Victor Magazine - The Future Issue 2022

#flywithpurpose • #beyondoffset

With a new dawn offering the opportunity for a major reset, how can we change the world with positive and lasting results?

THE GOLDEN PASS

ELECTRIC DREAMS

WHAT TO DO IN 22

Citizenships worth investing in

Opening the skies to

22 unmissable places and

for business or lifestyle

battery-powered flight

experiences for the year ahead

THINK A CENTURY AHEAD Each decanter is the life achievement of generations of Cellar Masters.

www.LOUISXIII-cognac.com

Please Enjoy Responsibly

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Guest contributors

CONTRIBUTORS

VICTOR

Boyd Farrow; Chris Beanland; Claire Wrathall; Farzana Ali; Hannah Sharratt; Jake Townsend; James Farley; Julia Zaltzman; Rick Jordan; Shaney Hudson; Simon Brooke

NEW YORK Tel: +1 877 275 9336 1216 Broadway, 3rd Floor New York NY 10001

Managing Editor Rachel Ingram

Imagery COVER: © Science Photo Library NASA/NOAA / Getty Images

John Arlidge Writing for the Sunday Times, John Arlidge has interviewed and profiled some of the world’s most prominent business leaders. Based in London, he is a Fellow of the Orwell Prize for Journalism.

Simon Brooke Simon Brooke writes about the luxury sector, business and finance, wealth management, e-commerce and marketing and communications for The Times, The Financial Times and The Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph.

Rachel Ingram Writing for Forbes, Rachel Ingram specialises in the luxury sector, yachting and aviation. A former editor of Tempus Magazine, she’s also a freelance editor and consultant working on various projects across the luxury industry.

Jan Masters Jan Masters is a former editor of Harrods Magazine and over the years, has contributed to many titles including Elle and Vogue Japan. In another life, she would have preferred to be an explorer or a prima ballerina. Or both.

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Welcome FROM THE CEOS

We are delighted to welcome you to the 8th edition of Victor Magazine.

As leaders, it is our duty to chart a path towards a better tomorrow, now so more than ever. While on our mission, we must also remain sensitive and empathic towards those affected by Covid-19 and recognise that for many across the globe, recovery will not be as fast or complete as for those in more developed and privileged economies.

At Victor, we embrace the responsibility that comes with being one of the largest private jet charter companies on the planet. Personal welfare has been brought into an unprecedented focus by the events of the pandemic and we have used this as an opportunity to drive significant and lasting improvements to customer service and employee wellness.

We also continue to lead the agenda for a more sustainable future for the aviation industry. By the end of 2021, Victor will have offset around 60,000

tonnes of CO2 and we are working to ensure that sustainable aviation fuels become more widely available.

To ensure meaningful change, it is imperative that all companies are ready to follow our lead and not only offer transparency in respect of their environmental impact but are also willing to have their programmes independently audited as well.

At Victor, we are optimistic about what the future holds and we hope that you are duly challenged and inspired by the commentary and insights within these pages.

Toby Edwards and James Farley Co-CEOs

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Contents

Radar

Flight

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34

THE POWER OF NOW

Clive Jackson calls for greater action to protect the planet

Reasons to be cheerful in 2022 18

LUXURY – THE NEXT CHAPTER

36

ONE OF A KIND

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BIONIC BUYS

44

THE FUTURE OF WINE?

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THE GRAND TOUR Why jet charter is essential for the music industry

THE OFFSET BALANCE Demystifying the global carbon credit debate

Synthetic wines strive to be a liquid asset 30

LIFT OFF Who will win the billionaire space race?

How nature inspires cutting-edge design 28

T H E H O LY G R A I L How hydrogen is fuelling a sustainable solution

Jan Masters explores the true meaning of ‘rarity’ 24

ELECTRIC DREAMS Opening the skies to battery-powered flight

How the industry will be shaped in the years ahead 22

TIME’S UP

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FRAMEWORK FOR CHANGE Victor invites the aviation industry to set fresh intentions

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Landing

Journal

58

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W H AT T O D O IN 2 2

Strategies to make your giving more effective

22 unmissable places and experiences for the year ahead 68

POLAR AMBITION

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THE GOLDEN PA SS

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THE CITY OF THE FUTURE How do we envision urban living post-pandemic?

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GAME CHANGERS The best golf courses to try in 2022

SHADOW ECONOMY How to stay safe in the metaverse

The citizenships worth investing in 76

H O W T O L I V E T O 12 0 The secrets to living better and for longer

The changing face of polar expedition cruising 72

GIVE BACK BETTER

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JETS Access thousands of aircraft for charter with Victor

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With the world forever changed in light of the pandemic, communities and industries across the globe are focused on rebuilding – here’s what the future may look like

Radar 12 — The Power of Now | 18 — Luxury – The Next Chapter 22 — One of a Kind | 24 — Bionic Buys | 28 — The Future of Wine? | 30 — The Grand Tour

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The Power of Now ON THE EVE OF WHAT LOOKS LIKE THE FIRST LARGELY PANDEMIC-FREE YEAR IN TWO YEARS, JOHN ARLIDGE FINDS REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL IN 2022

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The pandemic has prompted the most rapid innovation in tech-based mobile public health care the world has ever seen, creating unprecedented improvements in treatment and an historic opportunity to save money

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History takes time. Like a long exposure photograph, it’s only now that we are seeing the full effects of the disruptions that we’ve lived through, from 9/11 two decades ago to more recent ruptures, such as Brexit.

The contours of a new landscape slowly reveal themselves – blurry, at first, but, gradually, the outlines sharpen up.

Two years after the world stopped and, for many people, the good life was replaced by instability and dread, the shape of the post-Covid world is emerging and the good news is, there is good news. Crises fast forward history and that’s generating rapid shifts that will benefit us all.

In spite of the surge of the Delta variant around the world, the global economy is projected to grow 5.9 per cent in 2021, and 4.9 per cent in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). As the economy grows, many sectors will change for the better.

Let’s start at the beginning with the subject uppermost in everyone’s mind for the past two years.

HEALTHCARE INNOVATION The pandemic has unleashed the most rapid innovation in tech-based mobile public health care the world has ever seen. Before Covid, 80 per cent of appointments in primary care in Britain were face-to-face. They now count for almost half. “Since the start of the crisis we’ve achieved more than in the previous 20 years,” says Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Remote medicine offers the hope of more convenient and cheaper healthcare. They are more efficient, freeing doctors to see more patients in a day, and studies show that they are just as effective as in-person treatments for many illnesses. At-home test kits for everything from Covid to flu are further easing the load on overburdened clinicians.

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Most challenging but perhaps most exciting of all, local communities might find ways to turn the crisis into an opportunity for reform

” SUSTAINABILITY RESET The clear skies – and clear lungs – under lockdown have ratcheted up the pressure on businesses and consumers to become more green.

