Search Results for: Tim elkington

Feeling exhausted, after several pretty intense weeks. They included a trip to Lisbon, for a BCSD (Business Council for Sustainable Development) Portugal event in the Universidad Nova and then a session at the new HQ of the energy utility EDP (24-26 November).

The night I arrived, I was taken out by Fernanda Pargana (General secretary of BCSD Portgal) for a wonderful dinner at the extraordinary Pharmacia restaurant. Spoke alongside Maria Mendiluce (WBCSD Climate & Energy Manager) at both the BCSD Portugal and EDP events, at the first after her, at the second before, so we mixed it up a little.

The theme of the BSCD event was the low carbon economy, particularly appropriate given the imminence of the COP21 climate conference in Paris, which is in full swing as I write this.

Once back from Lisbon, a series of meetings and events followed, including a trip to Hill House to see the family on 28 November, the latest session of the admissions panel of the Social Stock Exchange, great sessions with Sophia Tickle and Becky Buell of Meteos and with Lisa Goldapple and Cathy Runciman of the Atlas of the Future, an evening salon hosted at Volans with some 15 people to hear Jeanne-Marie Gescher read from her new book, All Under Heaven, a fascinating meeting with Peter Wheeler of The Nature Conservancy, a key call with Lise Kingo of the UN Global Compact and a lunch with Jeremy Oppenheim of McKinsey.

Unusually, have slept for perhaps four hours today, as the wind beat about the house. Flew in last night, eventually spending a total of 8 hours travelling from St Moritz to London.

Yesterday morning, I had kicked off the 2015 UBS Global Philanthropy Forum in St Moritz, whose theme this year was ‘Daring to Innovate.’ In the opening session I was directly followed by two wonderful speakers: Jacqueline Novogratz of Acumen and Ashish Thakkar of the Mara Group and Mara Foundation. Then the three of us did a delightful panel session, chaired by Caroline Anstey of UBS.

One of my slides had featured two wide angle pictures, the first of an early Wright Brothers aircraft wobbling into the skies above Kittyhawk, the second an Earthrise picture shot from the Moon. (It had seemed appropriate, given that the conference documentation started off by saying: “Some laughed when Columbus said the world was round. Others said airplanes wouldn’t get off the ground.”)

Then, on Thursday night, I had suddenly woken up to the fact that the time between that image of the Wright Stuff and the first landing on the Moon (represented here by the image of Earthrise, taken by the Anders, Borman and Lovell mission a year earlier, in 1968) was 66 years (1903 through to 1969), so in my speech I linked that to my age, noting that unimaginable, seemingly impossible things can happen inside today’s human lifespan.

I also used three slides featuring Pilar Puig of the Puig perfume and fragrances group, who I had asked a number of questions around how a 22-year-old Millennial sees the sustainability agenda.

But for me, the highlight of the St Moritz trip was one of the parallel events that followed our opening session. It was run by David Begbie of the Crossroads Foundation, based in Hong Kong.

He divided some 40 participants into two groups, the ‘Alphas’ and ‘Betas’. Each was schooled separately in their particular cultures, languages and customs. When they came back together, mutual incomprehension was pretty much guaranteed. Disorienting, at times very funny, and deeply educational.

I was allocated to the Beta group, which was mercantile, with intense trading of different coloured cards, and assiduous keeping of scores. The other group turned out to be more touchy-feely – and constantly asked how one’s father or grandfather was. (A reference to the source of much of the wealth for philanthropists.)

Uniquely in the group, I discovered that I couldn’t play the game. I found my brain totally refusing to learn the trading rules or the linguistic code. Instead, I sat to one side, outside the process, observing the groups form and interact.

Talking it through with David afterwards, I mused that I had often felt an outsider in life and in work, though I was generally comfortable with that. And this has often helped me move between communities of interest without getting totally seduced by the ideologies of any particular group.

I had suspected that this experiential session would be taxing, which is why I signed up for it, but I had no idea of just how challenging I would find it. That said, David described some of the other sessions that they have done, which sound a lot more taxing.

In one, they had UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (and his bodyguard) take part in a particularly intense immersion simulation, where they were in a setting designed to resemble an Afghan house, where participants were welcomed by a local; headman in Afghan.

This man warned that they would have to leave soon, because of impending threats. Promptly there was the sound of helicopters, stun grenades were thrown into the house and uniformed soldiers broke in with guns. Everyone, including the Secretary-General, ended up on the floor. The bodyguard’s hand was not far from his own gun.

… and now back to bed.

Kicked off the week outside Windsor at the Sustainable Brands 2015 conference. Spoke in the opening session with Koann Skrziniarz of SB and Albert Bosch Riera, the explorer – who among many other things has climbed all seven of the world’s highest mountains. His theme: ‘The Spirit of Adventure.’ Travelled back towards London with him after our session ended – we got on like the proverbial house on fire and ended up hugging goodbye.

