Search Results for: Tim elkington

Probably my last interview of 2022. Recorded some time back, but only just out via ROAD: http://roarnews.co.uk/2022/roar-interviews-environmentalist-and-author-john-elkington/.

Clear evidence today that Elaine is enjoying herself with Hania in Bordeaux. Left at home, I had a couple of people from the Volans ecosystem across yesterday afternoon, then today had lunch at the Church Road restaurant with an old SustainAbility colleague and friend, Tell Münzing, who these days lives in Berlin. He picked an interesting American wine, Stem Theory, which we both rather enjoyed.

In other news, after quite some time, the three small fish we put into our new garden pond finally made an appearance today, moving around as a tight-knit trio. But then, when we got back from lunch, I discovered that the water level in the pond had fallen by almost a foot, perhaps suggesting a leak in the pump – which I turned on today for the first time to oxygenate the water.

Life, as always, is full of ups and downs : )

Three extraordinary days in Eden.

Through the recent lockdowns, one of the projects I was working on was Anthropy 2022 – which took over the Eden Project site between 2nd and 4th November. Together with David Williams, CEO of Impact International, I had co-chaired the ‘Place Pillar’, one of four.

The other pillars were People, Prosperity and Britain’s place in the world. In the event, it turned out to be an exceptional convening – and, happily, it looks as if it will go into further iterations.

Louise and I were both chairing sessions, but we also took two colleagues: George Hopkins, who has been developing our video content for some time, and Cami Daeninck, a young Canadian who had joined our team a day or two before, after completing her master’s degree at Imperial College London. The idea was to film our panellists, but we soon extended the net.

My main session, on Wednesday afternoon, featured: David Goodhart, five years after the publication of his book The Road to Somewhere; Jane Davidson, former Minister of Education and Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales; and David Williams.

Each day we also filmed a short exchange between Louise and I, summarising the events of the day. The four short videos can be found here. We plan to release edited video content in the coming weeks.

Lovely autumnal weather as I flit between commitments. Today it involved being vaccinated with the latest COVID booster at Essex House, hard by Barnes Pond, then back in time to welcome Gaia and Adam to continue work on our wildlife pond. Gaia brought three mongrel goldfish to start cleaning up the mosquito larvae in the pond. Other than that, October has included such things as:

Have also been working on the new book in fits and starts, realigning the content to the new title: Running Up The Down Escalator: How We Failed To Save The World – But Still Could.

The adventures continue. Yesterday, we were flown to Paraná in a small, private Citation jet – though we were assured that the emissions were being offset as part of the previous day’s event. Four Klabin people accompanied us, including Klabin’s Chief Technology Officer, Francisco César Razzolini.

Among other things we were given a guided tour of: the Klabin pulp mill – where we saw different stages of the Puma project, the biggest investment in Klabin’s history; one of a series of smallholdings helping the landless find a footing; and the company-sponsored ecology park, where we watched an operation being carried out on a maned wolf.

In the evening we went out for a beer in Harmonia, where many Klabin people live, staying overnight at the Klabin hotel there. Then, this (very cold) morning we visited the Klabin technology centre nearby, being shown a range of products, old and new.

Next, we were invited to plant another tree each, this time within Harmonia, behind an environmental centre. Louise planted a Copaíba, whereas in my case the sapling was a Sibipiruna. As I said to Louise after yesterday’s rather more informal planting, it’s as if you leave something of your soul in the soil – in a good way.

Then we were flown back to São Paulo, clear skies permitting a very different view of the landscape than we could see through yesterday’s clouds.