Earlier in 2021, a court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its carbon emissions faster than planned, Exxon surrendered board seats to an activist hedge fund over plans to end its dependency on oil and Chevron lost a vote to shareholders demanding that it cut emissions further.

Sustainability is showing up in some unlikely places – like the catwalk. Before the Covid-19 outbreak grounded most planes, fashion accounted for more carbon emissions than the aviation industry. More than 100 billion garments were churned out in 2019, double the number in 2000.

Some of fashion’s biggest names are beginning to act.

Kering, the luxury goods behemoth that owns Gucci, and Saint Laurent, has introduced environmental

profit and loss (EP&L) accounts that put a financial value on its environmental impact. “It’s important to show you can run a good business and protect people and the environment,” says Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering’s head of sustainability.

What goes for fashion, will also affect leisure.

“Covid-19 is a reset for everything and everyone in travel and hospitality,” argues Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s co-founder and CEO. Morgan Stanley predicts it will be at least six years before hotel occupancy rates return to 2019 levels. The International Air Transport Association says seven years of air passenger traffic growth will be wiped out. It looks like we can possibly kiss goodbye once and for all to the third runway at Heathrow. Dubai has canned its proposed new five-runway hub – its name, World Central, now an eerie echo of an earlier soaraway era.

A FAIRER DEAL Globalisation – the free flow of goods, services and people across national boundaries – seemed to be the unstoppable, irreversible wealth creation story of our times. It no longer looks so efficient to rely on imports for half the food we eat and most of the ventilators and other equipment health services need. That will mean ‘reshoring’ jobs for many countries: a welcome boost to many workers who have lost out during lockdown.

With a bit of luck and investor pressure, labour practices will improve.

If the pandemic has exposed anything, it is how dependent we are on the ‘back office’ of society – cleaners, delivery drivers, supermarket shelfstackers, many of whom are among the lowest paid in the country, often on zero-hours or gig contracts.

Jim Chanos, the famed US investor who has an uncanny ability to see around financial corners, is betting

against companies that rely on gig workers, such as Uber, because he thinks the pandemic will change social and political attitudes towards their workers, forcing the companies to offer them employee-style benefits. The High Court in London recently ruled that under English law Uber drivers are workers, not freelance contractors, and are, therefore, entitled to many of the benefits of employees, including the minimum wage.

Global taxation might become a bit fairer.

Joe Biden, US President, earlier in 2021 took advantage of the disquiet over the way tax-avoiding tech giants profited during lockdowns, to drive through an agreement among OECD countries to levy a minimum 15 per cent tax on multinational companies.

The reforms should ensure companies pay more tax and more of it in countries where they generate huge revenues.

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TACKLING CONNECTIVITY Technology is improving our lives in other ways. With hybrid home/office working firmly established and welcomed by most, Silicon Valley is transforming offices for the better. To deal with the new blend of remote and office workers, Google is creating a new meeting room technology, called Campfire, where in-person attendees sit in a circle interspersed with vertical displays showing the people dialling in by videoconference with the same prominence as those there in real life.

(Only upper bodies are displayed, so if you are remote, you can continue to wear sweatpants.)

The Silicon Valley giants are raising their own game, too. Many social media firms have done a poor job of protecting our privacy and tackling bad actors.

But after years claiming it is oh-so-difficult to weed out harmful content, many platforms have successfully blocked much misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines.

Twitter, which has a base of about 350 million users, removed 2.9 million tweets in the second half of 2019, more than double a year earlier. Google has been blocking 18 million misleading or malicious messages to Gmail users every day. WhatsApp, owned

by Facebook, imposed a new limit on the number of people who can be forwarded messages to slow the spread of scams and fake news. With a bit of luck, and beefed up regulation, this will continue.

Facebook’s removal of hate speech has risen tenfold in two years. Last year, the company disabled 17 million fake accounts every single day, more than twice the number of 2017.

RESETTING Most exciting of all, the pandemic has led many to re-evaluate what they want from jobs and lives.

Americans are quitting their jobs in higher numbers than at any point since the turn of the millennium. Forty per cent of employees in the US, Australia, the UK, Canada, and Singapore say they are at least “somewhat likely” to quit within six months, a McKinsey report showed [Sept 2021].

Two-thirds are ready to go without a new job in hand.

Rather than insufficient pay packets, the top three answers people mentioned when jumping ship were feeling undervalued by their organisations, or not feeling like they belonged. On the ground, executives say staff are looking to restore their work-life balance to something more manageable.

Some things will remain different and difficult, no doubt. Face furniture is a stubborn fixture. No paper menus – still! Questions remain. How do we greet each other without causing offence? What impact will a cultural reset have on business? What will industry look like now that working habits are changing? There are certainly plenty of unknowns, but the human race is resilient and, just as we’ve done many times before, we’ll pick ourselves up and continue to push forward as we embrace and thrive under this new normal.

Warren Buffett recently said: “We were just as sure of ourselves, and Wall Street was, in 1989 as we are today. But the world can change in very, very dramatic ways.” In life, it’s all about the journey. As Buffett said: “the main thing to do is be aboard the ship”.

So, let’s pour a glass more than half full and raise it to a happy – healthy – 2022.

The Numbers

IN BRITAIN

7,000 GP PRACTICES WERE ORDERED TO CONDUCT AS MANY VIDEO AND PHONE CONSULTATIONS AS POSSIBLE

•

GOOGLE HAS BEEN BLOCKING

18 MILLION MISLEADING OR MALICIOUS MESSAGES TO GMAIL USERS EVERY DAY

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GLOBAL TAXATION MIGHT BECOME A BIT FAIRER. MINIMUM

15% TAX

ON MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES

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THE PRODUCTION OF FASHION GARMENTS WERE

HALVED

IN 2000 COMPARED TO 2019

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will escort residents to some of the most raw and untouched parts of the globe, including journeying to the world’s most beloved destinations across North America, South America, the South Pacific, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Two rare 15-day back-to-back expeditions, led by teams of local and world-renowned experts, allow residents to explore with even more depth than they ever thought possible: the first in the Tuamotu Archipelago and the Marquesas of French Polynesia, followed by a second among the fascinating people and natural wonder of the Austral Islands. Later in the journey, the third expedition visits the land of fire and ice to discover the captivating raw beauty of Iceland.

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N E X T T H E OVER THE LAST DECADE, THE LUXURY BUSINESS HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY DYNAMIC. SIMON BROOKE DISCOVERS THE KEY THEMES TRANSFORMING THIS FORMERLY CONSERVATIVE SECTOR

CH A P T ER

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LU X U RY

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Rather than centring on what we wear, luxury will increasingly be about what we feel

” For a sector that is highly conservative and that celebrates tradition and heritage over innovation, luxury has undergone enormous changes over the last few years. The behemoths emerged in the form of LVMH, Kering and Richemont, China drove demand to levels never seen before and the pandemic compounded demand for all things digital.

