Search Results for: Tim elkington

Thoroughly enjoying the Fixing The Future Festival in Barcelona. Chaired two sessions yesterday, one in the morning on Biodiversity and Regeneration (with Montse Vilà of the Doñana Biology Station, Tim Smit of the Eden Project and Deli Saavedra of Rewilding Europe) and one in the afternoon on Revolution & Regeneration (with Bethany Koby of Fam Studio and Carlota Pi of Holaluz).

Wonderful to see old friends, including festival organiser Cathy Runciman of Atlas of the Future and Lisa Goldapple of Topia. And the serendipity effect has been in overdrive, as when I introduced Tim to Brian Eno, who I had met the previous evening while walking back from a dinner at the Hidden Factory, after which we had a wonderful lunch together.

Then an evening of Salvador Dalí, paella, and monsoon-like rain that left even those of us with umbrellas drenched, but that’s another story.

I was delighted to be quoted in The Los Angeles Times on the announcement that Yvon Chouinard was moving his company Patagonia into a charitable structure – which means that it will dedicate itself to funding work on climate solutions. I interviewed Yvon a couple of years back, for our Green Swans Observatory – a story that was then picked up by Topia.

The last couple of months have also been busy on the home front because of the demolition of our old summerhouse, which was showing signs of age and had degenerated into being a pretty raggedy storehouse, and the construction and fitting out of our new garden studio.

One key reason for the project was that during some of the 250+ keynotes I did in 35+ countries in the first eighteen months after Green Swans was published it was sometimes possible to hear our neighbour’s children practising their flutes and trumpets through the party wall. During one important event I did in Finland, someone at the other end asked whether anyone else could hear distant flutes?

The project, undertaken by eDen Garden Rooms, has exceeded our hopes – and gave me an excuse to realise a long-held dream. I had wanted a wildlife pond rather than the tiny lawn we had allowed to ‘rewild’ in recent years.

Our daughter Gaia and her friend Adam from WoodeNZone, based near Shepperton and sourcing driftwood from New Zealand, have been the driving forces behind the project. We bought a glorious piece of driftwood from Adam, shaped like a great eagle or vulture, that will stand by the pond – and he gifted us another, which he referred to as an “embracing wing”.

Together they remind me of rather weathered and worm-eaten versions of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

We part-filled the pond with rainwater captured by our new green roof. And once the pond was in place, the rain fell and the first water boatman arrived in the course of just a few hours.

Much still to do in terms of bedding the whole thing in, including the planting of aquatic plants, hopefully embracing irises and bullrushes. But the shape of the thing is now fairly clear – and it is remarkably calming to sit on the new deck and watch the world, including our ancient apple tree, reflected in the surface of the water.

With the village pond a couple of blocks away, the Thames ditto, and the WWT London Wetland Centre at the other end of the village, I am very much hoping that we will have some wild visitors before long – though desirably not the herons, my second favourite birds after swifts, which roost in a heronry alongside the nearby Leg O’Mutton Reservoir.

Across this evening from Somerset House, with Elaine and in intense rain, to Hyde Park and the Serpentine Gallery. The invitation was to see the Serpentine’s ‘Back To Earth‘ exhibition, then to speak at Berenberg Bank’s first major event for clients for their wealth management services. Confess I liked the theme of the exhibition – ‘how can art respond to the climate emergency?’ – better than the execution.

Next, we progressed from the northern gallery to the southern, marvelling at a green woodpecker’s back luminous in the setting sun as it swooped up into one of a ride of great trees. Then, as we drank English champagne and moved into the Black Chapel, the rain returned with serious intent. In the darkness inside the chapel, cross-cut by spotlights playing on the panel, composed of Richard Brass of Berenberg, Baroness Bryony Worthington and Gabrielle Walker of Valence Solutions.

Richard did a wonderfully moving kick-off, referencing the Queen’s death earlier in the day, and then the panel proper began Andy all accounts, went very well. As the rain sluiced down outside, and also streamed through the Pantheon-like hole in the roof of the Black chapel, cross-cut by the arc lights, all sorts of interesting people – and of all ages – came up to talk. A day I think we will all remember for a very long time.

Either I’d do a book on it, or a few paras – so let’s try the second option. Left on Monday for São Paulo via British Airways to keynote the Sebrae Endear Summit. Sebrae supports micro and small-scale enterprises across the country – and sustainability is becoming a central theme for them, alongside ESG.

Greeted by people like their CEO Carlos Mellos and Bruno Quick, their technical director, but spent most time with Débora Targino Teixeira, Sebrae’s institutional and international affairs coordinator. Great fun – and made the whole process much easier.

Once again, blown away by the affection and support for what we do – and the images shown above are only a sample of the scores of selfies and group shots people insisted we take.

On the flights, I finished Venomous Lumpsucker, by Ned Beauman, very-close-to-the-bone funny, and also began to read Bella Lack’s immensely engaging – and energising – book Children of the Anthropocene and, belatedly, Isabella Tree’s glorious Wilding.

The elephant in the airport poster provided an appropriate end note.