Sam Lakha, Manager, Volans Outreach.
Simon Reddy tells Volans about C40’s pathways to scale
Simon Reddy, Executive Director of C40: Cities and Climate Change tells us about the ambition of this global network of city mayors –which represent some of the world’s largest cities– to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and influence global climate politics.
“We are doing political advocacy work, and looking to get a critical mass of C40 mayors at the COP-15 in Copenhagen. The Mayor of Copenhagen will be hosting an event for cities where a number of mayors will be arguing for national governments to engage and support them in better ways. Some mayors have good relationships with their national governments and we can use that to our advantage as well.” Read more >>
See other interviews in our series Conversations on Scale
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/c40/.
- Alejandro LitovskyBrown dead-end for ‘Green New Deal’?
Today, Jeremy Leggett of Solarcentury, one of our Phoenix 50 organisations, will deliver a letter to Number 10 Downing Street, home-office of the UK Prime Minister, about what he describes as “the scarcely credible situation that has unfolded in the UK solar photovoltaics market. Amazing as it may seem, jobs are being shed in the UK in the green new deal market that is fastest growing of them all, in the rest of the world.” A summary of of the solar industry’s case can be found on The Guardian’s website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/19/green-energy-jobs-politics <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/19/green-energy-jobs-politics>
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/brown-dead-end-for-green-new-deal/.
- John ElkingtonInterview: Nancy Kete of EMBARQ tells Volans about her ambitions to solve transport problems in cities
In conversation with Volans, Nancy Kete, Director of EMBARQ - the WRI Center for Sustainable Transport - brilliantly describes some of the lessons she has learned on tackling complex transport problems in the world’s largest cities and her ambitions for EMBARQ’s future.
Click here to read the full interview in our series Conversations on Scale.
A few weeks back, Nancy Kete joined Josh Steinmann of Better Place, Peter Head of Arup and Ion Yadigaroglu of Capricorn Investment Group as panelists at the ‘Evergreen’ session that Volans organized at the World Skoll Forum 2009 on scaling up sustainable transport policies. To many participants, the session offered breakthrough insights on new ways of thinking about scale - click here for the highlights.
Read EMBARQ’s commentary of the The Phoenix Economy.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/interview-nancy-kete-of-embarq-tells-volans-about-her-ambitions-to-solve-transport-problems-in-cities/.
- Alejandro LitovskyBob Massie wins two Joan Bavaria Awards
Bob Massie, as CSRwire puts it, has helped build “one of the most effective systems ever for monitoring and improving corporate performance on environmental and social impacts”. Now he has been honored by Ceres [one of our Phoenix 50] and Trillium Asset Management as this year’s winner of two Joan Bavaria Awards for Building Sustainability into the Capital Markets. The awards were announced at the opening reception of the Ceres annual conference.
Bob, a long-standing friend, has been one of the most effective champions of sustainability worldwide, even when slowed by severe health problems. ”Bob Massie’s legacy in weaving social and environmental considerations into our global economic accounting system is far-reaching,” said Ceres President Mindy S. Lubber at the awards reception. “Whether by launching the Global Reporting Initiative [one of our Trailblazers] or introducing global investors to the concept of climate change risks, Bob has always been a step ahead in understanding the linkages between capital markets and the long-term sustainability of our planet - and the steps needed to strengthen those linkages.”
Massie received two awards, the Bavaria Award for Innovation and the Bavaria Award for Long-Term Impact. The awards honor the late Joan Bavaria, a pioneer of social investing who founded both Ceres and Trillium Asset Management. Bavaria passed away last November.
The Bavaria Awards honor two types of leaders - a proven innovator and a long-term results-getter - in the effort to move capital markets from a focus on short-term profits toward a system that balances financial prosperity with social and environmental health.
A few highlights from Massie’s speeches and writing over the years:
“We are taught - falsely - that we must accept injustice because of the physical limits of the earth. We accept - wrongly - that what is defines what will be. We think that we are confined by our material conditions, but I believe that we are mostly hemmed in by our lack of dreams.”
“What transformations will be possible in the future? We will only find out if we dream the biggest possible dreams … If there is one motto that I would like you to write down and pin by your bedsides so that you see it every morning when you wake up, it is this: Reality follows ideas.”
“Every day we make choices that (either) support or suppress the moral immune systems of our society. Do we seek security, or do we seek justice? Do we blame, or do we forgive? Do we fear, or do we love? It will be up to you - and people like you - whether tomorrow’s inventions will be stolen by the cruel and the powerful - or employed to achieve prosperity and democracy for all.”
