Search Results for: Tim elkington

Rupert and audience (Sam Lakha)

Fish on the menu today.  Rupert Howes of the Marine Stewardship Council came in to do a lunch-time session with team members from Volans and SustainAbility.  MSC have made extraordinary progress in recent years, but the scale of the challenges the world faces is horrendous. Rupert described the collapse of oceanic fisheries as second only to climate change in terms of global importance.  Very lively session.  Rupert, who I first met when he was at Forum for the Future, is an inspirational leader and speaker — we could have continued for much of the day.  Had to apologise early on about my blinking eye: post-op tic rather than my trying to send significant signals.

Global fisheries trending towards collapse (Sam Lakha)   Later in the day, talking to Environmental Defense: Charmian, me, Alejandro (Sam Lakha)

View from J.P. Morgan offices at 10 Aldermanbury

At a time when many people are thinking back to Presidents like Lincoln and FDR for clues on how to rescue the US economy, it might also be worth recalling John Pierpoint Morgan, credited with saving the US economy on two separate occasions.  Was reminded of him this afternoon, which I spent chez J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, the financial services firm, which hosted (alongside The Rockefeller Foundation, Social Finance, Generation Investment Management and Citigroup) a meeting of people and institutions interested in building out a London node for the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN).   Obvious acronym would be GIIN, though that’s already taken by Groupe Intersyndicale de l’Industrie Nucleare, it seems.  

In any event, GIIN — due for launch in 2009 — is “a select global group of investors and intermediaries who put capital to work at scale to generate social and/or environmental value as well as financial return.”  Among those present were a number of people I knew, including Mark Campanale, who reminded me that he and I had first started working in the socially responsible investing field as long ago as 1988, with the Merlin Ecology Fund and Tessa Tennant.  

In any event, the triple bottom lives — and, indeed, seems to be gaining traction in the heart of the economic beast.  Look out for an impending report from the Monitor Group on the potential for impact investing.  Meanwhile, I sometimes find myself wishing I hadn’t given up economics at university in 1968, though I doubt I would have learned that much that would have been directly relevant to today’s work, though a more thorough immersion in the works of Kondratiev, Schumpeter and Keynes would have been an advantage in these times.

Mark Campanale in one of the rooms where reception will shortly be held

I was picked up from Lisbon airport last night by Cristina Santiago and Liliane Padua, who some years  back formed iZi Palestras, the “first international speakers bureau in Portugal”, and was taken across to the Pestana Palace, a hotel which is also a national monument.  On my way to breakfast this morning, I met Sean Ansett, who I used to know when he was with Gap, and together we peered into the chapel that forms part of the complex.  Something of a Hugh Buchanan (a favourite painter) moment, with shaft of sunlight illuminating furniture.

Then across to the conference centre for an introduction to the event by the Secretary of State for Employment – and my speech, followed by a discussion session.  Then a media interview, followed by lunch with Helena Caiado and others, before Cristina and Liliane took me for a delightful drive and wander around parts of the city.  

Got onto the Airbus 320 late in the day and switched on my BlackBerry to find out what had happened in the Mumbai attacks, to find that an A320 had just crashed in the Mediterranean. Sometimes you can have too much information.

Morning curtain, Pestana Palace Hugh Buchanan moment Golden Gate’s cousin: 25 de Abril Bridge Picturesque, but unpleasant things happened in the Belem Tower, apparently Belem Tower, 2

Age of Discovery: monument to Portugal’s glory days

Discoveries Monument 2 Cristina and Liliane Liliane and Cristina

Alejandro (Litovsky), Geoff (Lye) and I made our way by Eurostar and car across Belgium and Holland – with snow on the ground already – for an ultimately not very successful meeting with DSM, but at least we got to see a solar car along the way.

Nuon 4, 1   Nuon 4, 2, and Geoff

View from my window

Flew via Sao Paulo on Wednesday to Florianopolis, in Santa Catarina State, for the 2008 Eco Power Conference. The other international speakers were Earth Policy Institute President Lester Brown, Fritjof Capra, Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore  and, on cleantech, Ron Pernick.  Asked to do the final keynote, I had come in late and arrived after they had all spoken – but managed to meet up briefly with Lester Brown after his press conference.  Happily, my session seemed to go extremely well.  Inside, huge interest, especially from young people.  Outside, however, the rain scarcely stopped all the time I was there.  

People told me the rain had been crashing down for perhaps two months.  On the last evening, I was filmed for a documentary, ‘Sector 2.5 – The Film’ by some wonderful people – including Maria Fernanda Gayoso.  The rain was still thumping down as I went out to the airport yesterday, Saturday, and the taxi driver kept turning back over his shoulder to express amazement at the sound of the rain drumming on his roof – and the lack of visibility, as he drove along at 85 miles an hour.  I was glad to get out and onto solid ground after aquaplaning much of the way.

Despite the huge umbrellas they gave each of us to walk out the plane, I was splashed up to the waist.  The tarmac was an inch deep in running water – and I steamed gently for much of the trip back to Sao Paulo.  Finished Mrs Lincoln, by Janis Cooke Newman, almost as the plane touched down at Heathrow.  Astounding book, a forensic exploration of grief – and a completely different angle on a president struggling with epochal challenges.  Almost tempted to start it over again.

Meg (right) was my guide to all things Eco Power   Film crew, with Maria Fernanda Gayoso centre row, left   And me The way is illuminated – but either side the rain goes on