Briefing No. 25

What we’re reading

On the Greenwood Place bedside table

'The Ministry of the Future’, Kim Stanley Robinson's plausible, chaotic, and hopeful novel about how the climate crisis could play out, is probably the most powerful and original book on climate change we’ve read. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us – and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face. Thank you to the EarthPercent team for recommending it.

Boy on Fire

“Find your authentic voice and push violently and defiantly against your limitations - and you never know, great things may happen. I hope they do.” Nick Cave on creativity, and the bloody-minded pursuit of vision.

Designing for Scale: Greenwood Place on Youtube

Sonal and Rebecca were delighted to join with three members of the Greenwood Place’s community - Andrew Bastawrous, Pankaj Sharma and Sasha Fisher - for what turned out to be an inspirational discussion of the journey to outsize social impact. If you’re interested in Greenwood Place’s philosophy, our processes, or the partnerships we’ve built, this is a great introduction.

New Constellations

For millennia, across cultures and continents, we have looked to the stars to navigate when we are lost. Celestial bodies have exerted a magnetic pull over our lives and imaginations. In this era of transformation, the New Constellations team argue, we are locked onto old stars that are pulling us in a perilous direction. We need to discover new stars, new possibilities, and reset our course.   

Their podcasts are beautifully edited dialogues with thinkers, artists and social change-makers. They’re unlike anything we’ve heard before. We love them.

Closing the Distance

In April, many of the Greenwood Place community dialled into the Skoll Foundation’s second virtual Skoll World Forum, with the theme “Closing the Distance.”

All the sessions can now be found online - but let us know if you’d like us to share our curated list of highlights. It’s also worth checking out the Skoll Foundation’s evolved strategy - the new route they are taking to transformational social change in this time of heightened urgency.

Carbon Sequestration, Biodiversity, Flood Management: The many Benefits of Trees on Farms

A near future of climatic changes is one reason Henry Andrews has added 5,000 trees to his 120-acre beef cattle farm. Improving the health of his animals is another motivation. “We’ve forgotten what our forebears used to do,” he says. “Silvopasture was a huge part of farming. We relied on hedgerows to provide shelter. They got ripped out for larger fields to try to be progressive but in hindsight it was regressive.”

The World is a Mountain

'The world is a mountain. Whatever you say, it will echo it back to you. Don't say, "I sang nicely and the mountain echoed an ugly voice!" That is not possible.’ - Rumi

Upcoming Events

Our next Greenwood Place Roundtable is tomorrow, 18th May. Clean energy visionaries Amar Inamdar and Bill Nussey will join us to discuss what they are doing as leaders and investors, to bring about a green transition. Let us know if you’d like to join.

Greta Cowan is joining us for a very special storytelling workshop on 8th June.

And…We are planning the next Greenwood Place Community Trip, IRL, in the UK this September. We will be in touch with all our clients about this over the next few days - or do call us for details.

AND FINALLY…

If you would like to talk to us about how to help those working on the front-line of Covid in India right now, or how to deal with the longer term social and economic fall-out of this global pandemic, or the opportunities it presents to protect and restore our shared environment, please call us.