John Elkington Journal

Hambledon Hill

Sun, 13 May 2012 09:01:00 GMT

Hambledon Hill is celebrated in today's Observer, here, with a story - entitled 'How stone-age man invented the art of raving' - which concludes that the chieftains of the day would hold the equivalent of today's raves or Glastonburys. No great surprise to me: the Hill was a magnet for me when I was at Bryanston School in Dorset.... more >

2052

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:52:00 GMT

Jorgen Randers' new book 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years, due out on 13 June, looks riveting. He was one of the original authors of the Club of Rome Limits to Growth study way back in 1972, when I was just getting started in this field. It's a privilege to have been asked to contribute an essay on the future prospects for the military, which happily didn't end up on the cutting room floor. The Amazon page for the book can be found here.... more >

Capturing Ray Anderson in 2 Minutes

Fri, 4 May 2012 21:26:00 GMT

Filming for The Guardian's Sustainable Business Awards 2012

And again

Day started with a filming session for The Guardian, which is celebrating Ray Anderson's immense contributions to the sustainability field during their Sustainable Business Awards on 29 May, on the heels of our Breakthrough Capitalism Forum in the same space at the King's Place Conference Centre. As part of the preparation, I went back to my Guardian obituary for Ray.... more >

My Last GRI Meeting

Thu, 3 May 2012 20:45:00 GMT

Simon Longstaff and Amsterdam map

Malini (Mehra) and Nelmara (Arbex)

An emotional week, in which I resigned both from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Board and from the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). My reasons for doing so are complex, but mainly to do with the fact that the Volans team alerted me to the fact that I currently sit on 32 boards, advisory boards and judging panels, and I feel a growing need to focus my efforts -- and those of our team -- on initiatives and ventures that link to 'Breakthrough' change, rather than 'Change-as-Usual'. These are two of the three scenarios I develop in the new book, The Zeronauts.... more >

SustainAbility's 25th Anniversary

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:16:00 GMT

Roman Wall

Three top entries for SA's competition for ways of engaging children

julia and I, 25 years on

Another cake

amanda, Sam, Mark (Edwards) and Tania (Martin)

Christele, Ivana, Alex, Patrin

Beginnings of a group shot

Mo bears down

Tania loves to daydream

All hands

Wonderful evening celebrating the 25th anniversary of SustainAbility, founded by Julia Hailes and I (with help from Tom Burke) in 1987. My blog on the background can be found here. Held in America Square, cheek-by-dowl with surviving fragments of the Roman Wall of ancient Londinium, the event was a joy from beginning to end.... more >

A Week in Arnhem, Melton Mowbray and Frankfurt

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 21:17:00 GMT

At Steve and Sandar's

Ransoms, ditto

Richmond Park

Arnhem: Eusebius Church

Eusebius Church 2

With Ralph Thurm, at the Zeronauts poster stand

Love the colour contrast

Eusebius Church 3

Paul Druckman and Mervyn King before the start of the IIRC session

A busy weekend (including dinner with Steve and Sandar Warshal, which featured glorious ransom soup) and then a busy week. It kicked off in Arnhem, where I did the keynote at a joint session in the Eusebius Church for the Dutch and German chapters of the UN Global Compact. Ralph Thurm of Deloitte Innovation was one of the people I knew there: he was promoting our Zeronauts Symposium in Rotterdam on 5 June, Earth Day.... more >

Behind the Scenes at the Science Museum

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:15:00 GMT

First motorbike, 1894

GM sheep, Tracy

First BBC broadcasting unit

In James Watt's workshop 1

James Watt's workshop 2

Ben (Russell) and a 3D-printed bust of James Watt

Half a head

Winged scarab occupies centre-stage in an Egyptian-styled engine Watt built for the Great Exhibition

Planet Earth, with projected data from satellites

Rocket engines, a combination of Assyrian priests and Daleks

Electron Capture Detector

Prototype of the Clock of the Long Now

Amanda and a pyramid of cards

Riversimple car

Watson & Crick's DNA model

Shadows under Stephenson's 'Rocket' locomotive

The future at play/work

A glorious morning, starting off at the Smith Centre, part of the Science Museum, and then Amanda, Sam and I were taken around the Museum by Amanda Crofts, Alex Burch, Veronica Hallas and Ben Russell.... more >