The Bavaria Impact Award honors an individual or organization whose work has created lasting change in moving capital markets from a short-term focus on profits toward a system that balances financial prosperity with social and environmental health.
The Innovation Award goes to a person or organization whose recent work has great potential in catalyzing markets to change their focus.
About Ceres:
Founded in 1989, Ceres is a leading coalition of investors, environmental groups and other nonprofit organizations working with companies to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. For more information, visit http://www.ceres.org
About Trillium:
Trillium Asset Management, founded by Joan Bavaria in 1982, is the oldest and largest independent investment management firm devoted exclusively to socially responsible investing. Her pioneering work there laid the groundwork for the tremendous growth and interest in the socially responsible investing industry today. For more information, visit http://www.trilliuminvest.com
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/bob-massie-wins-two-joan-bavaria-awards/.
- John ElkingtonAn Electrifying Announcement by the UK Government
Today the UK announced a new plan to get more people driving electric and electric-hybrid vehicles. In addition to providing up to £5,000 to motorists investing in this new technology, the government is also putting £20 million to build out the infrastructure that will enable citizens to charge their vehicles in public places.
Earlier this month, while walking through Berkley Square in Central London, I came across one of these charging stations and was intrigued by the design and functionality (as well as the bright green electric car which was ‘plugged in’). It is a tangible signal of things to come!
Stay tuned later this month, when the government is expected to unveil a programme that allows car owners to trade in their old cares to buy new ones.
For more information – check out this video from the BBC website Plug-in petrol-electric hybrid car
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/an-electrifying-announcement-by-the-uk-government/.
- Charmian LoveBrilliant move by Skoll
When I awoke this morning, several people, including Sally Osberg and Gail Taylor, had forwarded me links to the following news. Worth waking up for - and here’s some of the text from the Skoll media release.
“Jeff Skoll, founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation and Participant Media, has hired Dr. Larry Brilliant as president of a new organization Skoll is launching to address urgent threats confronting humanity and the planet. Brilliant will focus the new organization, the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, on identifying and supporting innovative high-impact initiatives to combat climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict. Brilliant will also serve as senior adviser to Skoll to ensure alignment of work on these urgent threats across Skoll’s business and philanthropic activities.
“Brilliant is renowned for his key role with the World Health Organization in eradicating smallpox from Asia. He was the founding executive director of Google.org, where he led the development of the innovative group’s strategy and, most recently, served as vice president of Google and chief philanthropy evangelist. His extensive knowledge and networks across a range of social and environmental issues will help him develop the strategy and partnerships to get the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund up and running quickly. Brilliant is familiar with Skoll’s vision for social and environmental change, having served on the Skoll Foundation board since 2007.
“‘Over the last few years, it has become increasingly apparent that humanity’s failure to address critical issues like climate change and nuclear proliferation aren’t just making these challenges more difficult; they’re putting life on the planet at risk,’ said Skoll. ‘This new organization is designed to make serious headway on these issues by identifying and supporting the most innovative initiatives and solutions out there. I can’t think of anyone better prepared to shape and lead this effort than Larry Brilliant.’
“’This is an extraordinary opportunity for me to bring my life’s work and experience to join with so many others who feel the urgency of the times to work on the most critical challenges facing us as global citizens,’ said Brilliant. ‘Jeff Skoll is a tremendously innovative proponent of social change, creating a unique, powerful and diverse set of both philanthropic and business tools to promote change. I look forward to working closely with him, the Skoll Foundation and his business ventures to make sure we’re as effective as we can be in changing course for our children’s future. I am also tremendously grateful to Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Sheryl Sandberg who were my first board of directors at Google.org for giving me the opportunity to work for Google.org and to learn so much from working at Google, one of the most remarkable companies in the world.’
“The Skoll Urgent Threats Fund will be a new organization, chaired by Skoll, with a mandate to identify and support initiatives, organizations and individuals driving large-scale change on these global challenges. The initial budget for the new initiative is $100 million, with additional funds available over time. Brilliant will build the new organization and develop its strategy and investment approach, leveraging the Skoll Foundation’s programmatic expertise and operating infrastructure in the process. Sally Osberg, CEO of the Skoll Foundation, will join Brilliant and Skoll on the board of the new entity.
“’In the Skoll Foundation’s 10 years of work, we have built a portfolio of outstanding social entrepreneurs, many of whom are attacking these urgent threats in highly innovative ways; this body of work will both benefit from and be a resource to the new Skoll Urgent Threats Fund and its activities,’ said Osberg. ‘Even for those social entrepreneurs focused on other arenas – poverty, human rights, institutional responsibility, health – the negative impact of these urgent threats makes their challenges a whole lot tougher. Clearly, these are mutually reinforcing ventures.’
