Tellus Mater Foundation

Tellus Mater is co-funding a new initiative designed to spotlight the need for breakthrough capitalism, based on new forms of wealth creation that value and manage multiple capitals—physical, financial, human, social and natural, among others.  Other funders include the Generation Foundation, and HP.  Led by John Elkington of Volans, the program is being developed by a group of organisations, including The Value Web.

The program kicked off with a 50-person workshop co-hosted with The Spring Project on 17 April — and the results are available on the dedicated Breakthrough Capitalism website.

The next step focuses on a major Breakthrough Capitalism Forum to be held at the King's Place Conference Centre on 29 May.  Beyond that, work is already under way on organising a Breakthrough learning journey of London and, separately, an eBook on Breakthrough Capitalism, to be published later in 2012.

Based in London and Singapore, Volans was founded in 2008 by people who had previously worked with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, SustainAbility and the World Economic Forum.  Volans is a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, innovation and entrepreneurship movements.  Its publications include The Phoenix Economy: 50 Pioneers in the Business of Social Innovation (2009), The Future Quotient: 50 Stars in Seriously Long-Term Innovation (2011) and, due out in May, The Zeronauts: Breaking the Sustainability Barrier (Earthscan/Taylor & Francis).

Dear Friends of Tellus Mater:

We are pleased to update you on the progress of the Tellus Mater strategic review and our focus areas for 2012 and beyond. Tellus Mater is currently carrying out a strategic review and determining our focus areas for 2012 and beyond.  Thank you to all of you who have contributed to our process!

As a result of the many conversations that we have had, we have decided that we can add the most value and make the greatest impact through market based interventions that support the long-term preservation of natural capital. Within this area we will support initiatives that promote integrated reporting, sustainable capitalism, long-term thinking, resilience, cross sectoral dialogue and leadership. Initially, we will do this through a few key partnerships that bring together thought leaders in new and innovative ways.

2012 will be a transition year for us as we look to ramp up our efforts in this new focus area. Going forward all of our work will be aimed at supporting collaborative partnerships, leadership and systemic solutions. We will be concentrating on a small number of grants, getting highly involved with those we do support and looking to ensure that we leverage all of our resources to make our programs and partners a success.

As part of our new focus area, we are proud to be supporting Volans in the Breakthrough Capitalism TEDx Conference in May and Investor Watch in its Carbon Tracker research on coal.

Over the coming months, we will consider adding a small number of additional targeted interventions to this ecosystem, hoping to learn as we go and form partnerships that accelerate the adoption of market based solutions for ensuring that the planet's nature capital is not irrevocably damaged.

Thank you again for your support and patience in this process, and we look forward to working with you in this exciting new area!

Kind regards,

Jamie Arbib and Kelly Clark

Supported by the Tellus Mater Foundation, the Sheila McKechnie Foundation has opened the application process for the 2011 Environmental Campaigner Award. This award is for campaigners working to provide sustainable solutions to the environmental problems we face locally, nationally and globally. The award committee is particularly interested in applicants who are forward-thinking and have cutting-edge ideas that might change the rules of the game. To apply for an SMK Campaigner Award you need to complete and submit an application by 1pm on Monday 20th June 2011.

Carbon Leapfrog is hosting the first Creating Low Carbon Communities conference at the Guildhall in London on 21 March to provide the key steps and know-how for community-based projects to raise capital for local renewable power projects. Combining keynote speeches and case-study presentations with practical seminars and training sessions, workshops will highlight the array of professional support available to help community-based projects overcome any obstacles they may face.

A joint IUCN and Carbon Leapfrog conference: 'The Economics of Nature: taking stock, sharing action' was held on Thursday 16th November 2010 at City Point, London to engage actors from across the banking, legal, and insurance industries. The conference looked at the financial, legal, and environmental issues related to meeting the global challenges of the recent TEEB report on the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity. A link to the conference programme is available, along with a very interesting short film of the key outcomes of the day produced by Footprint TV.

Volans Ventures launched a cutting-edge report on the Biosphere Economy, to examine innovations and new business models responding to global ecological overshoot and changing the way business, investors, and governments value and manage natural capital. Launched on the 22-23 April to an audience of business leaders at the Business 4 Environment conference in Seoul, the report maps a future in which business, finance and politics increasingly take account of natural capital and related forms of value.

The Finance Innovation Lab is a network of professionals hosted by WWF-UK and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to advance cutting-edge ideas for a financial system that creates economic, social and environmental value. This partnership for change brings together a diverse range of institutions and individuals from business, finance, government and civil society to incubate new projects and initiatives to shift finance to a more sustainable, long-term path. At the launch workshop on 26 March in London, over 110 representatives took part, resulting in a series of innovation groups focused on designing and resourcing new initiatives to take action on specific finance themes.

Green Alliance launched its report The Last Parliament outlining priorities for urgent action on climate change. Funded by Tellus Mater, the report identifies the new Parliament in 2010 as the last window of opportunity to prevent serious, irreversible climate change.

Green Alliance has held two successful climate change workshops with Prospective Parliamentary MPs from the Labour and Conservative parties. The Climate Leadership for Politicians pilot, seed funded by Tellus Mater, has the objective to provide a neutral learning context in which rising Parliamentary leaders can have access to experts from the science, policy, business and finance sectors.

Envision has had another successful year, with the focus on development and expansion of its sustainability work with young people in London, Birmingham and Leeds. An exciting and rewarding "Pitch 4 Change" event was held for the second time in London, where hundreds of young people had the opportunity to pitch their ideas for positive change to a panel of business and community leaders.

The Wilderness Foundation UK Sirius Programme for Environmental Leaders completed a second successful year. This opportunity provides young people with an almost fully funded trail in Scotland where the participants, together with leaders from the WFUK and highly trained and experienced guides explore the impact that we have on the environment. The Sirius trail was followed up at a conference for youth leaders in November, where key and current thinkers in the environment field discussed climate change and other issues.

LEAD International has announced its first group of Tellus Mater Scholarship recipients who will join the LEAD Europe Programme in London, Brussels and Beijing to focus on leadership and climate change. The outstanding group of 10 scholarship winners is made up of talented individuals from across the finance, policy-making, government and business sectors.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust's Trailblazer Project held its first film premiere event at the Mitchell & Kenyon Cinema in Preston. The evening was a chance for the students involved in the project to showcase the environmental films they have produced and to celebrate the achievements of the participants during the first year of the project.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust™s Trailblazer Project held its first Eco Dragons™ Den on Earth Day supported by the Tellus Mater Foundation. A panel of Eco Dragons made up of local businesspeople and environmental leaders saw students pitching for a total of £8000 in prizes to support their local environmental projects.

Envision hosted its first Environmental Dragons' Den on 11 December 2008 at BASH Creations sustainable venue in Shoreditch, East London with support from the Tellus Mater Foundation. Eleven teams of young people from schools across London competed for prize money of up to £1,000 each to realise their vision for sustainable action in their community.

Envision, a charity supported by the Tellus Mater Foundation, has won a prestigious Guardian Charity Award. The awards showcase innovation and excellence by highlighting remarkable achievements that have been made with limited resources.

The Lancashire Wildlife Trust, with support from the Tellus Mater Foundation, has launched its Trailblazer programme targeting the environmental leaders of the future by engaging them in a series of challenges for local environmental action.

The Wilderness Foundation UK hosted its inaugural Wild Leaders Conference on 22 November 2008 at the Club4Climate venue in Kings Cross, London. The conference brought together young leaders and inspirational outdoor guides, environmental activists and social entrepreneurs to focus on how to take practical action to support the environment.