The Altiplano
‘I don’t know where to start.’ Is my diary entry after my first day in the Bolivian Altiplano. It went on: ‘Laguna Blanca, Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorado, The Dali Desert, The Stone Tree, fumaroles. Driving across desert on non-existent roads, plumes of dust behind us. Wildlife everywhere, when you know where to look’. The Atacama Desert was the other major ...
Chile’s Forests
It is good to get back out into forests. And not just speaking as a forester! I spend a fair amount of time working on nature and biodiversity, and when viewed from a screen it is too easy to fall into a sort of siege mentality. It is understandable really; global analyses show declining levels of biodiversity, planetary boundaries being ...
José Lopez: In his own words
Below is the text of a book I produced, with the help of a few colleagues, on the retirement of José Lopez from Nestlé in 2015. I had joined Nestlé in 2010 and found myself in meetings with José where I would be writing down some of his 'one liners'. After a while I discovered colleagues were doing the same; ...
Keep on Keeping On? (Part I)
The header photo is the steelworks at IJmuiden in the Netherlands, on its way to producing carbon-neutral steel. In 26 years from now. Yet today the image is one of voluminous gases turning the sky dark, with wind turbines dotted around it... Past and future in one shot. There is more if you look carefully. Kite surfers are enjoying the ...
Keeping On Keeping On! (Part II)
Keeping on Keeping On! The title of Part I purposefully had a question mark in the title. Today’s sustainability efforts are delivering progressive incremental improvement across a range of issues and impacts. Companies can tout their progress, customers feel reassured, and governments can point to the market working. Yet doggedly keeping on the current path is not the way forward ...