Now, attention is turning to what will happen next and already key trends are emerging. Experiential luxury will become increasingly important. LVMH’s purchase of travel company Belmond revealed the faith that CEO Bernard Arnault has in the idea of experiences over products. However, Covid-19 and lockdown, in particular, have helped to accelerate and refine this trend. When we couldn’t go out as much, we were less willing to devote time and resources to smart outfits and jewellery. Rather than centring on what we can wear, luxury will increasingly be about how we feel.

“Luxury customers have been turning their attention to new items such as linens and towels, renovations of their home and higher-end appliances, they’ve started to find deeper luxuries that actually impacted their daily lives and started spending their money that way,” says Chris Olshan, CEO of the Luxury Marketing Council. Olshan points to the success of companies such as Gaggenau, a highend kitchen appliance manufacturer that specialises in restaurant-quality stainless steel cooking appliances and innovative wine climate cooling solutions used by collectors worldwide.

Looking beyond the pandemic, personalisation will be King. The Knight Frank State of Fashion 2021 report states that brands have an “opportunity to build slicker, smarter operating models and differentiated customer propositions that are more personalised to each customer” – online included. The report suggests that companies must improve

the digital customer experience and make each user’s journey feel more unique through “a mix of artificial intelligence, human recommendations and direct contact with salespeople using client communication apps and customer relationship management tools”.

Louis Vuitton, for instance, has long offered personalisation services such as hot-stamping, but its My LV Heritage service elevates the experience and enables customers to personalise a monogram or damier bag easily online as well as instore.

As the climate crisis worsens, interest in sustainability will continue to increase as the move towards net zero intensifies for the new generation of luxury consumers for whom cutting carbon emissions and reducing the use of plastics and packaging isn’t simply a factor in their decision to purchase but acts as a core belief.

Successful luxury brands of the future will go further here, believes Helen Brocklebank, CEO of Walpole, the sector body for UK luxury. “It’ll be about purpose,” she says. “People will want to be able to buy beautifully made items with a clear conscience. They’ll expect brands to have a deep-seated ethos as well as a sustainability policy. The new luxury customers will increasingly want to know where products are made and who made them. Are these people well treated and properly paid?” A 2021 report from McKinsey & Co. agrees: “63% of consumers consider a brand’s action on sustainability as an important purchasing factor.”

The Chinese market is already following this trend, according to Joanne Tang, Founder and CEO of the Infinite Luxury Group, a communications, sales and marketing representation company, and the presenter of the Luxury Voices podcast. “A new generation of Chinese luxury consumers, who are younger, more sensitive about their personal impact on the environment, and who

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tend to favour less ostentatious fashion, may have similar aspirations as their Western counterparts when they shop, travel or use luxury services,” she says. “Will the West eventually adopt Asian born luxury brands or market strategies, like they have adopted Chinese social media TikTok?” Chris Olshan believes that as Western consumers move into this space, the Chinese market will catch up at a faster pace than was the case with their initial embrace of luxury. Asian brands could even become tomorrow’s luxury – brands such as first-of-its-kind Chinese streetwear company NING are already gaining international attention.

In all markets, repair and renewal, which was commonplace decades ago before being replaced by fast fashion, will once again become the norm.

The Restory describes itself as “a tech-enabled service [that] has elevated aftercare to align it with the luxury buying experience”. The company is working to create a suite of easily accessible repair services for clothes, shoes, bags and other items to brands, retailers and consumers worldwide.

“We started The Restory to make aftercare fun and stylish and as much a part of the fashion experience as buying to begin with is,” explains founder and CEO, Vanessa Jacobs, who recently signed a deal with Manolo Blahnik to provide a repair service for clients across the web and instore and with e-commerce site FARFETCH to offer a new service called FARFETCH Fix. Similarly, second hand is no longer second best – and that trend will continue according to Boston Consulting Group, whose analysis shows that the market for second-hand hard luxury items – mainly watches and jewellery – was worth about €21 billion worldwide in 2020 and growing at 8 per cent a year, faster than the luxury industry overall. Vintage clothing company Vestiaire Collective has raised another $216 million for its secondhand fashion platform in 2021, making it a unicorn. Others in the industry, eyeing this valuation, will be certain to follow.

Alongside this, a new wave of younger consumers that rent rather than buy – through companies such as My Wardrobe HQ – is driving a similar development. Cocoon, for instance, which offers new, pre-owned and limited-edition vintage handbags, including Gucci and Bottega Veneta, for

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rent has raised funding from Kering and in the US, meanwhile Rent the Runway raised $357 million in its trading debut.

As rental, resale and repair grows, the luxury sector will have to consider how to adapt to a market that isn’t principally about selling new products every season. One innovation that will transform the industry is technology and, in particular, artificial intelligence (AI). With the advent of mass-market luxury, gone are the days when your tailor or your dressmaker knew every one of your likes and dislikes, but AI could mean that services and products are more personalised than ever.

“

Previous page Restoration of a Chanel bag and Manolo Blahnik shoes by The Restory This page, from left Fine dining with a view at Belmond Cap Juluca; Gaggenau’s sleek appliances found a new home in the luxury consumer’s kitchen during the pandemic; experience a safari in luxury at Belmond Khwai River Lodge; Ortelli & Co. Managing Partner Mario Ortelli

In M&A, we’re seeing large conglomerates attracting new users to the industry through the acquisition of brands with lower entry points and younger demographics

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Investment insider With the luxury sector set to grow over the next decade, there are opportunities for investment.

Shares in the big groups such as LVMH, Richemont and Kering have all performed well over the last decade as they have for individual listed luxury houses such as Hermès. Riskier but more exciting is the option of becoming an angel investor or working through a venture capital fund to support an up-and-coming new designer.

Analysing the luxury index, Moneyweek states: “Over 10 years, the total return (capital gains plus income) in US dollars from the stocks in this index is a reassuringly luxuriant 13.7 per cent a year.

That’s over 3 per cent more than the 10.4 per cent from the S&P Global 1200, an index tracking the overall performance of stocks worldwide.”

Brands such as Dior and Estée Lauder have leveraged chatbots to add a human touch to the digital experience, while Burberry has gone further, inviting customers who’ve interacted with its bots to enjoy benefits such as virtual shows. Brands can also monitor users’ browser history to provide bettertargeted emails and recommendations.

In M&A, we’re seeing large conglomerates attracting new users to the industry through the acquisition of brands with lower entry points and younger demographics. In 2020, US apparel and footwear company VF Corporation bought luxury streetwear brand Supreme for $2.1 billion, while in 2021 Moncler snapped up casualwear and sports clothing brand Stone Island for $1.4 billion. The hope is that such moves will normalise the purchase of luxury goods at a young age and solidify the future of the industry as the youth grow into the well-heeled shoes of today’s experienced luxury consumer.