The rest of the week slightly blurred by, though we had a fascinating meeting of the Friends Life/Aviva Stewardship Committee of Reference, on the 23rd floor of the Aviva Undershaft building in the City of London. Very interesting presentation from Amec Foster Wheeler on how they see and handle the ethicals to sustainability agenda.

Then had to scoot out to T5 for the flight to Madrid, for the annual meeting of the LEAD initiative developed by the UN Global Compact. The security was not noticeably tighter after the terrible events in Paris on Friday 13th. Great welcome as we arrived late for the UNGC reception, after which we headed on to a delightful supper with Richard Northcote of Covestro.

A well produced UNGC event the next day, co-hosted by Endesa in their extraordinary HQ building, not far from the airport. Met some very useful people and had a potentially landmark discussion with Lise Kingo, who now runs the UNGC. More anon on that, hopefully.

First snow this week, yesterday morning – great clods of fluffy snow falling, as though someone was plucking a goose in the heavens. Walked across to the bookshop to browse and came back with two huge history times, Eugene Rogan’s The Fall of the Ottomans and James Holland’s The War in the West. A bit like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter, though a fair amount of travel to come before Christmas.

Am watching monkey-hunting chimps and swarming army ants in David Attenborough’s The Hunt as I try to summarise a week that hit a horrible low point on Friday 13th, through we didn’t hear the news about the Paris ISIS attacks until we were home after a dinner in Victoria area with Doug and Margot Miller. Elaine was meant to be going to Paris on Monday to see a Japanese friend, but has decided to delay the trip.

The week started with a launch event for Peter Lacy’s new book, Waste to Wealth, at an event co-hosted by Accenture and BT in the BT Tower. Wonderful  views from the revolving top of the tower – a perspective I first enjoyed in the 1960s when taken to the restaurant by family friends, the Hanks. That was the first time, I think, that I had been up a proper highrise. We were told at the launch event that the tower cost £2.5 million (sic) to build!

On Tuesday, we were visited by two old friends/colleagues, Paul Tebo (formerly the sustainability lead at DuPont) and Terry A’Hearn, who now runs the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency – but who was Deputy Director of the Victoria Environmental Protection Authority in Australia when I first met him, through the Antipodean speaking tours I did over some seven years with Murray Edmonds. In  between, Terry ran the Northern Ireland EPA, and had some extraordinary tales to tell about the toxic waste trade there.

Paul reminded me of the evening when, at a dinner with DuPont’s then Chairman Chad Holliday, Chad asked me how I thought of the giant chemical company – and I replied it that it made me think of a slime mould. He, apparently, was shocked, until I explained that this was a good thing. A slime mould moves and evolves from opportunity to opportunity, morphing in extraordinary fashion along the way.

In the evening, Elaine and I went across to GlobeScan’s offices for the launch of Doug Miller’s new book, Can The World Be Wrong?, for which I contributed a foreword. Was on a panel with Doug, Professor (Sir) Robert (Bob) Worcester, (Lord) Mark Malloch Brown and Anna Comerford, the publisher from Greenleaf Publishing.

Wednesday included a trip by train up to Milton Keynes, then across to Cranfield University, where I am a Visiting Professor at the School of Management’s Doughty Centre on Corporate Responsibility. Sadly, David Grayson was away on urgent personal business, but my keynote went very well, followed by a great discussion and then a dinner with students and people from companies like Rolls-Royce and Coca-Cola.

On Thursday, I went across to Bose in Regent’s Street, with a pair of noise cancelling headphones whose headband had started to disintegrate yesterday into small black plastic pieces on my scalp and neck. Made me look slightly bubonic. They offered a discount on an up-to-date pair. Great sound. I use them to protect my tinnitus- and hyperacusis-impacted hearing on the Tube.

Much of the week has been spent on developing our exponential sustainability thinking, with Sam coming up with the tagline, ‘The Future’s Exponential,’ in the course of our conversations. Richard did great work on tracking down images of good and bad exponentials for the presentation I’m due to do for a UN Global Compact event in Madrid.

On Friday, my meetings included a session with Colin Peacock, who is chairing the Social Stock Exchange‘s new property advisory panel. Fascinating insights into the construction and real estate sectors. Then across to Wilton Road in Victoria for a delightful Turkish dinner at Kazan with the girls and the Millers.

Discovered that Elaine and Margot had found the front door open at a house, number 89, we used to live at in Ebury Street – and walked in. When the builders came up from downstairs, Elaine explained that she was in our bedroom from over 40 years ago. Then home, to discover with dismay what had happened in Paris.

Thought of calling our new program Hammerhead today, because I have been spending so much of my time in recent months seeming to banging my head against a brick wall. Reminds me of the experience when I was trying to develop the triple bottom line concept in the early 1990s.

And weirdly, just today, I was working on the ‘Exponential Futures’ framing for the next stage in our Breakthrough work, and was going back to Alvin Toffler’s work. His 1970 book Future Shock and 1980 sequel The Third Wave, both hugely influential in the development of my own interests and thinking, were still in the shelves upstairs.

