Awards
Celebrating The Pioneers
Our Green Swan change agenda was first spotlighted on Green Swan Day, hosted by Volans on June 23 2019. Then, in January 2020, at the first Tomorrow’s Capitalism Forum (see above), we announced inaugural Green Swan Awards for Earth Day founder Denis Hayes, Conservation Without Borders founder Sacha Dench, and Eden Project founder Sir Tim Smit. Tim joined us by video link, while Sacha turned up in person with her paramotor – and got a standing ovation. The Awards themselves were designed by well-known sculptor Nicola Godden. We are now also pondering an Ugly Duckling Award, to spotlight potentially breakthrough solutions to some of the world’s most taxing problems.
The Green Swan Awards go to pioneers who do apparently impossible things – somehow making them seem inevitable.
Awards
Green Swan Awards 2020
The Green Swans agenda was heralded by the first Green Swans Day, held on June 23, 2019. The event was filmed by one of our partners, Atlas of the Future, and their coverage is available here.
Green Swans Book Club
Welcome to the exploding universe of books focused on creating positive exponential shifts (Green Swans). Each month, we invite a brilliant person, at the forefront of some aspect…
GREEN SWAN AWARDS
The Green Swan Awards go to pioneers who do impossible things – and, in the process, manage to make them seem inevitable.
The Spirit of Regeneration
This larger-than-life-size statue of Sir Peter Scott, which stands outside the London Wetland Centre, was also created by Nicola Godden. Our first Green Swan Day, in June 2019, was held at the Centre – partly in its Observatory, overlooking a waterscape populated by abundant waterfowl, including swans. Sir Peter masterminded the wildly ambitious regeneration project that turned four vast reservoirs into interlinked habitats for wildlife.
Sacha Dench, founder, Conservation Without Borders
Known as the “Human Swan,” Sacha Dench is a pilot with a mission: “Connecting Science, People & Planet”. Her groundbreaking expedition, Flight of the Swans, involved flying 7,000 kilometres, powered by paramotor, in all weathers, from Arctic Russia across 11 countries to the UK – to help draw attention to the plight of the Bewick’s swan. In the process, she has dramatized how nature is often blind to boundaries that mean so much to humans. She plans to fly around the British coast ahead of the COP26 climate summit in November 2021.
Denis Hayes, founder, Earth Day
In 1970, the first Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans, 10% of the total population at the time, to take to the streets in demonstrations to protect the planet. Under Founder Denis Hayes’s pioneering stewardship, the global influence of the Earth Day movement has only continued to blossom over time. Celebrating the milestone of its 50th anniversary on April 22nd 2020, Earth Day encompasses more than 190 participating countries and is the biggest secular event in the world’s annual calendar.
Sir Tim Smit, founder, The Eden Project
The Eden Project transformed a vast china clay pit in Cornwall into a world class attraction and hub that has introduced sustainability thinking and practices to over 20 million visitors – in the process injecting over £1.5 billion into the regional economy. Truly, a masterwork in regenerative capitalism. Green Swans because it powerfully illustrates the original intent of the triple bottom line – an integrated, systemic approach to economic, social and environmental value creation.
Help us showcase and support tomorrow’s Regenerators
