Search Results for: Tim elkington

Flew BA to Porto, from Gatwick, on 5 November – before fireworks got out of hand. Met at airport by Gualter Chrisóstomo of CEiiA, who I know through our work for the UN Global Compact on Project Breakthrough.

Wonderful supper of salt cod (bacalhau) in every conceivable form alongside the River Douro, then a walk across the bridge to the other side.

Next day, off to CEiiA, where I was taken around by Gualter and Carlos Almeida. Introduced to teams working on things like submersible platforms, fire-spotting drones, mobility-as-a-service and satellite remote sensing. And met the Deputy Minister for Environment, José Mendes.

Then flew to Lisbon for the Web Summit, for me kicking off with a very interesting dinner at the Palacio Nacional.

My session at the Summit had the title: “The planet is under threat. Does tech have the answer?” With Vann Newark II of The Atlantic in the chair, my co-panellists were Constantijn van Orange of StartupDelta, Jyoti Kirit Parikh of India’s Integrated Research and Action for Development, and Kathleen van Brempt of the European Parliament.

An intriguing group, but a squeezed session, billed as invitation-only (which put a fair number of people I talked to later off coming) and with a great deal of background noise. But perhaps that’s a suitable metaphor for the world-at-large at the moment?

Among interesting conversations later in the day was one with Christoph Gebald of Climeworks, whose business it is to capture carbon dioxide from the air. Fascinating venture.

The next morning, I had breakfast with Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of one of my early influences, Commander Jacques Cousteau. She is an explorer, film-maker and water activist. Releated issues are very live in my mind at the moment thanks to David Attenborough’s extraordinary new series, Blue Planet II.

Then we were joined by her colleague at Good Impact, David Diallo, who we have known for quite some time. Wish all breakfasts could be something like that.

One memory that came to mind while we were talking was a ceremony we conducted in all seriousness when I was at prep school. Someone’s hamster had died and we decided to organise out version of a Viking sea burial.

A piece of cork was duly extracted from one of the life-rafts that sat by the river that ran through the Glencot School ground. Then the hamster was laid in state, surrounded by small blue plastic aqualung divers that could be found at the time in certain cereal packets. And off into the afternoon he/she/it went.

Then on to a session with Manuel Heitor, Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, alongside Rich(and) Johnson of Volans and Carlos Almeida of CEiiA. Amazing how deep the links are between our two countries, though it hasn’t always been plain sailing. Came away determined to explore ways of bridging between what we’re doing on Project Breakthrough and what Portugal is doing in a growing range of sectors.

Once back to London, highlights included final interviews for the new Executive Director slot at Volans and, yesterday, a lunch in Barnes with Clément Huret of the Social Stock Exchange and his partner Julie, both from France. Another timely reminder of how lucky London (if not the rest of this country) is to be tucked in so close to the rest of Europe – and how inane and self-destructive the continuing BREXIT chaos is.

Another whistlestop week, ahead of flying to Oporto tomorrow – and then on to Lisbon on Monday. Interviews continue for the new Volans Executive Director, with some excellent candidates.

Meanwhile, the normal rhythm continues, as with a Social Stock Exchange Admissions Panel session on Tuesday afternoon at the We Work building at 1 Primrose Street, Spitalfields.

But a strong sense of change in the air, everywhere.

Among many other things, we began work this week on a new project for Novartis. On Wednesday alone, I spoke in the morning at an International Council for Mining & Minerals (ICMM) event in Westminster, at One George Street; then raced back to the office to greet and talk to a Japanese study tour, interested in learning lessons from the London Olympics for Tokyo’s impending Games; had my second session with Emily Cavendish in Harley Street; then went across to 125 Finsbury Pavement to launch the latest version of the Future-Fit Foundation‘s business benchmark.

Then on to dinner at L’Anima Café with an interesting group, including the three speakers from the panel I chaired: Chris Davis from The Body Shop, Sue Almond from Grant Thornton; and Susanne Stormer from Novo Nordisk.

