Briefing No. 22 - Christmas Edition
WHAT WE'RE READING
On the Greenwood Place bedside table
IMPACT: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change
In IMPACT, Sir Ronald Cohen, philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor and social innovator, argues that impact needs to become a commonplace attribute of a company’s performance. Overthrowing the tyranny of profit and placing impact by its side, to keep it in check, says Cohen, is both possible and critical to our ability to improve lives and protect the planet at scale and at speed.
FROM MORAL TO MARKET SENTIMENTS
Why is it that the things we value the most – from frontline nurses to the natural environment to keeping children well fed and educated – seem of little importance to economic markets?
In the 2020 Reith Lectures, Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, examines how economic value and social values have become blurred, how we went from living in a market economy to a market society, and how we can rethink and rebuild.
PLANTING TREES IN FREETOWN
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, is on a mission to plant 1 million trees over the next two years, increasing vegetation in her city by fifty percent while shoring up eroding riverbanks and increasing biodiversity.
"This isn't just about planting trees; it's about growing trees, and it's about ensuring that each one of us is part of the process."
THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL VALUES
What do we care about? Some values appear to be consistently important everywhere on earth, whilst the importance of others varies.
COMMANDING HOPE
In Commanding Hope: The Power We Have to Renew a World in Peril, Author Thomas Homer-Dixon calls on his extraordinary knowledge of how complex societies work and adapt to show how we can mobilise human spirit and imagination to shift civilization onto a new path. He argues that our greatest current danger as a species is that we lose faith in our ability to build a positive future. Hope is our most important asset. Thank you to David Bonbright for the recommendation.
GIRL POWER - KAZAKH STYLE
Nomadic life on the plains of western Mongolia is difficult. The men of the Kazakh population who call this harsh but beautiful environment home, have been hunting with eagles to put food on the table in the frigid winter months for 6,000 years.
Beautifully shot, the Eagle Huntress tells the story of Aisholpan, thirteen years old and confident in her own ability, who convinces her father to teach her the ways of eagle hunting. A long lineage of men precedes her. We will be watching Aisholpan’s journey with our families this Christmas.
CIRCULAR CITIES
We recommended Kate Raworth’s book, Doughnut Economics, way back in Briefing No. 4. And we have been following how her thinking has been adopted by farsighted leaders globally. In this year’s Royal Society of Arts lecture, Raworth discusses how pioneering city leaders are combining local aspirations with global responsibility and sets out a roadmap for shaping cities that thrive in balance with humanity and with the planet.
FROM THE GREENWOOD PLACE COMMUNITY
Congratulations to the A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation, winners of the 2020 Lloyd's List Greek Shipping Sustainability Award for the Typhoon Project.
Last Mile Health's stunning 2020 Impact Report sums up some of the highs and lows faced by community health workers this year. Do read it.
AND FINALLY...
The Greenwood Place team is looking forward to a different kind of party this year. We booked an online cooking class with Migrateful. They run cookery classes led by migrant chefs struggling to integrate and access employment due to legal and linguistic barriers. Find out more about Migrateful here.