainable Eel Group, including a memorable moment in 2014 when I helped release 30,000 elvers into the River Severn.

Really enjoyed speaking alongside the likes of Lucy Siegle, who chaired the event, and Chris Hines of Surfers Against Sewage (who among many other things showed a slide of the event in 1992, I think, when he turned up at our book launch at the Portland Baths in a wetsuit covered in condoms and other debris), alongside Eamer Manning of the National Youth Council of Ireland, Chris Martin of Danske Bank and Katrina Thompson of Artemis Technologies.

The Artemis story, focused on decarbonising marine transportation, was particularly interesting.

After the event, alongside Marc Duffy, I did a session with masters-level students from the University of Ulster Business School, the first day of their course – and they all got a copy of Tickling Sharks for their pains. Very enjoyable exchange.

Then, as Philippa Spiller of Podiem drove me back out to the airport, we talked of everything from Bentley racing cars through to family backgrounds – and, among other things, I mentioned my father Tim’s time during the Battle of the Atlantic with the CAM (Catapult Aircraft Merchant) ships, where he was a Hurricane pilot on convoys to and from the Soviet Union.

Having said goodbye, I trundled towards the airport – and, out of the blue, spotted this memorial to a couple of CAM ship squadrons. Though here CAM was translated as Catapult Armed Merchantmen. It was almost as if someone was dangling clues and cues around me. History can be weird. And a bit of digging suggests that “Armed” is the right version. In any event, can’t wait to go back.

Virtual Visit To Chile

John Elkington · 15 October 2024 · Leave a Comment

Can’t keep up with the blizzard of speaking gigs at the moment, but I very much enjoyed engaging with some 50 Chileans today via a PROhumana virtual event organised by my friend Sole Teixido. Then out to Heathrow to fly to Belfast.

Our Danube Delta Adventure

John Elkington · 14 October 2024 · Leave a Comment

Three days in a world apart

Deltascape

An account of our journey to, around and back from the Danube Delta can be found here. A mind-bending adventure with a fantastic guide, pictured below:

Eugen Petrescu
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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

John Elkington

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