As I headed home, I discovered I had left my iPhone at the Future Fit event, having been asked to do a short filmed interview – and left it where I thought it wouldn’t interfere with the mike. Third time I have abandoned it so far this year, though the ‘Find My iPhone’ service is astoundingly helpful. Went across to retrieve it on Thursday morning.

With Elaine still away with Hania in Bordeaux, Thursday evening was a dinner at Sea Containers on the south bank, hosted by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Love how they think. Great conversation with their President, Fred Krupp, overlooking the Thames. Meanwhile, Gayle Olivier, a relatively new recruit to the Volans team, took my place at a Unilever event, just across the river.

Other projects under way at the moment include a 3-city initiative with Innovate UK, which is focusing on Newcastle, Nottingham and London. More on that anon.

Today’s Sunday Times runs a story about BBC wildlife presenter Chris Packham, whose Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch I switch on whenever I can. He is calling on the website Etsy to ban sellers from trading seahorses in such trinkets as paperweights, pendants and photo frames. The newspaper notes easy’s declared commitment to create a “sustainable future”.

Have long loved seahorses, as indicated by my purchase of an Royal College of Art student’s mega-print over a decade ago. It now seems to have gone AWOL from the office, but lives on in photographs – including one done for a Magnum book many moons ago by photographer Paolo Pellegrin.

Note to self: must find out more about Project Seahorse.

At the same time, wildlife has been in the air this week. Among other things, I attended the latest session of the WWF Council of Ambassadors, held in 66 Lincoln Inn’s Fields. Apparently, this was once the equivalent of 10 Downing Street.

Great to see one slide showing the Daily Mirror front page from 1961 which helped launch me on my environmental career.

I spent Climate Week in New York, with key events including: the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit on 20 September; a UNGC Breakthrough Innovation parallel event which I co-hosted the day before; our Carbon Productivity Roundtable (again on the 20th), followed by a dinner, downstairs at the wonderful Il Gattopardo; and then various meetings around town with the Covestro team – Patrick Thomas (CEO), Markus Steilemann (CEO designate) and Richard Northcote (Chief Sustainability Officer). All aided and abetted by Lorraine Smith, our wonderful anchor in NYC.

Patrick was speaking as part of a Breakthrough Innovation panel during the UNGC Leaders Summit, for which I had also briefed Alan Middleton (CEO of PA Consulting) who chaired the session. (So I had a vested interest in the thing succeeding, which it definitely did.)

Before that session, a real highlight for me – and I think everybody – was a seemingly extempore speech by Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto. The man who challenged Donald Trump’s assertion that in spurning the Paris Climate Accord he was representing Pittsburgh, not Paris.

Fascinated to visit the Purpose Climate Lab one evening with Richard, steered in by a key contact from IKEA. Met many people I know – and a fair few I didn’t.

On the last day, Friday, Lorraine, the Covestro team and I had a great lunch at Da Noi with Lise Kingo and Lila Karbassi of UNGC. After which I headed across to the Pershing Square Café, for separate sessions with Jed Emerson (who has recently built a 3,000 volume library on capitalism) and Mira Merme (who is developing a vertical farming project in Amsterdam).

Grisly flight back, with Virgin using Delta as a carrier, and Delta shoving me into the worst of Economy seats, despite the fact that I was booked in Business. No apologies. And no intention of flying with either airline in the future, if I can avoid it.

As I flew I was reading Omar el Akkad’s brilliant dystopian novel American War, which didn’t exactly boost my sense of optimism about the deep future – despite having enormously enjoyed the NYC trip overall.

Geoff Lye and I have worked together since the early 1990s, both at SustainAbility and at Volans. Extraordinary to see the coverage this week of his travails with British Airways en route to Greece – and to see how much more coverage the media is prepared to give to disasters than to the underlying processes that build up to cause them. His story has been featured in, among others, The Evening Standard, The Sun, The Telegraph and The Times.