THE PIONEER
John Elkington is founding partner of Volans and co-founder of SustainAbility. He is also the author of Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business and the Green Consumer Guide
sustainability
When I was learning the alphabet, the letters A, B, C and (just maybe) D were the most memorable. Still, X, Y and Z also stood out, like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto among the planets – the last (and so most mysterious) in a sequence
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The world must be in real trouble if even some capitalists are calling for "market revolutions"
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What links Guernica in 1937, New York in 2012 and a city like Shanghai in 2039?
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Two of the most outspoken chief executives on sustainability issues are former chief financial officers (CFOs).
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Command centres are essential if you want to manage a complex global empire, as thousands of companies now must.
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Flying back from South Africa, where I spoke to business leaders about the sustainability challenge, four paradoxes struck me.
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The world of computing and information technology seems to move so bewilderingly fast that some part of us wants to slam on the brakes to slow down the process for long enough to understand what is happening.
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Think of the state of sustainability in the wake of the failed Rio+20 summit and it's hard not to be reminded of the Tower of Babel.
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We use the word paradigm loosely these days. A reformulation of a toothpaste becomes a paradigm shift in dental hygiene. Which isn't what Thomas Kuhn meant when he spoke of paradigms in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). I read it as a teenager and my thinking changed irreversibly.
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Truly, it wasn't my fault. I was enjoying the Skoll World Forum and the Huffington Post publisher, Arianna Huffington, had to be interviewed early, so I was asked to go back for filming in 30 minutes – only to have a studio light explode right by my face as I returned.
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The lift doors close behind you – and you're alone with someone you have long wanted to meet and influence. How do you connect? I have often been encouraged to develop a lift pitch, but have always refused.
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Remember the drunk stumbling around under the street lamp? He's lost his car keys. Asked if that's where he lost them, he replies no, he mislaid them in the dark – this is where the light is.
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Want to find out what shifting to more sustainable forms of capitalism might involve?
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An early casualty in difficult times is often the future.
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Researchers predict by 2030 urban areas will expand by 590,000 square miles - nearly the size of Mongolia - to meet the needs of 1.47 billion new urban dwellers
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Large customers are attempting what governments often fear to do, pressuring suppliers, partners and contractors to meet stretch standards
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The benefits of Big Society Capital
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How can we help business think longer term?
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Using gaming expertise in business
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America's green imperative
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The £20m giveaway for a greener future
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Breaking through the green barrier
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Sustainability is a family affair
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Are current definitions of citizenship out of date?
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Why is Unilever placing sustainability ahead of attracting new investors?
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How an "Earth exchange" could help stabilise the world climate
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Climate change and China
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Why business as usual threatens our world
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Many firms are not keen on managing sustainability. Why?
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New economics works with the biosphere, not against it
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This year's X Prize focuses on sustainable mobility
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Why the cleantech industry is coming of age
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Why biodiversity looks set to rise up the business agenda
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The climate challenge is resulting in radical suggestions
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How the GoodGuide app is helping consumers go green
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Global giants are squaring up to innovators in emerging economies
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How renewable energy may help to reboot global economies
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How "green" are government stimulus packages?
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To relieve the pressure on younger generations forced to support the elderly, governments may encourage population growth, but this risks destabilising our climate
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Making capitalism cool
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The world should learn the lessons of past health scares if it wants to tackle the complexities of climate change
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Not all businesses have been spooked by flu and the recession
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Social innovators provide useful clues as to where capitalism may be headed next
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Could open-source management save the car industry?
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Sustainable economics
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There's a buzz in America about "Green collar" workers
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Is the CSR director's role redundant in times of crisis?
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Today's business students set tomorrow's ground rules
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Why China is about to face a triple crunch
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The US must reinvent
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Family firms rise to the challenge of sustainability issues
Corporate responsibility
Business should be one of the driving forces behind tackling climate change and world poverty, but that requires learning from innovators already at work
globalisation
When China hosted a World Economic Forum on the new champions of business, talk of global growth was marred by international tensions
climate change
Sixty years ago, communism and alien invasion seemed the biggest threats to capitalism, but today climate destabilisation is the big issue for business
leadership
Far from staying out of politics, business directors are increasingly expected to walk their talk, leading and influencing policy beyond their own organisations
social enterprise
All is not lost. Even the largest, meanest corporations can learn to become paragons of social responsibility. It's our duty to encourage them, not demonise them
sustainability
Media coverage of sustainability is sparking a new set of opportunities for environmentally conscious businesses. The message is "go green, get rich"
corporate social responsibility
With environmental issues such as climate change having a direct impact on business, the best boards will be made up of opinionated, aware individuals
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It's taken a while for marketers to come out in support for a green agenda, but now the true costs are known, a groundswell of opinion is forming