“Skoll’s private company, Participant Media, produces movies such as An Inconvenient Truth and The Kite Runner and other content designed to inform and inspire audiences, with the goal of driving public engagement to make positive change. In addition, Skoll’s multi-billion dollar financial services firm, Capricorn Investment Group, brings a principled approach to its investment discipline. In his capacity as senior adviser to Skoll, Brilliant will seek opportunities to leverage these organizations and relationships to further drive positive change in the urgent threat areas.
“Brilliant served a three-year stint as the first executive director of Google.org, one of our Phoenix 50 organisations, the company’s philanthropic arm before becoming chief philanthropy evangelist for Google. He is an M.D. and M.P.H., board-certified in preventive medicine, epidemiology and public health. He was one of a four -person international team that led the successful World Health Organization smallpox eradication program in India and South Asia. He later founded the Seva Foundation of Berkeley, California, which works in dozens of countries around the world to eliminate preventable and curable blindness. Seva’s projects have given back sight to nearly 3 million people. Last year, Time magazine named Brilliant one of the 20 most influential scientists and thinkers and one of the 100 most influential people in the world
“Brilliant co-founded The Well, a pioneering virtual community, with Stewart Brand in 1985″ - whose work on The Whole Earth Catalog series had a huge effect on my own early thinking. ”He also holds a telecom systems patent and has served as CEO of public and venture-backed technology companies.
“Earlier in his career, he was a professor of international health and epidemiology at the University of Michigan. He has authored two books, including The Management of Smallpox Eradication in India, and dozens of scientific articles on infectious diseases, blindness, and international health policy. He is currently writing a book for Harper-Collins on the world’s most urgent threats and how to fight them.
“Also in 2008, Brilliant was given a Global Leadership Award by the United Nations Organization. In 2006, he received the TED Prize. He was named ‘International Public Health Hero’ by the University of California in 2004. Larry worked in India for WHO for more than 10 years, on smallpox, blindness and polio. His polio work for WHO led him to create the idea for a documentary, The Final Inch, which won an Oscar nomination in 2009 and is currently running on HBO TV.
“After the September 11 attacks and the anthrax bio-terror attacks which followed, Larry left corporate jobs to volunteer as a ‘first responder’ for CDC’s smallpox bio-terrorism response effort. After the Christmas 2004 Tsunami, Larry volunteered to work in refugee camps and personally collected and carried financial contributions to refugee organizations in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. He currently chairs a task force created by presidential directive, the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee. He was elected to membership in the Council on Foreign Relations in 2009. He sits on the boards of The Skoll Foundation, Health Metrics Network, and Omidyar Networks Humanity United.”
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/brilliant-move-by-skoll/.
- John ElkingtonElectrifying: Volans runs ‘Evergreen’ session at 2009 Skoll World Forum
One highly experienced delegate said it was the best workshop session he had ever attended. It was short, just 1.5 hours, but to a number of participants it clearly felt like a breakthrough demonstration of ecosystem thinking and of new ways of thinking about scale.
The setting was the 2009 Skoll World Forum at Oxford University’s Säid Business School. For our session, we decided to focus on a sector with huge challenges — and even greater opportunities: the shift towards more sustainable forms of urban transport, specifically the development and deployment of new forms of electric mobility.
The reputation of the Forum helped us bring together some of the world’s leading pioneers in the field: Nancy Kete of EMBARQ, Josh Steinmann of Better Place, Peter Head of Arup and Ion Yadigaroglu ofCapricorn Investment Group, all profiled in The Phoenix Economy.
Pathways to Scale
The session, which attracted a capacity audience of well over 100 participants, explored Pathways to Scalefor a range of sustainable mobility solutions. Our panelists discussed their work, their ambitions, and key obstacles to achieving the scale of change to which they aspire. They reflected on how to move their ‘Enterprises’ to create ‘Ecosystems’ of solutions providers and enablers, which our 5-stage model identifies as Stage 4.
Some highlights:
- Revolutionary business models such as those being evolved by Shai Agassi’s Better Place may be on the brink of reinventing the car industry. Just as business models in the cell phone sector are built around the purchasing of ‘airtime’ rather than of phones, Better Place’s network of battery-swap stations has separated the ownership of the car, from the ownership of the battery, enabling drivers to purchase ‘miles’. The model requires the support of governments and the private sector for it to work, a reason why offering win-win deals to other stakeholders within an ecosystem approach is so essential to these pioneers. So far, the Governments from Israel, Denmark, Australia, and the US states of California and Hawaii have made early commitments to the model, backed by public and private finance. Early commitments by the automaker Renault-Nissan have added to the momentum. Significantly, the car batteries potentially become distributed storage units for clean electricity. In Israel, they will store excess power from the growing solar industry, while in Denmark they will store unutilized wind energy.
