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Journal entries prior to May 2008 can be found in the old archived site here
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Journal: June, 2009
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Mail woman
Sam does Phoenix mail-out
30 June 2009
Leif and I
Who's mentoring whom?
28 June 2009
Helen Spaull of the Noah Foundation took this photo of Leif Utne of Zanby and I in the Big Tent at Tallberg. He and I were part of a mentoring programme this year - perhaps that's why I look so serious?... more >
Tallberg Forum 09
Planetary boundaries etc
28 June 2009
Just in from 4-5 days at the Tallberg Forum in Sweden. much better than last time I was there, a couple of years back. Met a fair few people I knew, and many I didn't - including Leif Utne of Zanby, who seemed to Twitter non-stop. We mutually mentored. I took a couple of lovely walks down by the lake, one with Wouter van Dieren and his wife Jeanette.... more >
Tallberg
If this is climate change ...
27 June 2009
If this is climate change, then - terrible thing to say - there are moments when I rather like it. Sadly, though, the mood here at the Tällberg Forum is often closer to that you might find in a small village as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ride in.... more >
60
As I pack for Sweden
23 June 2009
As I pack for Sweden, several wonderful days of celebration come to an end, both of my first 60 years and of the first year of Volans, a milestone we passed on 1 April. A number of photos taken during the Bloomsbury Place party last night appear below, taken by several people - including Sam - with my camera.... more >
Cup cake bonanza
Something in common with Sixties brownies?
22 June 2009
Sam and Patrin came armed with legions of extraordinary cup-cakes to the party this evening, some more extraordinary than others.... more >
Birthday Treat
Gaia and Hania descend
20 June 2009
All I want is the paper and the ribbons
Gaia and Hania came across today, bearing gifts - including a box of two wonderful red wines: Bohorquez 2005 from Spain, and Pleiades XVI, made by Sean Thackeray in Bolinas, California. As one wine retailer says of the latter, "Named for the Pleiades star cluster (also called the Seven Sisters) this wine is a blend of syrah, sangiovese, mourvèdre, barbera, carignane, petite sirah and viognier, among others. Thackrey blends by taste and doesn't keep track of the fruit that ends up in each blend so it's different from year to year. Juicy fruit, earth and Thackrey's signature eucalyptus note." Haven't go to that yet, but a glorious day - am inclining to having my 60th birthday every year.... more >
And goodbye Ralf Dahrendorf and Huey Long
Odd couple
20 June 2009
Like the late Peter Townsend, but less directly, Ralf Dahrendorf was a prominent feature in the landscape when I was doing my BA and M.Phil. But I have had a lot more pleasure from Huey Long, whose obituary appears in The Times today, who has just died at the age of 105 - and who played for eight months in 1945 with one of my favourite musical groups, the Inkspots. Lovely face. Played all the tracks on my IPod this morning in celebration of his passing. Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall, which also features Ella Fitzgerald, is one of the tracks on the compilation of music I had already recorded to play on Monday evening.... more >
Value Web Poster for My Birthday
A most extraordinary gift
19 June 2009
 ... more >
Pin-up Girls - and Boys
Our walls begin to tell the tale
19 June 2009
After breakfast with colleagues from Singapore's Economic Development Board, who are a strategic partner of ours at Volans, I walked back to the office to finish off some writing, do a couple of meetings and then begin tidying up ahead of Monday. One of the things I did was to pin up all the painting and drawings that an American teacher, Vicki Wade, had sent me - done by her class in Alexandria, Virginia, on the basis on our long-ago book for children, Going Green. Fabulous images, thoughts and sentiments. She and successive generations of her students have done this each year for absolute ages.... more >
Back from Brazil
After 2009 Instituto Ethos Conference
18 June 2009
Flew in from Sao Paulo this afternoon, via TAM, after a few days at the annual Instituto Ethos conference on corporate social responsibility. I did a panel session yesterday, chaired by Simon Zadek of AccountAbility and also featuring Fernando Martins of Grupo Santander and Ricardo Henriques, advisor to the President of BNDES, the Brazilian Development Bank. Our session was enitled: 'Global Crisis: Can a new financial system drive the economy towards a sustainable society?' My central question was whether the government-moderated economic crisis will be enough to spur transformative changes in our basic economic model - too early to say, but sadly maybe not. Then a very interesting meeting with several people from Braskem. The previous evening, took part in a wonderful dinner with the members of the International Board of Ethos.... more >
Goodbye Peter Townsend
An early influence
11 June 2009
When I switched from economics to sociology at university in 1968, Peter Townsend was one of my professors - and had quite an impact on my sensibilities. Sad to see his obituary today in The Times when I got back from Aberdeen.... more >
Living North Sea Initiative
Aberdeen for a day
11 June 2009
Shocked to see the graphic illustration of the precipitous collapse of spawning cod stocks in the North Sea in the Financial Times Magazine for June 6-7, which had been hanging around in a stack of unread magazines due to my recent travel. One of the triggers for the piece was the new film, The End of the Line: Imagine a Worth Without Fish. Linked to Charles Clover's book of the same name.... more >
EcoVadis and UNESCO
A Tuesday in Paris
09 June 2009
Hotel Bellechasse, in the lift
A fairly energetic day in Paris, where I arrived last night, staying again at the Hotel Bellechasse. Then around the corner to an advisory board meeting with EcoVadis, before heading across after lunch to UNESCO for a meeting with Liz Longworth and colleagues. Delighted to see such things as a Calder mobile outside and a large photograph of a whaleshark in the lobby. Jonah Goldstein also took me to see the Picasso mural, which he noted hadn't been signed by the artist - I said I wasn't surprised, the painting didn't strike me as that wonderful. But then I spotted the central figure as we rounded a pillar - and exclaimed that, given my interest in flight and Homo volans, this was perfect, a falling angel. Icarus, Jonah explained.... more >
Ethanol Summit 2009
The fuel industry develops a sweet tooth
04 June 2009
Back from Brazil this morning, finding it hard to forget the fate of AF447 - particularly when the flight out on Monday night hit quite an air pocket part-way out. Was speaking at the Ethanol Summit 2009, in São Paulo. Missed Bill Clinton's speech, sadly, but enjoyed my panel with Lord (John) Browne (previously BP) and José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevado, President of Petrobras. Recently wrote a letter to the Harvard Business Review in the wake of an HBR article by Gabrielli on the 'greening' of the giant Brazilian oil company. There's no doubt that progress has been made, but the company's recent behaviour in its spat with Instituto Ethos, where I sit on the International Board, has been disturbing.... more >
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