Between the wars, the spirit of flying was kept alive by “flying circuses,” with veteran pilots astounding the public with their barnstorming antics. As I flew back from Washington D.C. recently, traveling circuses were very much on my mind. The main reason was that I had just been part of one: as Seb Beloe and I joined our U.S. team to launch SustainAbility's latest report, “The 21st Century NGO,” and pay flying visits to a number of NGOs.

But there was another reason, too: I had recently received a series of emails from a Dutch colleague, Godert van Hardenbroek of Formula Zero. His goal is to use hydrogen-powered Formula 1 and go-kart vehicles to promote emission-free racing and, ultimately, the Hydrogen Economy.

First, though, the NGO (nongovernmental organization) report. We launched the report at the HQ of the International Finance Corporation, one of the supporters of our NGO research and of last year’s “Developing Value” report.

The event was attended by a wide range of NGOs and the reaction was extremely positive. Our timing, it turned out, was extraordinary:
  • One major U.S. NGO -- the million-member Nature Conservancy -- has been at the epicenter of a governance controversy stirred by a series of explosive exposé articles in The Washington Post. We visited them the day before the launch, to get a handle on some of the issues they now face.

  • Then there was the launch of a new NGO-unfriendly Web site by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.

  • And, too, there was Naomi Klein’s article on what she describes as the Bush Administration’s “war on NGOs.” The gist of her argument is clear in the first couple of lines of her article in the June 20, 2003, edition of Canada’s The Globe and Mail, reproduced on TOMPAINE.com: “The Bush Administration has found its next target for pre-emptive war, but it’s not Iran, Syria or North Korea -- not yet, anyway. Before launching any new foreign adventures, the Bush gang has some homeland housekeeping to take care of: It is going to sweep up those pesky NGOs that are helping to turn world opinion against U.S. bombs and brands.”
It is a key part of the role of activist NGOs to champion early-stage and often difficult-to-absorb issues. As a result, they frequently end up sounding like doomsayers. True, many have become more solutions-oriented in recent years, but our assessment is that there is still a long way to go. And that, potentially, is where Godert and his Formula Zero antics fit in.

Shell recently ran an ad campaign linking sustainability themes with Formula 1 racing. But Godert and his colleagues plan to take things a stage further. Recognizing that many people who sympathize with the CSR or SD agendas also like a bit of fun and excitement, and that many who don’t get these agendas might connect if the issues were presented in more enticing ways, the Formula Zero team plan a new class of racing, using cars powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology. Although this will be an “open class,” encouraging all sorts of entrants, one rule is unbreakable: all vehicles must produce “zero emissions.”

This may take a while to get off the ground, so in the meantime Formula Zero are planning "traveling circus" demonstration races in Europe, using zero-emissions go-karts built by Ballard Power Systems AG. As one Dutch racing driver put it: “Wouldn’t it be great to get the same thrill from a hydrogen car driving past as you get from a Ferrari?” Why, yes, it would.

Don’t expect the checkered flag to come down on a hydrogen-fueled Ferrari any time soon, but I love the Formula Zero idea. It is exactly the sort of “stealth” campaigning leading NGOs should be experimenting with.

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John Elkington is cofounder and chairman of SustainAbility, a sustainable development business consultancy based in the U.K.