WEF Global Shapers dinner

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:41:00 GMT

A fascinating day with Sarah Severn of Nike, after which she, Amanda, Charmian and I went across to an Asian vegan restaurant in King's Cross for supper with 7-8 members of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers networks. These are people aged 20-30 who are achieving extraordinary things in areas like social and environmental change. Joyous evening. Can't wait to continue the conversations.... more >

An Evening With ENDS

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:24:00 GMT

A range of Haymarket titles

Mike Barry, Nick Rowcliffe and Alan Knight

Mike in full flow

It's an amazing 34 years since Max Nicholson, David Layton and I set up Environmental Data Services (ENDS). This evening I took part in an ENDS roundtable on whether we could count on business to continue to lead the charge in the sustainability space? A great discussion chaired by ENDS publisher Nick Rowcliffe (who noted in his introduction that I was his first employer, when we were setting up SustainAbility).... more >

Social Innovation in Asia

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:16:00 GMT

Charmian chairs

Amanda chairs

Started the day, making my way up Portland Place in quite heavy rain, at Asia House -- where I did the keynote at an event on Social Innovation in Asia. Charmian and Amanda both chaired panel sessions. Great to see Sir John Boyd again: he kicked off the event -- and I enjoyed myself immensely meeting people from a different part of the landscape.... more >

Breakthrough Capitalism, Take 1

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:49:00 GMT

Ready to go

Che Guevara

Karl Marx

Joseph Schumpeter

Calm before the storm

Welcome

Part of sound system

Anonymous

At least I know who I am

Photo from the original bed spring factory days

Volans Sam and London

It's Volans Amanda

Elspeth Finch of Atkins

Me, Molly Webb and Jim Woods

Foursome includes Paul Ellingstad of HP (in blue shirt) and Luke Nicholson (right)

Us again

Studious moment

Michael Green survets rivers of change

One of the report-backs

Weak signals

There will be a lot more on this, particularly when our Breakthrough Capitalism website (breakthrough capitalism.com) is up this week, but a quick note here on our first event in the series, held at The Spring Project, in Vauxhall Walk. We started at 14.00 and went on to 18.00, then went on to The Black Dog around the corner.... more >

Santander's Breakthrough Initiative

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:19:00 GMT

The view from Santander -- or at least their Ludgate Hill office

Charmian (Love) and I start the day with a visit to Santander in Ludgate Hill, where we are intrigued to hear more about their Breakthrough initiative, which nicely aligns with our evolving Breakthrough Capitalism program. The pile-driving at the construction site next door apparently sets all the computer screens shaking at timnes: a chance to feel the future. Then we jump into a cab and head westward to Vauxhall for our first Breakthrough event.... more >

Wharton School Sustainability TrendLab

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:42:00 GMT

Philadelphia skyline, reflected

Adam Werbach delivers

Airport scene, in passing

Puppetry for Social Justice puppetry, at airport

Flew to Philadelphia on Wednesday, back early this morning. Went to give keynote at a Globalization TrendLab on Sustainability, co-hosted by the Lauder Institute and the Wharton School. The theme: Sustainability. I will be doing several blogs on the theme, including my next one - this week - for the Guardian Sustainable Business website. Met some old friends and, I think, made some new ones.... more >

Volans Fourth Birthday

Tue, 3 Apr 2012 22:37:00 GMT

Birthday cake

Amanda cradles Oscar

Had we ever had ambitions to gain an Oscar, we got ours on our fourth birthday, when Jacqueline (Lim) and her husband Simon brought in their son Oscar for our fourth birthday party, complete with cake. The pace of life at the moment is fast and furious, but such moments help remind us of what's it all about.... more >