- Nancy Kete explained how EMBARQ’s investment of $16 million has focused on creating ecosystems where both national and city governments work together with the private sector in public transport projects. These ecosystems have in turn leveraged an estimated $886 million in additional infrastructure investments and well as increased the much-needed political will of city governments to back public transport reform.
- “There is a profound need to connect up the public sector’s planning for sustainable transport solutions that are not only exciting but can actually happen” argued Peter Head of Arup. He leads Arup’s sustainability practice, and is one of the masterminds behind the blueprint for the world’s first zero carbon city in China, Dongtan. “The core problem,” he added, “is the lack of integrated thinking, especially in city design policies.” The solution, for Arup, lies in developing an ‘open source’ system for city modeling, where different professionals, from designers, environmentalists, engineers, anthropologists, and policy-makers, can collaborative assemble the design of a sustainable city.
Building Ecosystems
It soon became apparent to everyone that this conversation was itself the demonstration of an Ecosystem:
- “We need these decision tools,” interjected Nancy, “but we also need more people understanding the political and economic incentives that govern these policy systems.” EMBARQ’s bus rapid system in Istanbul is tackling the deep ‘mobility divide’ that grows as the city expands faster than its precarious public transport system. The new solution, implemented in a public-private partnership with the city government, carries 350.000 passengers a day swiftly across the Istanbul bridge. Based on EMBARQ’s experience in dealing with city governments, Nancy is versed in the politics of sustainable transport and has knowledge on how to promote the political incentives needed for the adoption of new transport blueprints.
- Crucial insights came from Ion Yadigaroglu from Capricorn Investment, which supports start-up companies designing electric cars, such as Tesla Motors and TH!NK. He expressed an interest in looking into investment opportunities in public sector transport, an area which—he argued—can be overlooked by new venture capital firms. Various panelists spoke of underground or metro systems as one of the best investments that cities can make in terms of a sustainable future.
Interestingly, partnerships began to form before eyes as the session continued:
- Arup and EMBARQ agreed to explore how to collaborate to advance this combination of open source modeling and political incentives around sustainable transport solutions.
- A workshop participant from Acumen Fund India spotlighted the transport challenge that EMBARQ had addressed as one he experiences in ensuring the delivery of medicines to hospitals in India. And so EMBARQ and Acumen Fund India agreed to explore how to work together to link transport solutions and health systems more effectively.
Next Steps
Overall, the session provided an eye- and mind-opening opportunity to discuss the magnitude of the transport problem, which involves moving people as well as moving all the products and materials that make up our economy. As the world heads to a predicted human population of 9 billion by 2050, most of whom are expected to live in cities, the intelligent design and management of cities and, especially, of public transport systems, will be increasingly critical. Private electric cars may be winning the spotlight at the moment, but their future needs to be discussed alongside that of public transport systems.
That said, we have been taking a growing interest in the potential of the nascent electric car industry. One concern here has been the cost of batteries. Lithium-ion battery manufacturers like BYD in China (also profiled in our Phoenix 50) are quickly moving to the production of electric cars, while prospects for the large-scale supply of lithium potentially reshuffles the future wealth of nations. As we’ve discussed elsewhere, 50% of the world’s lithium is found in Bolivia, which already nurses ambitions to become the next Saudi Arabia –with a potentially worrying nationalistic outlook on the future of the lithium industry.
Governments will be called upon to play an increasingly central role in shaping both energy and mobility markets through targeted investments, incentives, partnerships and regulations. But to do so effectively, at the speed and the scale that is required, they will need to operate in fundamentally new ways –what we’ve described as the ‘Government-as-Unsual’ agenda in our Phoenix Manifesto.
Volans will explore such challenges and related solutions at a series of major conferences through 2009, where the lessons learned at the Skoll World Forum will be applied –and we commit to post further updates as the program moves forward.
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/electrifying/.
- Alejandro LitovskyNow Volans is One
At the end of a session at which I spoke at on 1 April at Home House, Portman Square, with some 80 Harvard Business School alumni and guests, the lights went down - and it transpired that Charmian (Love, our COO and also an HBS almunus) had ordered a birthday cake. Delicious - and moving moment as the entire audience sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Volans.
Now we were 1
The address for this blog entry is: http://www.volans.com/2009/04/now-volans-is-one/.
- John Elkington