“The long-term fundamentals for growth in the luxury sector are excellent,” says Mario Ortelli, Managing Partner at Ortelli & Co., a strategy and M&A advisory company specialising in luxury goods. “In particular there’s growing interest in sustainability, casualisation, well-being, digital transformation, and experiential luxury and so these areas offer opportunities for investment.

There are also opportunities with smaller companies being acquired by big luxury groups and others going for IPOs.” Ortelli adds: “Companies that are developing sustainable products such as in vitro leather will be increasingly successful as luxury houses look for more sustainable alternatives. The trick is to identify niche luxury brands that also have a clear growth strategy.”

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One of a Kind TO LINK PRECIOUSNESS TO COST IS TO MISUNDERSTAND THE NUANCES OF WHAT MAKES SOMETHING ‘RARE’.

JAN MASTERS EXPLORES THE TRUE MEANING OF RARITY

Bang. The hammer falls.

The highest bidder wins.

And when record-breaking sums are paid to possess an artwork of a legendary genius, its worth rests on authenticity. A painting in the style of Rembrandt or Monet, even if executed so skilfully as to almost fool the eyes of experts, is valueless. It is the original artist’s vision, experience and expression – the fact the paint was lain by that famous hand and is still touchable through the mists of history – that renders it appreciably rare.

It’s why the hammer prices of the Salvator Mundi have ranged from £45 in 1958, when considered to be a Boltraffio, to $450.3 million in 2017 when deemed a Da Vinci, a tangled tale retold in the 2021 film, The Lost Leonardo. Provenance is the bedfellow of rarity, the reason Marie Antoinette’s pearl pendant fetched $36 million and Marilyn Monroe’s white ‘Subway Dress’, although faded to an aged shade of ecru, sold for an uplifting $4.6 million.

Naturally, prized treasures of great rarity hail from Mother Nature.

The Pink Star diamond, for example, is the largest internally flawless, fancy vivid pink ever graded, which is why jewellers Chow Tai Fook paid a cool $71.2 million to possess it. While the Gold of Kinabalu orchid, which flowers only briefly in a small, fenced off area in Malaysia, commands around $5,000 for a single stem.

There’s also a brand of rarity of the kind that certainly doesn’t float everybody’s boat but hangs on the hook of a new one-off, or, at the very least, is steeped in ultra-extravagance: a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport in gold and black; the Heintzman Crystal piano; a Falcon SuperNova iPhone 6 with a thwacking diamond on the back.

Given such contexts, it’s easy to view monetary value as the exclusive marker of rarity. But to consider only cost is to overlook the numerous, often magical nuances that render something enjoyably rare.

Many coveted items only became so because they initially meant something to someone on a highly personal level. They were loved or revered, not for their expense but for their quirkiness, their connection to the past or the fascinating story they had to tell. Not everyone would automatically squirrel away the first issue of The Amazing Spider-Man comic or hanker after a 121-year-old pair of Levi Strauss jeans. But after such items engendered a genuine passion in a few, the desire to collect them spread… and their stock rose.

So much so, Amazing Fantasy #15, the comic in which Spider-Man debuts, has just sold for a record $3.6 million, while a rare Pokémon card sold for $195,000 in New York.

It’s a trait in human history that we love to gather and collect things that present a challenge to understand or acquire.

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It’s a trait in human history that we love to gather and collect things that present a challenge to understand or acquire

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And when we invest time in tracking them down, displaying and protecting them, whether they be stamps, teapots or toys, that choice shines a light on our identity. In short, what we like speaks of what we are like.

Rarity, then, is not to be confused with scarcity, the latter more connected to a demand that cannot be met.

Case in point; the $1.3 million parking spot, purchased in space-starved Hong Kong – in this instance, scarity drives the search for rarity. Nor is rarity inextricably linked with exclusive access – not all near-priceless objects dwell in the sanctity of private vaults. The artefacts of Pompeii are viewed by tourists aplenty, yet their value is never diminished. The same goes for events with a massive audience. Thousands enjoyed ‘Pavarotti in the Park’, celebrating 30 years of the tenor’s operatic career, yet the crowd were sharing in the thrill of something rare.

Indeed, there’s a continuing shift in how the idea of rarity is embraced, increasingly encompassing the experiential: sailing to Antarctica, meeting the Huli Wigmen of Papua New Guinea, flying over the Bungle Bungles range in Australia’s Kimberley or revelling in ‘Heaven on Earth’ in the Maldives on Vaadhoo Island, the sparkling bioluminescence that makes the sea appear to be scattered with diamond stars. Rare and miraculous moments that shape lasting memories.

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Travel Well RELAX AND RECHARGE AT THE BÜRGENSTOCK RESORT, THE ULTIMATE BUCKET LIST SPA DESTINATION Rejuvenation comes easily in the Swiss Alps, internationally renowned for its breathtaking vistas, fresh air, and epic trails. And since 1873, the Bürgenstock Resort has been elevating Alpine wellness to new heights, harnessing the transformative power of nature.

Guests will be enthralled by the resort’s dramatic location from the moment they touch down in Lucerne, lauded as the most beautiful city in Switzerland, and the launching point for the Bürgenstock experience.

For a hotel transfer like no other, guests can be swept across Lake Lucerne on a private high-speed catamaran to the funicular railway that rides up to the mountain-top resort. Alternatively, Buochs Airport is just a 15 minutedrive away.

With a wide range of opportunities to unwind, including an infinity edge pool with unrivalled views over Lake Lucerne, there is something for every kind of spa lover at the Bürgenstock Resort. Head to the Alpine Spa for its steam baths, saunas and serenity room or treat yourself to an exclusive wellness experience – completely undisturbed – in one of the luxurious Private Spa suites. Thanks to thoughtful interior design that lets the outside in and signature treatments that are inspired by Alpine nature, guests will not only reconnect with their inner wellbeing but connect with their spectacular surrounds, too.

An incredible choice of over 120 nourishing outdoor activities, from golf through to tennis, await the adventurous and curious. The resort’s 30 acres of picture-postcard countryside is a paradise for hikers and bikers, and unique Alpine experiences. Walk 10 minutes and find yourself in a lush valley where you can meet the local community of farmers, milk a cow and even produce your own cheese, which the Bürgenstock team can Fedex home to you.

The Hammetschwand Lift, meanwhile, provides sweeping vistas stretching to the east and west so you can take in the full picture. Dating back to 1904, it’s the highest outdoor elevator in Europe, and ascends Mount Bürgenstock to the summit – a stunning vantage point for a picnic above the clouds.

Connecting with nature has been at the core of the Bürgenstock Resort since its opening over a century ago.

Combining this timeless luxury with outstanding service, contemporary design and access to culinary excellence made them a true pioneer in the travel sector. With iconic luxury hotels and residences in Lausanne and Bern, Switzerland, operating under the Bürgenstock Selection and championing their distinct approach to Swiss hospitality, service and discretion, there has never been a better time to travel well.

