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Journal entries prior to May 2008 can be found in the old archived site here

Journal: May, 2008

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Smile - you're at Turma do Bem

Today, Silvia Thompson and I visited one of the most fascinating social enterprises I have encountered, Turma do Bem. Founded by dentist Dr. Fábio Bibancos, the organisation has inspired thousands of Brazilian dentists to offer their services pro bono to the country's poorest young people (through to age 18) - for whom bad teeth (or no teeth at all) mean not just an inability to smile and engage others, but also compound the problems of poverty by massively increasing the chances that they will be unable to find a suitable job. One of the striking facts I picked up was the point that one of the men Turma do Bem helped had been turned down for a job with the police force - which requires candidates to have at least 20 teeth.... more >

Camargo Correa
Moving markets

Spoke at a lunch today hosted by Camargo Correa, a complex Brazilian group straddling areas like cement, construction, environmental engineering, textiles and footwear. Had met one of the shareholders, Renata Camargo Nascimento, a while back at an Alcoa Foundation event. With the aid of people like Carla Duprat and Ciro Fleury, she is encouraging the group down (or is it up?) the sustainability path. Among others, also met her daughter Luiza.... more >

Make up for Rede Globo

 By car this afternoon with Tábata Villares of Ethos to do a TV interview for Rede Globo's Globo News (Conta Corrente). Generous fomat, apparently allowing for over 20 minutes on screen when broadcast next week. Delightful interviewer - the only thing I'm kicking myself over is that when she asked me to list the most ecologically damaging industries I somehow managed to miss the fossil fuels producers. Maybe all that make-up had gone to my head? Then Tábata and her boyfriend drove me back to the Ethos event, after I had made the acquaintance of their Dachshund, which was charming - but developed a compulsive attachment to my leg.... more >

Ethos at 10

Arrived in São Paulo first thing on Monday morning and raced (if that was the word in the midst of intense traffic jams) into the city to take part in the 10th anniversary meeting of Instituto Ethos' International Advisory Board. The lanes of traffic were shot through with speeding motorcyclists, travelling at impossibly unsafe speeds - indeed, I saw one come off in collision with a vehicle and as we crawled past, the growing crowd of other bikers gathering around his still form looked pretty much like a group of mourners.... more >

This week

Apart from the podcast interview with John Varley on Monday, already blogged, I did an advisory board meeting with zouk ventures (where I was delighted to meet Esther Dyson) at the Lanesborough Hotel, flew up to Aberdeen on Tuesday evening to do a speech at a breakfast meeting the next morning, organised by the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce, ahead of the 'All Energy' conference on Wednesday, spoke at a session ogrnaised by LEAD International on Thursday evening, and then travelled to Cambridge on Friday to be filmed (for an hour) by Wayne Visser and colleagues from the Cambridge Programme for Industry. (The background is that Cannibals with Forks has been picked as one of the 50 top books in the green/sustainability space. Apparently,The Green Consumer Guide also made it to the short-list, but only one book per author was allowed.) Then did a session with Polly Courtice of CPI and her colleagues, before joining Polly and Wayne for a session at Pembroke College with perhaps 60-70 people.... more >

Making green the new business as usual

 A great new report on green innovation is now available from Environmental Defense at http://www.edf.org/documents/7904_innovationsreview2008.pdf. I was part of the Advisory Panel.... more >

Podcast with Barclays CEO John Varley

 A podcast I recorded with Barclays CEO John Varley yesterday is posted on their website today at: http://www.barclays.com/sustainabilityreport07/ceo_introduction.html. Short and to the point, but tucks in a question about social entrepreneurship.... more >

A sixtieth anniversary, take 2

Some further photographs, of Pat and Tim (holding the model Spitfire and alongside Caroline's 50th anniversary painting from 1998) and of those of some of us who grew up alongside one another all those years ago in Little Rissington and Icomb, taken by Alda Angst. The fleeting smudges may be passing ghosts, like Belinda, or they may be - as Ian (Keay) assures me they are - specks of dust inside Alda's camera.... more >

A sixtieth anniversary

Drove west early with Elaine, Gaia and Hania, for Pat and Tim's sixtieth wedding anniversary. Started out fine, then clouds heaped up as we passed Oxford, though by the time the party (with over 70 people and a marquee on the back lawn) got into full swing, the sun was out and about fairly regularly. A wonderful gathering of family and friends from all eras and generations, including a couple of total surprises: Ian Keay and Nigel Palmer, both with long grey or white pigtails.... more >

798 Space

Dinner this evening was at 798 Space, an old factory evidently designed by East German architects - and a bit of an acoustic nightmare for those of us with bats' ears. The vaulted ceiling reminded me of those giant concrete 'ears' that were erected on the British coast to detect the sound of incoming WWII bomber fleets. We took some pretty extraordinary paths on our way to developing those early acoustic locators or sound mirrors; it's just a pity that architects didn't reflect what happens when you design roof structures in the same way.... more >