I don’t know about you, but the closest I ever got to a Rubik’s Cube, shortly after it was first launched in 1974, was to handle one in a toy store. For me, it seemed insoluble – and many assumed it was, until persistent cubers discovered not just one way to crack the puzzle, but many. And the cube came to mind as I thought recently about the astonishingly complex global security challenge we now face…

How do you sum up someone who has played the role of an affectionate, wise, provocative and sometimes disconcerting guardian angel?

Disconcerting first.

Many years ago, in 1996, I asked Geoffrey to become a founding member of the SustainAbility Council, a role he would play with typical zest and fascination for many years. But his eagle eye picked out the one flaw in perhaps a hundred terms and names that we had had painted around the tops of the office walls.

I had asked every team members to name ten things that they thought summed up SustainAbility—and someone had come up with the giant redwood, which they had rendered as Sequoia gigantea, which he insisted should be giganteum. Having checked Wikipedia, it also looks as if he might have been saying Sequoiadendron giganteum.

Democracy and sustainability are twin agendas - but U.S. politics must be turned inside out to achieve Al Gore's vision

John Elkington, SustainAbility founder and Chief Entrepreneur, blogs from the World Economic Forum.

John Elkington, SustainAbility founder and Chief Entrepreneur, blogs from the World Economic Forum

John Elkington, SustainAbility founder and Chief Entrepreneur, blogs from the World Economic Forum...

John Elkington's closing thoughts from the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China.

The two top issues at the ‘New Champions’ summit in Dalian, have been entrepreneurialism and social responsibility.

Having written for the Encyclopaedia Britannica many moons ago, and having been paid in a set of volumes...

By far the most engaging session I sat in on today was by Jerry Linenger. A former NASA astronaut...

Had breakfast this morning with Frances Cairncross, now Rector of Exeter College, Oxford...

After my SlimCity session yesterday, I have been wondering whether I took a wrong turn in the 1970s...

I managed to squeak my way in to a second session in the WorkSpace this afternoon, called ‘Building a Sustainable Compan

One of the more extraordinary people I talked to at this evening’s WEF Gala Soiree was Maurice Strong...

John Elkington reflects on the speech by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Dalian.

Once upon a time, they used to say that when General Motors sneezed America caught a cold. These days...

Opening remarks from John Elkington ahead of the inaugural annual meeting of the the "New Champions"

On the first panel I moderated today, on green technology, was Zhang Yue, Chairman & CEO of Broad Air Conditioning...

John Elkington looks back on 2005 as the Year of China...