To book a stay at the Bürgenstock Hotels & Resorts, please visit burgenstockresort.com

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Bionic

Buys DISCOVER HOW LUXURY BRANDS ARE USING BIOMIMICRY TO SYNCHRONISE NATURE AND TECHNOLOGY INTO THEIR DESIGNS FOR THE FUTURE words > CHRIS BEANLAND

We humans may live in a technologically advanced world, yet our biophilia is writ large. We fill our homes with plants and pets, and long for escapist weekends in the mountains.

Mercedes-Benz recently stated that “the ultimate luxury is the fusion of human and nature with the help of technology,” when the brand introduced its Vision AVTR concept car in 2021. It’s a vehicle that seeks harmony between man and machine at such high levels that there are no buttons, just menus projected onto the hand and body, and a central console that recognises your touch and breathing. The stark design of the futuristic vehicle, meanwhile, takes its inspiration squarely from organic forms like leaves and flowers.

Airbus is using ‘biomimicry’ to evolve its aircraft, studying owls to work out how they fly so silently before incorporating these lessons to its aircraft design, such as applying velvety coatings to the undercarriage of planes in order to reduce noise pollution. Their designs follow in the footsteps of engineer and birdwatcher Eiji Nakatsu, whose bright idea for the Shinkansen bullet train’s ‘tunnel boom’ problem was inspired by the kingfisher and its heavy straight bill. The train’s remodelled elongated nose not only eliminated its popping sound but unexpectedly made it between 10–15 per cent more efficient.

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Travelling by plane, train or car, the beauty of the world becomes unmistakable – yet so does its fragility. Increasingly, tech-focused brands, such as start-up clothing company Vollebak, are concerning themselves with protecting the environment as well as learning from it.

“Nature is the best designer because it’s been doing it for 4.5 billion years. By comparison, the longest human life expectancy is just over 100 years. And given my brother and I are 42 years old, we’re unlikely to start out-designing it any time soon,” co-founder Steve Tidball says.

Along with his brother Nick, the pair are on a mission to put organic technology on to every body. “We look at what we can learn, borrow, and mimic in nature, and bring that into our clothing,” says Tidball.

Vollebak’s most storied idea is the ‘living’ black algae T-shirt. Taking a one-and-a-half billion-year-old organism and building it into a T-shirt that stores carbon dioxide by using cutting-edge biotech, Vollebak breaks the mould where others dye their shirts with petroleumbased products. The brand has also developed a dark jacket inspired by the Blue Morpho butterfly and a wearable deep sleep cocoon designed for

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astronauts which “mimics the adaptable and protective exoskeleton of a woodlouse which can use its own body as a protective barrier between itself and the outside world”.

As conscious individuals and companies are thinking about their carbon footprint and how to reduce it. Steve Tidball is, too. “We have a massive impact on nature in almost every part of the world,” he says. “So we need to get back to a point where our clothes are more compatible with the planet.”

Biomimicry may not be a novel idea, but advances in technology are helping innovators analyse nature in greater depth and create even more optimal products that mimic its magic. Take University of Oxford spinout Spintex Engineering, which recently cracked the code of one of the strongest biological materials in the world. The company’s research into the spider’s extraordinary way of spinning silk, and recreation of the process in the lab at scale – one that is a thousand times more energyefficient than producing plastic fibre – won the Biomimicry Institute’s Ray of Hope Prize in 2021.

As we become more aware of the fragility of nature, it’s clear that future tech and luxury products will have to reduce dependence on natural resources and be more sustainable.

So why not start at the source – nature itself.

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We have a massive impact on nature in almost every part of the world. We need to get back to a point where our clothes are more compatible with the planet

” With biomimicry already being incorporated into industries from motoring to fashion, there’s no doubt that even in our high-tech society, much of what we see in the future will increasingly be influenced by the things which have lived on Earth for thousands of years.

Previous page The Blue Morpho jacket by Vollebak, photographed in the dark Opposite page, from top The Blue Morpho butterfly; the Mercedes Vision AVTR interior hand sensor and exterior view

This page, from top Vollebak’s plant and algae T-shirt; Algae produced in a bioreactor to make the T-shirt’s design; Algae is dried to produce a powder that is mixed with a binder

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The

Future

of Wine?

RICK JORDAN DISCOVERS HOW MOLECULAR TECHNOLOGY COULD SAVE OUR CLASSIC CRUS FROM CLIMATE CHANGE

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Picture the scene. At a dinner party in a few years’ time, your host announces he has something rather special to bring to the table and pours everyone a glass of what looks and tastes like a fine red wine. “What you’re drinking,” he tells you as you swirl it, take a mouthful and appreciate its rounded, full-bodied complexity, “is a 1995 Chambertin by Domaine Armand Rousseau – or at least it tastes exactly the same.” Instead of spending northwards of £3,000 on a bottle of the rare grand cru, it cost him just £10.

The way in which we view food and drink has changed irrevocably over the past decade or so. Organic, natural ingredients are good, so we’re told; artificial ones are bad. In restaurants, the provenance of each heritage tomato and radish – the soil only just brushed off – is flagged up and farm-to-plate menus celebrated, while the boom in natural wines – those wild-fermented ones, highly unpredictable and made with barely any chemical or mechanical intervention – has made us change the way we approach viniculture.

And yet, in 2015, a couple of biotechnology graduates, Alec Lee and Mardonn Chua, were visiting a vineyard in the Napa Valley when they were shown a rare bottle of Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 1973. Lee realised he would never be able to afford or drink the expensive vintage, but wondered, as wine is made of a number of largely identifiable compounds, if he could replicate its unique flavour and taste. Six months later, after experimenting in the lab, he produced a drink that contained no grapes and yet, in some ways, was similar to a sparkling Italian Moscatel, with hints of lychee and a pleasing effervescence. The two scientists had identified the wine’s molecular fingerprint and recreated it using ethanol, water and a variety of notes taken from natural sources, such as corn, peach and yeasts.

Fast-forward to 2021, and their company, Endless West, received $21 million in Series B funding. Their white ‘wine’ is even more convincing and other drinks have been added to the cabinet, including a sake-like spirit made without rice, and the whiskey-like Glyph, reverse-engineered and made without ageing or barrelling, which has won several awards in blind-tasting

competitions. Variations to taste and nuance in the spirits can be made almost overnight, rather than taking years of slow, trial-and-error evolution.

But what’s the point of drinks that taste like wine or whisky, yet aren’t actually either? Endless West argues that it is one of the few companies addressing climate change in the drinks industry. Compared to the conventional wine process, its Gemello Moscato-alike requires 95 per cent less water, 80 per cent less land, and 40 per cent fewer carbon emissions. “For too long, we’ve been operating under the guise that

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Compared to the conventional wine process, Endless West’s Gemello Moscato-alike requires 95 per cent less water, 80 per cent less land, and 40 per cent fewer carbon emissions

” the finest beverages must be produced using large swaths of land, exploiting precious resources,” says Sarah Cone, whose company Social Impact Capital has invested in Endless West. The outfit’s third co-founder, sommelier Josh Decolongon, points out that “vineyards are far away from the city, and the transportation required to carry the bottles harm the climate. We can open a lab in any metro area and make our products available to boutique wine and spirit stores, avoiding all the carbon emission spread by the transportation.”

