Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement

1. The Science and Science Fiction of Thriving with John Elkington

June 05, 2022 Wayne Visser Season 1 Episode 1
Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement
1. The Science and Science Fiction of Thriving with John Elkington
Show Notes

My guest in this week's inaugural episode, launched on World Environment Day 2022, is John Elkington, Founder and Chief Pollinator at Volans, author of Green Swans and widely hailed thought leader in the global sustainability movement. Listen to him talk about:
- Why he withdrew the triple bottom line (the 3Ps of people, planet, profit) 25 years after introducing it -- and then added 3Rs (you'll have to listen to find out what they are)
- Why he gave up science when he was 14 -- and then went on to write for New Scientist magazine
- Why he thinks we are still failing to grasp systems thinking -- and how nature may be our best teacher
- What he has learned about sustainability and thriving from science fiction -- and why Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future" may be prophetic
- Why hope is our most precious commodity, and why sustainability has to be fun, engaging, educational and rewarding -- or else it's simply not going to work

In the episode, the following books are mentioned:
- Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism, by John Elkington
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas Kuhn
- Holism and Evolution, by Jan Smuts
- Dune, by Frank Herbert
- Mars, by Andy Weir
- The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson
- The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi
- Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement to Regenerate Nature, Society and the Economy, by Wayne Visser

Key links:
John Elkington (LinkedIn)
John Elkington (website)
Volans (website)
SustainAbility (website)
Thriving (poem)
Thriving (book)
Wayne Visser (website)
Wayne Visser (LinkedIn)