Skoll World Forum

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:48:00 GMT

New Theatre

Pamela does her Humpty Dumpty Capitalism speech

Gordon Brown on the rehab trail

Annie Lennox

Spent last three days in Oxford at the Skoll World Forum. Best place to get a glimpse of what happened is here. A wonderful immersion in the best of social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Met a huge number of friends and new folk. Most dramatic moment was probably when I was being filmed in a small room within the Said Business School. I had been booked for interview 30 minutes beofre, but Arianne Huffington needed to be done in a hurry - and was. Almost as soon as I got back, one of the studio lamps blew with a massive bank, and a thin stream of smoke and chmeicals spiralled up to the ceiling, triggering the fire alarms, so we all had to leave the building. Another networking opportunity ... The things I have to do to catch attention.... more >

First Nestle CSV Forum in Barcelona

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:35:00 GMT

Gaudi building 1

Gaudi street lamps

Inside Gaudi building, looking out

Tragaluz restaurant

Tragaluz 2

Next day, pre-event

The writing on the wall of the exhibition hall

Ignacio Carreras speaks

A flying visit to Barceola, to speak at the first Nestle Creating Shared Value Forum in Spain. Wonderful dinner at the Tragaluz restaurant on Sunday evening. Soent much of this morning working on the latest page proofs for The Zeronauts. The Forum went very well, though the context in Spain is radically different, with some 50% of under-25s now underemployed. Keen to get back to Spain. Complicated progression through Heathrow T5 on way back: maybe 1,000 people queuing to get through the EU channel. I asked the immigation officer who checked my passport whether this was normal? He said it wasn't abnormal. I said we might as well blow up all our embassies around the world. My file just got bigger ...... more >

Spring Fast Forwards Into Summer

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:14:00 GMT

Front garden in bloom

Guardian Sustainable Business judging process showing les than half of judging tables

Downstairs at The Guardian

Fox and pigs, 2

Our magnolia tree at 2 Bloomsbury Place

Team, taken by Sam

It has been wonderful cycling weather this week, though everyone has been talking about how unseasonably warm the weather has been. Went to a NESTA conference yesterday, a launch for the new Economist book, Megachange, which argues that "it's not all gloom and doom," but was reminded by contributor Oliver Morton's comment that the atmosphere is like a saucepan: you turn the heat up under it and nothing seems to happen for a while, then it starts to simmer ... (the first time I typed that it came out as "summer" ...)... more >

Flying Visit to Mumbai

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:49:00 GMT

CRY Summit panel session in progress

Ditto

After the Summit is over - I am about to sit at their feet for a photograph

Preparations for the Festival of Colours

Ditto

Walking down to the beack with Rajni

Prithvi Theatre

Over the Ukraine, I think

First sight of England -- a moment I always adore

The Thames a-winding

Despite a grim false-start when I arrived at the Air India at Terminal 4, to find that my Indian visa had expired, and then a frantic race-around by the Volans team to get an emergency visa, I got onto the same flight to Mumbai 24 hours later. Reason for the journey was a Corporate Responsibility Summit organised by Child Rights & You (CRY), a leading charity that has been running for 33 years. More details on the event can be found here.... more >

TEDxThames Takes Shape

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:40:00 GMT

Antony, Sam and Keshi

Visual prompts

Keshi at work

Our TEDxThames event on 'Breakthrough Capitalism', slated for 29 May at the King's Place conference centre in King's Place, continues to evolve. A key part of the current process is working with the Value Web -- David Christie, Keshi Bouri and Antony Morgan -- on the branding, the website and the run-up event we are planning for 17 April. Have had a couple of sessions in the past couple of weeks. Have always loved this informal, creative stage, where the language and imagery evolves for a major project. At the same time, we are building our speakers list, with some great people now involved. More anon.... more >

The Week That Was

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:31:00 GMT

Back room at Volans

Being filmed for HP

HP 2

HP 3

Ben the lens

Off to the Value Web

With the Value Web team

Greenpeace drapes National Gallery - which was hosting Shell reception

Among other things, the week included a trip across to the Cabinet Office to see Nick Hurd, a filming session for HP, a TEDx brainstorm with the Value Web, a Shell reception at the National Gallery (with police having cordonned off the front portico, across which Greenpeace had draped a banner), two days in Lausanne at IMD (where I took part in a panel session moderated by Liam Black of Wavelength, alongside people from Chiquita, GE and Nestle), and various other jaunts.... more >