There’s also another potential benefit. Rising temperatures are set to wreak havoc on many of the world’s classic wine regions, with weather patterns changing, droughts more

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frequent, and many grape varieties unable to cope with excessive heat.

If global warming was kept to an increase of 2˚C, more than half of the current wine regions – including France, Spain and Australia – would be under threat. The United Nations has warned that current trends put us on course for a 3.4˚C temperature rise over the next 80 years. And while viniculture can adapt, planting grape varieties that can cope with increasingly high temperatures, many classic grand crus will taste different in the future.

In July 2019, for instance, Bordeaux wineries authorised the use of four new red grapes – Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Castets and Arinarnoa – to tackle temperature rises in the region.

With this in mind, molecular ‘wines’ could provide a valuable snapshot – a taste memory – of vintages that could be lost forever. Endless West’s Alec Lee has likened it to digitising music: making perfect facsimiles in order to preserve a classic whiskey or wine for future generations.

Some wine aficionados are, understandably, a little sceptical about the idea. “It just seems ridiculous, a form of alcohol-related cryogenics,” says award-winning wine writer Nina Caplan. “So there’s not much 1961 left, well, that’s 60 years ago, so it’s not surprising. There’s no Falernian from 121BC, the Romans’ cult wine, left either, are they going to recreate that?

Life is fragile, wine is finite.”

Meanwhile, Caroline Gilby, a Master of Wine (MW) with a science background, wonders how components such as its tactile sensation – its roundness, smoothness – could be replicated, adding that, “another issue is psychological factors such as emotion and memory: that’s where the stories, the cultural context and reputation come in, to add enjoyment”.

Being able to formulate wine in a laboratory has great implications on what was previously a finite good, calling into question the value of rarity.

But with the average winery using six gallons of water to produce a single gallon of wine, the essential resources winemaking requires are finite too. The value we place on synthetic wines in our tumultuous global climate is therefore up to us, with its makers believing they will soon claim a place in the market.

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THE GRAND TOUR DISCOVER HOW VICTOR FOR MUSIC STRIKES THE PERFECT CHORD FOR THE WORLD’S TOP MUSICAL ARTISTS words > RACHEL INGRAM

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What do a rock star and a world leader have in common? A lot, it seems, when it comes to travel anyway. Due to the complexity and changing nature of a music tour, organising transport for such an event is not unlike arranging an official tour for a head of state. In fact, in certain situations, it can be more complicated. As such, music touring is considered the highest echelon of corporate travel.

“The protocols for flying a rock star or a world leader are very similar,” says Bobby Perez, Executive Vice President of Victor and head of the Victor for Music division. Confidentiality and privacy are key to the operation, he reveals, as are timing and security.

Both also come with large entourages, although celebrities often have the added pressure of fan presence and a vast amount of equipment.

The Victor for Music division launched in 2012 and quickly snowballed into a trusted travel partner powering the world’s most demanding tours. The experienced team has managed more than 2,000 tour legs for the highest performing professionals in the film, music, and live entertainment industries. Flyers have collectively sold 1.5 billion albums, won around 50 Grammys and more than 200 MTV Music Awards.

Once a tour booking is made, a dedicated Victor Tour Director works with the tour’s manager to build and manage the travel itinerary. “We do everything for them, to the point that they don’t even have to think about what airport they’re going to,” Perez says.

“As well as planning the most efficient route, we also work out what is going to be most cost-effective, as well as

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what’s going to be quickest and easiest for the passengers, such as hubbing from one major hub or flying from city to city every night.”

Perez and his team then work with leading aircraft operators to get the talent to their next location in the most time-effective way possible. They also organise ground transportation to and from the venue, often under police escort, as well as all the paperwork required for luggage and equipment, plus all onboard needs such as catering.

During the tours, dedicated representatives handle arrangements from start to finish and adjust their working hours to suit. “These guys are not working nine-to-five hours, so we’re up with them until they land in their next city, which could be three o’clock in the morning,” Perez says.

The majority of trips are 60 to 90 flight segments over a two- or threemonth period, during which time unforeseen circumstances can cause schedules and locations to change at the last minute. “The logistics part of it is very complicated. You have to anticipate the client’s needs before they even have to ask,” Perez says.

While Victor prepares for any eventuality, the changing nature of a tour means that it’s not unusual to alter plans at the last minute. From re-routing to avoid gathering fans at an airport, to scrambling fresh aircraft if there’s been a fault with the plane, the team has seen it all. For one rock band, they found themselves transforming a cargo plane into a passenger plane in the middle of the night. “A lot of our job is anticipating potential issues and having remedies ready to go,” Perez says. The pandemic allowed the team to further hone its skills through various international rescue efforts which included medical repatriation and organising solutions to get key workers in, and at-risk people out, of certain locations.

The division built its reputation on word of mouth and many tour managers come to Victor exclusively. “In the charter world, shopping and comparing prices is part of the game, however when it comes to tour managers, they’ve got so many balls in the air, they prioritise trust and reliability,” Perez says. “What we do is just the tip of the iceberg of what the tour managers are doing. The more we can do without having to bring them into decision making, the better.”

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Right The Embraer Lineage 1000 is just one of the types of private jets that Victor can charter. Inside the Falcon 7X

As for the talent, the Victor team works to ensure they’re as comfortable as possible. “In between shows, this aeroplane is like their home from home,” Perez says. “They’re in a different place every night so the only thing familiar to them is this aeroplane. In a perfect world, we’ve got one dedicated flight attendant for the duration of the trip, so they become familiar with each other.”

Beyond music tours, Perez and his team organise travel for corporate trips such as Fortune 100 roadshows, during which CEOs visit multiple cities in a short space of time. “We understand that when you’re a CEO of that calibre, time is money,” Perez says.

“So, anything we can do to increase efficiency is a win for everybody.”

Tour smarter For more information on Victor’s music tour offering, scan the QR code

Four reasons to fly your band with Victor PEDIGREE You’ll be in experienced hands.

We have managed more than 2,000 tour legs for the highest performing professionals in the film, music, and live entertainment industries.

SEAMLESS MISSIONS We handle all travel details, big and small, so that you don’t have to. Working alongside our Group Charter team, we can transport A, B and C parties seamlessly.

OPERATIONAL ASSURANCE We work with aircraft operators of the highest calibre. From top notch safety to in fleet recoveries, you will always fly with peace of mind.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION You can rest easy knowing that every flight you book with us is 200 per cent carbon offset, allowing your clients to fly with conscience and purpose.

