I was in Zurich this week. Embarrassingly I had to fly rather than train due to cost (£150 flights vs £400 trains). The carbon offset for this strikes me as far too cheap (at £8 only). Zurich struck me as a wealthy thriving happy city.

Outside the office of a large Swiss insurer I spotted this. And it’s one of the reasons I am hopeful because “smart cities” design can have a big impact.

Combining that with a small number of policies in 7 countries would impact half the problem. And in 20 countries 75% of the problem. This is some of the evidence behind Thinking Bigly.

In London, I attended for a time one of  the largest Responsible Investor conferences and met a few companies. Lots of new faces along with many old timers, some back for the first time in years. Still virtually no practicing portfolio fund managers in the room. Hmmm.  

The growth of the conference is telling. Has the conversation moved on ?  In some ways, it has. In many ways, it has not. And in that observation, in my view it reflects the wider trends in business and society.  Still lots of committed smart people. Made me think of my over 15 year efforts in RI and what we’ve achieved or not achieved.