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Banco Itau Sustainability Dialogue 1 Banco Itau Sustainability Dialogue 2 Flying back over England

The press release for the Banco Itaú Award Scheme for Sustainable Finances that I helped launch in Brazil last week ran as follows:

“The first edition of the Itaú’s Award for Sustainable Finances event was held on February 17th in São Paulo, choosing Juliana Rangel, from the newspaper O Globo, and Daniel Wajnberg, of the Institute for Research and Post-Graduation in Business Management of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Coppead/UFRJ), as authors of the best articles on sustainable finances in the categories Journalism and Academia. Juliana Rangel was chosen for her report on “Politically Correct Income”, and Daniel Wajnberg, for his work “Sustainability in Brazilian Banks: a scrutiny of the divulging of the relationships between socio-environmental initiatives and corporate financial performance”. Each winner will receive R$ 10 thousand and a trip to London, with an agenda of studies focused on sustainable finances proposed by SustainAbility.

“Also awarded were Flávia Pardini, a journalist working for Revista Página 22, of São Paulo, whose report “The Parts and the Whole” was chosen as the best report in the modality Magazines; and Thiago Schneider de Jesus, of the Regional University of the Northwest of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Unijuí), for his work “Sustainable Finances: Prospects and Challenges for Financial Institutions”; chosen as the best academic text in the modality of Post-graduation. Both will be entitled to a prize of R$ 10 thousand.

“The remaining finalists were, in the category Journalism, Gitânio Fortes (Folha de S. Paulo), Juliana Arini (Época), Maria Teresa Costa (Correio Popular) and Sammya Araújo Anhamus (Metrópole). In the category Academia, the finalists were Ana Paula Pinheiro Zago (Federal University of Uberlândia – UFU), Franklin Roosevelt Mendes Thame (National Scientific Computation Laboratory – LNCC), Jesuína Figueira Cézar (Institution for Research in Accounting, Economy and Finances of the State of Espírito Santo – FUCAPE), Jorge Emanuel Reis Cajazeira (Business Management School / FGV), Vera Lúcia Franco Veiga and Aluísio Xavier (Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro – UFF).

“Developed with support by Instituto Ethos and with consultancy by SustainAbility – renowned internationally for creating the concept of the “triple bottom line” –, the initiative aims at providing incentives for the academic and journalistic production on the theme, collaborating for the expansion of debate on better initiatives for the economic and social development of corporations, communities and governments. The prize-awarding event counted with the participation of John Elkington, founder and director of SustainAbility.

“The Judging Commission of this first edition was composed by the academicians Cláudio Boechat (Dom Cabral Foundation), Mário Monzoni (FGV), Priscila Claro (IBMEC), Rosa Maria Fisher (USP), and journalists Dirceu Pio (Revista Brasileiros), Heródoto Barbeiro (CBN and TV Cultura), Kiko Brito (O ECO) and William Waack (TV Globo). The winning works are accessible on the site (www.itaufinancassustentaveis.com.br).”

The following evening, I did a panel session at the first in a series of Sustainability Dialogues hosted by Banco Itaú, with speakers from Ashoka and Artemisia.  Then the following day, Thursday, I flew back home.  Found myself sitting next to a social entrepreneur who had been featured the previous evening, on his way to Turkey.  The number of times that this happens is increasing all the time: this evening I sat next to a woman I met recently from Goldman Sachs and a couple of weeks back it was someone I knew from the fair trade movement.

Both in Brazil and since I have mainly been working on the new report on the Phoenix Economy, although there have been a fair few meetings as well, including one with Ian Cheshire, CEO of Kingfisher, on Monday.  We have been quietly testing out our conclusions with business leaders before committing them to print. A palpable sense that Spring is in the air, but other people’s ill-health and economic turmoil clouds the horizon.  The human herd continues to stampede rather than migrating, but it’s only a matter of time.  

Meanwhile, bets are being taken on when the magnolia tree outside our office will break into leaf.  It was in bloom when Elaine, Sam and I first went to see 2 Bloomsbury Place last Spring, so a sense, yet again, that the giant wheel of time is turning all around us.

Barnes flowers Mrs T in Prospect: Magazine cover on floor below us Magnolia view

Cutting at CDP Eye Catcher CDP offices 40 Bowling Green Lane

Truly weird moment when I was about to walk across to the Carbon Disclosure Project – and asked Sam where it was.  She said Bowling Green Lane, to which I replied, “Not No. 40?”  And so it proved to be.  Which is the building a long-time-ago friend, Mike Franks, was instrumental in turning into what it is today.  We moved Environmental Data Services (ENDS) in there, having previously been based on Great Orchard Street, Westminster, in the early 1980s.  It was very strange coming back – and the CDP office was exactly like the ENDS one, which may have been on the floor below.  Did an ‘Influential Person’ lunch for the CDP team, though quite what influence on them I may have had I don’t know.  

CDP is an independent not-for-profit organisation which holds the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. The data are obtained from responses to CDP’s annual Information Requests, issued on behalf of institutional investors, purchasing organisations and government bodies. Since its formation in 2000, CDP claims to have become “the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process, providing primary climate change data to the global market place.”

Afterwards, CDP CEO Paul Dickinson showed me a technology he is invested in, Eye Catcher, a video-conference technology which means that you see eye-to-eye with the person or people you are talking to.  Quite impressive.

 

Spent two days in Zurich at first Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) summit, arriving late on 26th – but in time to have a wonderful dinner with Alex Bakarwi and his wife, and Steve Viederman.  Took a couple of walks along Lake Zurich, during one of which I stumbled across a huge statue called Heureka, which rang a bell – since I had been thinking of Eureka! moments.  The summit was SAM founder Reto Ringger’s swan-song – and saw the launch of the tenth annual survey of corporate sustainability.  For downloadable version, try here.  

Solar vessel Heureka 1 Rower Heureka 2 Figure Abduction Stepping stones Green Limousine 1 Green Limo with Steve Viederman Blue light en route to dinner Reto Ringger Legs Me on screen

 

One of my favourite authors as a child was Thor Heyerdahl, with The Kon-Tiki Expedition profoundly shaping the way I thought of team-building, the natural environment and internationalism.  Now David de Rothschild of Adventure Ecology is planning to set sail in the Plastiki, setting out on 28 April, the sixty-second anniversary of the start of the Kon-Tiki expedition.  The Kon-Tiki, which is now the subject of its own museum, was built of balsa wood, the laster Ra II raft of reeds.  On both, Heyerdahl could see evidence of the growing population of the oceans, because of their intimate contact with the blue face of the planet.  The Plastiki will be built of more modern materials, empty plastic bottles encased in a plastic skin.  The goal: to sail into an area of plastic debris that has accumulated between California and Hawaii, in an area of the northern Pacific gyre, an area five times the size of Britain.  According to the Sunday Times today, of the 100 million tons of plastic produced each year, fully 10 per cent ends up in the oceans.  

Gaia took a number of us to the Soho Curzon this evening to see Slumdog Millionaire, the film she has been working on at Celador.  Wonderful to see her name rolling up in the credits at the end. Absolutely stunning film, though puts you through the emotional wringer any number of times on the way.  The kiss on the scar will live on in my memory.  Struck me that tthis could help raise awareness of a number of issues we have been associated with at Volans, particularly our work with Jeroo Billimoria’s Aflatoun, which helps teach children (including slum and street children) – in India and elsewhere – how to manage what little money they do get their hands on.