BRITISH LEATHER GOODS WWW.ETTINGER.CO.UK

From the evolution of electric flight to the future of hydrogen and how to fly with a conscience, this is the ultimate guide to transportation in 2022 – and beyond

Flight 34 — Time’s Up | 36 — Electric Dreams | 40 — The Holy Grail | 44 — Lift Off 50 — The Offset Balance | 54 — Framework for Change

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Time’s Up WITH THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS AT A PIVOTAL POINT, VICTOR FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN CLIVE JACKSON CALLS ON THE PRIVATE AVIATION INDUSTRY AND ITS FLYERS TO COME TOGETHER AND SHOW HOW WE CAN REACH CARBON NET ZERO IN WHAT COULD BE A MATTER OF JUST A FEW YEARS

Chartering a private jet is accessible to a privileged few in society but it’s open for all to comment on, scrutinise and criticise.

As environmental activists gain increasing media attention and demand governments and industry tackle average global temperature rises, the clamour is growing louder for extreme measures to be imposed on aviation. A ban on private jets or a private jet tax has even been suggested.

Writing this amidst the COP26 UN climate change conference, it doesn’t look as though a consensus on legislation will be forthcoming. But the call to private sector bosses to step up and innovate is perhaps reflective of where governments see they can pass the burden of obligation to those that are far more capable of prescribing an impactful course of action.

So, how do we, as Europe’s second largest transactor of on-demand air mobility, get ahead and define the steps to drive change? Where should the obligation and associated costs fall, and what if we do nothing? As a capitalist, entrepreneur and concerned environmentalist, there are two things that stand out in this debate: the freedom of choice and the obligations associated with such choices.

There are no quick or cheap fixes. There must be transparency, accountability, and a defined commitment from the industry and its customers to acknowledge the challenge we are facing.

If we continue to ignore this problem, it will not end well.

Yes, you can fly less, but most of us recognise that stopping the world flying is a non-starter. However, as the world returns to normal, if we are to continue to enjoy the freedom to travel, there are environmental consequences that the industry and flyers must recognise and address.

At COP26, it became evident that we cannot sit back and wait, nor can we be content with non-binding pledges. While we heard many positive commitments, it’s clear that leaders and policy makers have yet to work out how we are going to achieve these ambitions.

Aviation, as with global warming, knows no borders.

We have one planet, and it is incumbent on the leaders within our respective industries to step forward and propose a range of actions that will move the needle. It’s no good talking

“

I am calling on business aviation to come together and publicly disclose CO2 emissions for every private jet flight

”

about a plan. We need action now. Action means measuring our carbon footprint and being accountable for the consumption and claims of mitigation that many are all too willing to make but are unable to substantiate.

At Victor, we’ve been working to support our customers and the entire industry to reduce CO2 emissions. In 2019, we became the first private aviation company to achieve double net zero through our self-imposed and mandated carbon offset programme on every Victor flight. It was the first of many steps and we’re on a mission to share our knowledge to decarbonise our industry far quicker than 2050. I hope that you, as a Victor flyer, will help us do this.

At industry level, I am calling on business aviation to come together and publicly disclose CO2 emissions for every private jet flight, as well as their methods for reduction and mitigation.

This is important for building a viable roadmap to net zero because if we don’t measure and report the amount of CO2, how can we quantify the size of the challenge, track our progress, and measure our success? Such a simple step will provide governments with a global and localised view of the business aviation sector’s progress. Only then will we be able to win public support while our industry develops the next generation of zero-emission aircraft.

To our flyers, we have

committed to be open and transparent about the carbon emissions for every flight and we will keep pushing our sector to follow our lead. Every year, Victor discloses our total number of flights flown, associated CO2 emissions and what we have spent as a proportion of our corporate profits to purchase the very best in nature-based carbon offset solutions. This disclosure is audited by a third-party audit firm Cooper Parry.

On every Victor quote, you’ll see the total fuel burn and CO2 emissions against every aircraft type so you can weigh your choice not just by the aircraft range, configuration and price but also by fuel-efficiency. We call upon our flyers to match or double down on Victor’s offsetting contribution with a direct contribution of their own. And, as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) becomes more widely available, we will include this as an upgrade cost for those choosing to fly with a 50:50 blend of sustainable fuel and standard fossil fuel.

The responsibility is on all of us to mitigate the impact of our lifestyle choices and in doing so influence others to do the same in order to safeguard our planet, our freedom to enjoy the privilege we have worked hard for, and the future we want to pass to the next generation.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

CLIVE JACKSON Founder and Chairman

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Disrupting tradition, we’ve reinvented the process to craft luxury whiskeys of exquisite complexity, viscosity and flavour. Whether savoured in the now or saved for the future, these are whiskeys that stand the test of time.

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Electric Dreams SHORT-HAUL ELECTRIC AVIATION WILL BE MAINSTREAM WITHIN THE NEXT 10 YEARS. BUT MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS ARE STILL NEEDED BEFORE LONG-DISTANCE FLYING IS EMISSIONS-FREE words > HARRIET HIRSCHLER

Picture yourself flying from Velana International Airport in the Maldives to a luxurious island resort in a location as remote as it is beautiful. Below you is one of the most breathtaking but ecologically fragile places in the world – its very existence threatened by rising sea levels caused by CO2 emissions. Your flight will not be contributing, however, because you are onboard a seaplane powered by clean electricity.

“It is short hops like these that are the most obvious and immediate targets for scaling up electric flight,” says Clive Jackson, Founder and Chairman of Victor. “Major breakthroughs

in electric propulsion mean it is now possible to retrofit existing planes, opening the skies to a new era of battery-powered transportation.”

THE RETROFIT REVOLUTION In an effort to reduce emissions, various airlines are seeking an alternative for their fossil fuel aircraft, removing expensive polluting jet fuel from the flight equation and replacing it with electric batteries.

Thanks to retrofitting, the electrification of planes is now underway.

“Everything in aerospace starts with propulsion,” says Roie Ganzarski, CEO of magniX, which in December 2019 provided the propulsion system for the world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft, a six-seater Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver. In May 2020, magniX successfully flew the largest all-electric commercial aircraft, a nine-seater Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. “The jet age of aviation happened

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faster, quicker and easier”. And it’s at this level of innovation that he wants to see investment by multiple parties.

“One looks at the type of aircraft, or the type of mission, that would suit conversion – and that is short-range hops between charging stations,” explains Jackson, returning to the Maldives example.

“When the short-range hops between charging stations are in areas that are already at risk from climate change, it becomes a double benefit.”

because of the jet engine, not the jet airplane,” he continues. “You think of the Wright brothers, they took a glider and put an engine on it; it was a retrofit.

And so, when we started we knew, first of all, we have to do electric propulsion because without the propulsion, new airplanes couldn’t be created.”

The parallels between the electric flight and electric vehicle revolutions are easy to draw – Tesla converted a Lotus Elise to electric with their own electric motor and off-the-shelf batteries to test their idea – but Ganzarski believes the business case is far greater when it comes to aviation.

