Search Results for: Tim elkington

But one I’m quite pleased with

It’s almost a month since I last posted here, though I have been rather more active via my Rewilding Markets channel on Substack. Since then, I have spoken at a major event organised in Ghent by the Round Table on Responsible Soy, done a panel session for NBC Universal (the people behind the latest version of The Day of the Jackal and old favourites like Downton Abbey), done a virtual session for NTT Group in Japan, done various podcast interviews, attended a double eightieth birthday party, and so on. At the same time I have been tackling various health issues, including enjoying another MRI scan of my head yesterday. But this GoodGeist podcast released today captures me in somewhat upbeat mood.

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.

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.

I spoke again at the second ESG Europe Summit in Madrid, though this time it had moved to a larger venue, the Albéniz Theatre. Great spirit, though there seemed to be more advisory sector people there than folk from mainstream corporates.

Have been testing clear repeatedly after contracting Covid in Istanbul, but still with something of a cough to cope with. Still, made some great connections and had some rather wonderful feedback.

It’s quite the season for events, meanwhile. In the next couple of weeks alone, for example, I have Bucharest, Belfast, London, Paris and Newcastle to contend with. And just managed to finish off and publish my latest Substack post, this one on “tipping points” as covered by professor Tim Lennon and his team at Exeter University.

Last week, we took our Tesla Model Y for an outing in Dorset, probably my favourite county. Any range anxiety was quickly and entirely relieved by recharging points at a car park at Corfe Castle, one of my favourite castles in the world – though I’m not sure that the energy was from renewable resources, as it is at home in Barnes. One key interest for me, as we explored Portland Bill, was the story of Portland Stone. Now what follows is less of a travelogue than a photo essay on a glorious week away.