Search Results for: Tim elkington

Just back from first trip to Ivory Coast, courtesy of Nestlé, for their seventh Creating Shared Value Forum, this time in Abidjan. Fascinating opportunity to view shared value and sustainability agendas from an African perspective.

Celebrated my birthday near Yamoussoukro on Friday, but was feeling pretty grim about the prospects of Brexit. Something in my bones. Various people argued that the world’s stock exchanges are the best predictors of outcomes, showing me screens of green histograms based on positive ‘Remain’ outcomes then thought very likely, but I confess I was existentially agitated.

And when we deplaned at Paris this morning, en route to London, the catastrophic news thundered through. One of those moments one will always remmed,her, like hearing of JFK’s assassination.

Have been  stunned for much of the time since I got back, using things like the petition for a second referendum (which passed the 3 million signatures mark today, though there are some questions about whether non-UK citizens have also been signing up) as a way of maintaining some sort of forward momentum.

And have also been working since getting back on the report for the Business & Sustainable Development Commission, with Jacqueline (Lim) and Lorraine (Smith). At least that is going well.

The Brexit result is the result of too many factors for simple discussion here, but the split between old and young has been striking. I sent a note to David Grayson this afternoon, recalling the work we did some years back on ageing, politics and sustainability.

One motivating factor in that project was a concern that the greying of populations would shift the centre of gravity towards conservatism, slowing or stalling progress on sustainable development. And it looks as if we have now arrived in exactly that dystopia.

I talked to my mother, Pat, today. She and Tim, now in their mid-90s, both voted for Brexit. I was trying to understand why. Part of the answer is a lack of faith in experts. But I think that’s camouflage. I did a tweet yesterday about the need, if 90-year-olds are to be allowed to vote in future, for the voting age to be lowered to 16. It got a fair few retweets.

Did Boris Johnson have any idea that this might happen? He looked shell-shocked early on, with some media reports suggesting he is frightened of young people’s reactions, as well he should be. Glib politicking has led to a result which is deadly dangerous for younger people, whatever Johnson may say about a glorious future. (Not just in the loss of opportunities, but the likelihood that a weakened UK and EU will be easier to manipulate by malign forces in the wider world.) For Boris, I suspect, the PM’s job would be a toxic chalice for years to come.

In any event, on the upside, here are some images from a fascinating trip to the Ivory Coast – though it is already beginning to feel a lifetime away:

 

I didn’t expect to buy anything when we went to the private view of the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition today. But this image by Ian Chamberlain caught my eye. (Also love his images of old Thames Estuary flak forts.)

In the early 1970s, I was enthralled by geodesic design and architecture, with our bookshelves still crammed with books by Buckminster Fuller, Stewart Brand and others on the theme. Had breakfast with Bucky himself in Reykjavik 40 years ago and served as a judge for the Buckminster Fuller Institute in recent years.

So, though it’s obvious once you think of it, the idea that his glitteringly high tech work would eventually fall into ruin was something of a provocation. So I bought the original of Dome 1, as a reminder of the perils of technological obsession.

Then this evening, as I was shutting down for the day, I came across an interesting piece on CNN.com about the work of Gerard O’Neill, another major influence on my thinking some 3-4 years after I began working on city planning at UCL in 1972.

O’Neill did his work in Mountain View during 1975, where we were on a mission a couple of months back, visiting Singularity University. His three options at the time for NASA space habitats: the Bernal Sphere, the Toroidal Colony and the Cylindrical Colony. None of them yet built, but they would make fascinating ruins.

And speaking of ruins, we then headed across to the British Museum to see their Sunken Cities exhibition. Spellbinding – can’t wait to go back. And all the mentions of Osiris put me in mind of the first article I ever wrote for New Scientist, also in 1975, which was called ‘Beware The Wrath of Osiris.’

Not sure where this fits into my impact metrics, but intrigued to see today that my job title has made it into the Financial Times and the new Guffipedia. The interesting thing, Lucy, is that hives do “think” – and, by doing the waggle dance, scout bees help the colony access new opportunities. So business as unusual continues, I think.

Flew to Zürich late yesterday, to speak at a conference organised by öbu. Bit of a hiccup at the airport, where a busload of passengers from the same BA flight were taken to an entrance where they didn’t have to show their passports – at which point, the terminal was locked down while the BA passengers were separated out. Not fun.

But I had been through passport control, so eventually managed to blag my way out, and into a welcoming mobility car driven by Remo Rusca of Smart Identity.

Very much enjoyed the event today, which was linked to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, whose side session I joined in the afternoon. Nice interval sitting outside in the square with Joanna Hafenmayer of MyImpact, also a board member of öbu.

Had fretted that the threatened strike by French air traffic controllers would keep me in Zürich, but BA 717 took off on time and, despite a couple of turbulence-related lurches as we headed into Heathrow, I got home in good time and good order.

Former PM John Major was in the front seat of 717 as I boarded – and no doubt (this is a postscript) was pondering what he would say about the Brexit/Leave campaign. His thoughts widely broadcast today.

Went across to Amsterdam on Wednesday, to take part in the fifth GRI Global Conference. Spoke at a panel session on Wednesday afternoon, featuring the new GRI Technology Consortium, which I now chair.

That evening, we had a dinner of Consortium members on the top floor of a glorious restaurant, Restaurant Incanto, with lashing rain and a wonderful lightning storm raging all around. GRI Chief Executive Michael Meehan and I both both did brief  welcomes. Sat next to – and had a great conversation with – Ernesto Ciorra, Head of Innovation & Sustainability at Enel Group, the Italy-based international energy company.

On Thursday, I serendipitously had a glorious lunch with GRI co-founders Bob Massie and  Allen White (now of the Great Transition Initiative), thanks to Felipe Arango of BSD Consulting. Extraordinary to think back to the early days of GRI, when Bon was still at CERES and, as Bob reminded me, I persuaded the founding group to go triple bottom line, rather than just environmental.

Then keynoted the third primary session, before many of us took off on a low-slung, glass-tipped boat through the canals, to the West-Indisch Huis, the original headquarters of the Dutch West India Company, a poorer relation of the Dutch East India Company. But the building is lovely, arranged around a courtyard, where a harpist played. Various comments about colonialism, but a joyous evening nonetheless.

On the boat I had a mind-spinning conversation with Liv Watson, once a skateboarding champion, among other things, and now at Workiva. She has been a longstanding champion of the XBRL reporting language – and is now immersed in Blockchain. At dinner, I sat next to Roberto de Ocampo, a former Finance Minister in the Philippines. Great conversation.

Came back early today. Intensified security in Schiphol after the news that another EgyptAir flight has gone down, this time in the Mediterranean, again likely to be terrorism.