My Green Life (May21)
When I was a baby my brother painted me green.. Perhaps a sign of what was to come. And the start of my Zoom speech on ‘My Green Life’. I also talk about: Setting up SustainAbility Ltd, with John Elkington, in 1987 The global success of ‘The Green Consumer Guide’, published in 1988 Becoming a […]
Net zero is not good enough or soon enough! (May21)
I consider myself to be a pragmatic environmentalist – with realistic aspirations. But I find that I’m very uncomfortable about the clamour for the Net zero target – by 2050, 2030 or even sooner. Why? Because: It’s possible to do more: Many businesses are setting their sights on ‘net zero’ when they could quite easily […]
Peat in compost is environmental vandalism (Mar21)
That’s what Monty Don says and I agree. But it’s incredibly common. UK gardeners are responsible for destroying our ‘rainforests’. It has to stop and we can make it happen. OK, so why is this such a big deal? First and perhaps most importantly, peatlands are essential in our fight against climate change. Whilst they […]
Clover Hogan is a Force of Nature (Mar21)
If you haven’t come across Clover, have a look at her most recent Ted Talk below – Denial or Despair? How to rewrite your climate change story. Clover is 21. I met her a year ago at a Procter & Gamble advisory meeting, just before Covid struck. I was totally bowled over. She’s incredibly impressive […]
Farmers Must STOP Killing Earth (Dec20)
Why are most rivers brown or red? A soupy earthy colour. It’s because they are draining the life blood of our planet away – soil. It’s crumbling, melting and disintegrating into the water and being swept out to sea, never to return. It has to stop. It’s disastrous. And there’s a better way… I remember […]
Green Consumer Compilation – TV Clips with Julia Hailes from 1988-90
Many people will be surprised to know how much interest there was about green consumerism in the late 80s and early 1990s. It was kicked off by the publication of The Green Consumer Guide, co-authored by myself and John Elkington, in 1988. The book had 11 print runs in the first month, shot to the […]
Scorched earth in Sicily (Oct20)
What a beautiful time of year to come to this island perched on Italy’s toe. We were lucky to have clear blue skies and the trees were turning gold. One of the most striking things about the island is the number of wind turbines on nearly every horizon. I rather like them both visually and […]
ANIMALS TURN HUMAN…(May20)
A role reversal. Imagine humans behaved like animals and vice versa. What would we think about our homes being destroyed, our oceans poisoned and our forests being hacked? This video does the imagining for us. It shows human’s petrified on a shrinking ice block, whilst polar bears sit in offices and wheel trolleys through over-stocked […]
How Covid-19 is Changing the world (Apr20)
The Covid Crisis is sowing the seeds of division – young vs old, local vs incomers, poor vs rich etc. People are worried that we’ll never get ‘back to normal’ whilst others are wondering if that’s actually desirable. And, there’s also concern that the impacts of crashing the economy may even outweigh the terrible toll of the virus. However, there are positive initiatives too. I thought it would be interesting to look at some examples of what different organisations are thinking and doing…..
COVID 19 MAY BE THE BOILING FROG WE NEED (MAR20)
I remember referring to the boiling frogs analogy in speeches about 20 years ago. Some of you may remember that it was used by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth to help us understand why the world is not doing enough to avert calamitous climate change. If you put a frog into a pan of […]
I’m feeding my dog insects! (Apr19)
The brilliant thing about this is that it’s better for the planet – and apparently good nutritionally too. And, Rex loves them. The main insect ingredient comes from soldier fly grubs, which are reared in high tech vertical farms and fed on vegetable matter – and they grow to full size in just 14 days. […]
Watching ‘Blue’ made people angry (Dec18)
It was difficult to decide which part of the film made me more angry. High on the the list were the scenes cutting the fins from living sharks and throwing them back into the sea. I think the film said that 60 million sharks are killed for their fins each year – but looking it […]