Have long had a sense that I had read something on multiple bottom lines long before I came up with the TBL concept – and, reading through Toffler’s books, I came across a reference to multiple bottom lines on page 257 of The Third Wave. I owe the man a huge debt, it seems.

The rest of the week has been typically blurred, with a day off on Monday, which included a visit to the Eskenazi Gallery in Clifford Street, W1. We went to see an exhibition called Transfigured Echoes, featuring recent paintings by Liu Dan. Stunning. My favourite was Taihu Rock of the Shaoyuan Garden. Giuseppe, who I hadn’t met before, came out to say hello and gave me a copy of the exhibition book.

We also went across to the Courtauld at Somerset House to see the Peter Lanyon exhibition. Soaring Flight. By far my favourite painting is the one featured on the Courtaulds website. I had been at Bryanston School with his one of Lanyon’s sons, shortly after his death following a gliding accident.

The same evening I went to The Crowd’s event with Robin Chase, co-founder of companies like Zipcar and Buzzcar, and author of Peers Inc. Afterwards on to Smith’s Top Floor at Smithfield with Robin, Jim Woods and other guests, including Jo Bertram of Uber.

Fascinating email exchange afterwards, all helping me work through our next big jump.

On Wednesday, after a busy day, I went across to the Singapore High Commission to speak at a Singapore International Foundation event. On a panel with Amanda Brooks (Director of Innovation, UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), Christopher Davies (Director, Pender Communication), Mark Howard (British Council’s Head of Teaching & Blended Learning), Jonathan McClory (Partner at Portland) and Foo Chi Hsia (Singapore High Commissioner), with our moderator being Jennifer Lewis, a Governor with SIF since 2007 – and an MD with the Singapore Investment Corporation. Wonderful to be considered a ‘Friend of Singapore’.

Then on Thursday we had a 5-hour session with Covestro at Futerra’s London offices, at which we made a good deal of progress, I think, followed by a shareholders’ meeting at SustainAbility.

Friday included a great call with Sophia Tickell of Meteos, where I began to test out my thinking around the future of campaigning in an exponential world. Deborah Doane also came in to quiz me on what Greenpeace should be doing over the next decade. An interesting set of questions.

Saturday saw me heading across to Oxford early to be part of a panel session at EMERGE 2015, the annual social innovation conference held at the Saïd Business School. Tim Smit did a barnstorming keynote, and then our session was chaired by Cliff Prior of UnLtd and included David Grayson of Cranfield University and Joanna Hafenmayer of My Impact.

Funny thing on the train down. Got an email from Richard Johnson, who was sitting elsewhere on the same train, and behind some young women also heading down to Oxford. He reported them saying the following:

“John Elkington is doing the opening session!”

“I know, I’m reading his latest book at the moment.”

“Remind me,” he said, “to add that to our next impact report!”

A nice email note today from Mark McElroy this morning. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Organizations and the original developer of the Context-Based Sustainability method, to draw on his bio on the Sustainable Brands website

He is also co-founder of Thomas & McElroy LLC, creators of the MultiCapital Scorecard (see above), and a veteran of management consulting including time spent at Price Waterhouse, KPMG and Deloitte Consulting. He teaches in the ‘MBA in Managing for Sustainability’ program at Marlboro College in Vermont.

Hi John:

I’ve been meaning to reach out to you for some time now to essentially acknowledge, pay tribute to and thank you for something you did when you introduced the TBL in the mid-nineties, but which most people may not yet fully appreciate in my view.  And that was to explicitly associate each of the bottom lines with specific vital capitals. 

Most were so caught up with the metaphorical value of the TBL as an organizing principle for performance assessment — nothing wrong with that — that we failed to fully appreciate what you also had to say about how vital capitals correspond to the bottom lines.

Now, in 2015, we’ve managed to make the leap from metaphorical organizing principle to empirical measurement model.  The MultiCapital Scorecard, for example, is nothing if not utterly grounded in the view that TBL performance can and should be interpreted in terms of what an organization’s impacts are on vital capitals relative to sustainability thresholds.  In fact, it is the application of this idea to non-financial capitals that has given rise to the idea that sustainability criteria can and should be applied to financial performance, too.  Thus comes the idea that maximizing profits as a regulative ideal should be replaced with simply providing reasonable returns.  Sufficiency will more than do.

I now routinely call attention to this intellectual contribution of yours twenty years ago, and wanted to let you know that I am.  It’s a very big deal in my view, in the spirit of organizations not being able to manage what they don’t measure.  Sustainability performance in its full TBL form essentially boils down to capital impact performance, and you were perhaps the first to point that out.  So here I am giving credit where credit is due.  As “multicapitalism” now grows in prominence as a new anti-monocapitalism doctrine, your contribution to the transition should not be overlooked.

All the best,

Mark