Journal

Born on 2 January 1927, my brother-in-law Michael Green died on 25 February this year. Best known to the world for his ‘The Art of Coarse …’ books, covering rugby, sailing, acting and a bunch of other subjects. Elaine’s sister Christine is generally acknowledged to have helped him enjoy what he called the happiest years of his life, from 1982.

The papers have been spilling over with glowing obituaries. And the thanksgiving service today, at the Church of St. Mary with St. Alban, Teddington, was the funniest, jolliest I have yet taken part in. Quite remarkable.

We started out at the crematorium nearby, which was pretty much par for the course for such things, though the vicar, the Reverend Joe Moffatt, was delightful. Introducing the thanksgiving service later in the day, he noted that he was pondering resorting to ‘The Art of Coarse Christianity’.

The service started with Franz Schubert’s Piano quintet in A, ‘Trout’, op. 114 D667. I may be illiterate when it comes to classical music, but I recognised this one – having bought the Trout Quintet album back in the early 1980s.

A huge congregation, with Gaia doing the flowers and Paul singing ‘Love is the Sweetest Thing’ by Ray Noble, accompanied by nonagenarianHarold Britton on piano. Then on to The Wharf Restaurant for a wonderful reception overlooking the Thames.

Flew to Brasilia for the latest Nestlé Creating Shared Value Forum, themed this time around water. My last meeting, alongside six others – including Michael Porter. Nine years. What a ride it has been. Some extraordinary people on the CSV Council, a number of whom I would now count as friends.

Mumm from Egypt and Fishers and Changemakers from the Philippines were the joint winners of the 2018 Creating Shared Value Prize. The two social entrepreneurs won CHF 150’000 each for their outstanding work in nutrition and rural development. More details here.

Then flew back to São Paulo for a fascinating meeting with the chairman of Fibria, José Luciano Penido. Maybe 15 years since I visited Aracruz eucalyptus plantations that later became part of Fibria. And now, a day before my visit this time, Fibria itself has been merged with its competitor Suzano, to the surprise of at least some of those I was meeting.

Spent the Sunday holed up in a hotel, working on the new book.

Quite the week.

Most dramatic, moving element was Thursday afternoon and evening spent driving to and from Little Rissington, to spend time with my mother (who is very ill) and family.

Pat drugged on morphine, but as I sat at her bedside she would periodically surface with humorous or insightful one-liners. Extraordinary state of being, but so grateful to my siblings for their continuous support for our nonagenarian parents.

Strangely, perhaps, a joy and a privilege to be there. Tess and I spoke across Pat’s reclining form, reviewing our lives, knowing that she could probably hear at least some elements of the conversation. And, again, Pat would periodically surface into the flow, like a mysterious fish, and then slip beneath the water again.

One thing she said to me when we were on our own was that she had heard nightingales. I assumed that these were acoustic hallucinations from her childhood, until I discovered when back in London that there are indeed nightingales in Gloucestershire.

Here’s what they sound like.

The snow is long since gone from London, but there were still pale streaks as I drove through the Cotswolds. As I left Hill House late on Thursday evening, and walked through the yard, I was stunned by the starry, starry night sky. Went back into the kitchen to turn the lights off and just stood watching.

Then in today’s (Saturday’s) Financial Times, I came across John Gapper’s ‘Lunch with the FT’ interview with author Michael Morpurgo. Apparently poet Ted Hughes counselled Morpurgo that, when he was feeling gloomy: “Remember, if there’s one child feeling this place, stomping through puddles and looking up at stars for the first time, he won’t know a wonderful thing is happening but it will soak into his life, one way or another.”

It did, it has.

As for the rest of the week, a fascinating session with The Crowd on Monday evening, featuring Novozymes CEO Peder Holk-Nielsen. I spoke at EcoBuild conference on Tuesday morning. Bit of a nightmare getting to the ExCel site, but great people on our panel from organisations like Bioregional and the World Resources Institute.

On Tuesday, I met Candice Reffe, Chief Impact & Innovation Officer at Eileen Fisher. Among other things, she is a poet – and among the people we talked about were Gary Snyder and Ted Hughes (see below). That same evening, Elaine and I went across to South Kensington for a riveting panel discussion on Superbugs: The Fight For Our Lives at the Science Museum.

Fabulous Volans Salon on Wednesday, featuring Judy Samuelson of the Aspen Institute, and with over 20 participants, on the issue of shareholder primacy. And then my annual 2-hour session with Mike Tennant‘s Imperial College MSc students on Thursday morning – invigorating.

Then the big one, and the reason I had to come back to London, we did the third in our 3-city series of events with Innovate UK, focusing on decarbonisation of the built environment. Wonderful top floor venue provided by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) at Savoy Place, overlooking the Thames.

I chaired a panel session with Agamemnon Otero of Repowering London, Alastair Mant of the UK Green Building Council and Priya Prakash of Design for Social Change (D4SC) in the morning, and then did a after-lunch on-stage interview with biomimicry architect Michael Pawlyn. If you haven’t seen his 2010 TED talk, it is well worth a viewing.

And now off to see a great friend from California, Will Rosenzweig.

Here is a link to our latest blog for Fast Company, this time focusing on breakthrough business models – with an embedded video on the theme produced by our wonderful friends at Atlas for the Future. Co-authored with Richard Johnson, with another now in the pipeline.

Rather more personal theme in my latest blog in GreenBiz, published today. Spurred by a couple of conversations last week in which outsiders commented that Volans can be slightly mysterious at times. This is an initial attempt to lift the roof on our hive.