Search Results for: Tim elkington

Stepping into the future: Vestas windmill Raising the bar: Dr Pachauri My vehicle of choice for dealing with opposition to climate action Lise Kingo Final session: Blood, Rogers, Gowing, Tickell Blood and water: Shai Agassi waters David Blood Media@work Every which way: artwork at airport (detail) Airborne

After a pretty muddled start, with panels of CEOs allowed to meander on about corporate citizenship, the World Business Summit on Climate Change finally took off with a speech by Cate Blanchett and, the next morning, a panel moderated by the BBC’s Nik Gowing, who took the gloves off and really got to work on the agenda set at the beginning of the event by Al Gore and Rajendra Pachauri.  Video coverage can be found here.

Really enjoyed meeting Tim Flannery – and running a forestry session with him. Wonderful dinners with Novo Nordisk, including an intimate session with Al Gore, and at the Danish National Gallery, where I caught up with Nicky Gavron of the London Assembly, among others.

The final statement, dubbed The Copenhagen Call, was somewhat stronger than some of the sessions had led me to expect – one virtue of such things being drafted in parallel to such events.  It proposes six action steps.

No Speed Limit Anymore

Girding my loins to fly to Copenhagen this afternoon, I have been tidying up, among other things uploading recent photographs from my camera to my laptop.  When Doug Miller of GlobeScan asked me last night at dinner in Whit’s how I was feeling, the answer was/is that after a period of wanting to hold back as the downturn took serious hold, partly because I thought that any approach to possible partners and clients would lead to stonewalling, I’m now beginning to feel much more open to the world and to opportunity.  

Speaking to a Brazilian visitor yesterday, who had been reading the Volans Flyer, I underscored my faith in serendipity (a word that features prominently on the front of the Flyer), if the conditions are prepared, and she agreed.

A year in to Volans, I’m beginning to feel a mood coming on that aligns with the card Sam gave me as we began to set up the new organisation, NO SPEED LIMIT ANYMORE.  And the strapline: ‘Go as fast as you want, like in Germany’. Though I hate German driving styles, nose-to-tail at close to warp speed, the sentiment is exactly right. The time has come to get ourselves organised and put our feet to the floor.

Capybara Nick and Charmian

Started the day in Docklands, at HSBC, with Charmian and Nick Robins, who I first worked with way back in 1994.  He heads the HSBC Centre of Excellence on Climate Change.  Was very much struck to see a giant capybara on the wall of the room where we met. Fascinating, provocative discussion of various aspects of climate change, including the extent to which it is usefully tackled in the current round of government stimulus packages.

Image wall in HSBC reception Image wall 2 Image wall, 3

Idaho Quartz Circle, 1992

A week or two back, Tell Muenzing sent me this photograph of a Richard Long sculpture at the offices of Value Partners in Milano – entitled ‘Idaho Quartz Circle’, dated 1992 and using 54 stone slabs.

Astonishingly similar to the device on the front cover of our just-launched report, The Phoenix Economy.

Was particularly interested to read the profile of Long in today’s Observer Magazine.  Particularly liked the spirit of the quotation at the end of the piece, that begins: “I guess I’m an opportunist, really. I go out into the world with an open mind, and I rely to a degree on intuition and chance.”  Pretty much exactly my approach.  

And that’s what we’re planning with the next round of our Phoenix work, this time working much more closely with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The fact that there are 54 elements in Long’s CIrcle suggests the next steps for us: building out our Phoenix 50 to a series of longer lists of innovators and entrepreneurs.  More anon.

 

 

 

 

Ginkgo cutting feeling a little hazy

Have always loved ginkgo trees–and cycle past several on my way through Grosvenor Square on my way to 2 Bloomsbury Place.  Sometimes take in leaves as they change through the seasons, but a few days back I took a twig–and we put it in a glass of water, with a touch of sugar, where it seemed to flourish.  Rather than having it develop a sweet tooth, I asked Sam to release the poor thing into the herbaceous border, in the hope that it might just strike root.  Her photo above suggests that it was feeling a bit woozy as it struggled to find its feet, but who knows?  A symbol, perhaps, of our constant struggle to make sense of this universe of ours–and of all the tides, current and eddies into which we find ourselves drawn.