“As a private individual, for me to retrofit my car, it’s not very practical. From a corporate airline perspective, they don’t want to wait until a new plane is developed. They also don’t want to pay for a new plane because they’re happy with their existing ones. If they can retrofit them to electric, they get the best of both worlds.”

The pay-off for airlines is zero emissions, lower noise and lower costs, all without having to wait or make the large investment in purpose-built electric planes. The downside to retrofitting is you get much less performance: a nine-passenger retrofitted Caravan only has a range of about 100 miles, whereas the newly designed nine-passenger Eviation Alice – the world’s first custom-built allelectric commuter aircraft – can do 500 miles.

But Jackson argues retrofitting gas-guzzling planes is a great place to start “because it’s

NEW ALL-ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT “The pros and cons of new aircraft and retrofitted planes are performance versus cost and time,” says Ganzarski.

Still, the wait for new all-electric aircraft may not be that long. “We’re not talking about 10 years or 20 years away,” says Ganzarski. “Within the next 5 years, you’re going to be seeing multiple new aircraft propelled by magniX already starting to fly, both in the US and in Europe,” he says. “Within 10 years, you’re going to see hundreds of these flying around.”

Eviation aims to have its Alice aircraft, propelled by magniX, airborne by the end of 2021. “We’ll be certified and ready to start taking people and packages in 2024. DHL, for example, has already ordered them because they know that when this thing takes off, pun intended, it’s going to be too late. And so a lot of these customers are already getting in line now to get the orders ahead of time.”

Charging time takes around 30 minutes, roughly the same time it takes to put fuel into a similar-sized traditional airplane. The only caveat, Ganzarski points out, is the current range of such an aircraft. “It’s a 500-mile range, so you’re not going to fly London to New York or London to Bahamas on this aircraft,” he says. “But London to Paris; London to Amsterdam; London to Nice; Paris to Geneva; these are all flights today that expensive jets do.”

The business potential for small electric passenger aircraft is clear and Ganzarski believes an aircraft like Alice will be an exciting proposition for operators, particularly in this great sustainability reset. “Passengers, boards

“

Everything in aerospace starts with propulsion. We have to do electric propulsion because without the propulsion, new airplanes couldn’t be created

”

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of directors and companies will no longer accept fuel-based flying when there’s an alternative,” he says. “Up until now, there hasn’t been an alternative, but now there’s going to be one they won’t accept the old ways. For example, in France, they’ve already passed a law that bans domestic flights when there’s a rail alternative.”

The experience for flyers will not only be elevated by the knowledge that they are travelling emissionsfree. “The experience starts way before the air. It actually starts with your booking,” says Ganzarski.

“A nine-passenger turboprop costs about $1,800 to $2,000 an hour; a small jet that can take six to nine passengers costs anywhere between $2,000 to $5,000 an hour to operate. The Alice will cost $400 to operate an hour. And so to that end, you’ll feel that difference already when you’re booking through significantly lower prices.”

On top of this, the Alice will be 20 decibels quieter, with less vibrations from an electric motor and large windows for enjoying the view, and of course no off-putting smell of Jet A fuel burning when you board.

CHALLENGES AHEAD Now that companies like magniX have solved propulsion, and Eviation have solved aircraft design, the next challenge is energy source. “Batteries and even fuel cells are not as good as fuel,” admits Ganzarski. “In fact, they never will be. You’ll never get the max range of an electric plane battery or fuel cell that you will get out of a fuel-based plane.”

Previous page The exterior and interior of Eviation Alice, the world’s first all-electric commuter aircraft

This page, clockwise from left Harbour Air CEO Greg McDougall and magniX CEO Roei Ganzarski; The Harbour Air ePlane takes to the skies; The magniX eCaravan, a modified Cessna 208B Caravan

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Flight path The evolution of human flight

1903 The Wright brothers make the first manned, powered, controlled flight, and inaugurated the aerial age.

1927 Charles Lindbergh completes the first solo non-stop transAtlantic flight, travelling from New York to Paris, France.

1930 British inventor Frank Whittle obtains his first patent for a turbo-jet engine.

1939 The Heinkel He 178 was the world’s first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, and the first practical jet aircraft.

Currently, to power a 737-sized jet with electricity would require a battery the size of the plane itself, making take-off virtually impossible.

But Ganzarski believes that asking if electric planes can match traditional aircraft in every situation is not the right question. “A Phenom 300 might be able to fly 1,000 miles non-stop, as opposed to an Alice that can only do 500 miles, but does anyone fly a Phenom 300 for 1,000 miles non-stop?

Most business aviation flights in Europe are less than an hour or so. Who cares that I could do 1,000 miles if I’m only flying 200 or 300 miles. Really the question that has to be asked is: ‘Is it good enough?’”

The pandemic might have given individuals and corporations pause for thought in regards to curbing the amount of flights they take, but the commercial airline industry is beginning to bounce back – and there has been a boom in the private aviation sector, given its new-found convenience and perceived lower health risks.

“It’s one of the most basic inherited human rights to aspire to a better life for yourself and your family,” Jackson says. “And part of that is exploration for business, leisure and for enjoyment – and that is travel. Victor is looking forward to welcoming the first generation of electric aircraft into its market as soon as it comes online.”

With trips under 100 miles accounting for 5 per cent of global flights, and nearly half of all commercial air travel less than 500 miles in range, the electric alternative certainly seems ‘good enough’ to start scaling up.

1947 Chuck Yeager pilots the first aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in level flight.

1969 The Tupolev Tu-144 and Concorde prototypes make their maiden flights, ushering in an era of supersonic travel.

1970 The first 747, a four-engine long-range airliner, flew its first commercial flight with Pan American World Airways.

1986 Rutan Voyager completes the first non-stop flight around the globe on one load of fuel.

2016 The first round-the-world solar powered flight is completed successfully.

2019 The Harbour Air ePlane, the world’s first fully-electric aircraft for commercial flight completes a test in Canada.

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The Holy Grail WITH ELECTRIC PROVIDING A SHORT-TERM ANSWER TO ALTERNATIVE FUEL DEMAND, JULIA ZALTZMAN QUESTIONS WHETHER HYDROGEN COULD BE THE LONG-TERM SOLUTION WE’VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR

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The race is on. Across the world, the promise to provide hydrogen-fuelled transportation is driving innovation.

In September 2021, Korean motorcar manufacturer Hyundai unveiled a new hydrogen strategy, including a commitment to apply hydrogen fuel cell systems to all models by 2028 and to popularise green hydrogen in the transport and industrial sectors by 2040.

The same month, US heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar and oil and gas supplier Chevron announced a collaboration to confirm hydrogen as a commercially viable alternative to traditional fuels for line-haul rail and marine vessels. And in air space, Air New Zealand still expects to test a zeroemissions plane by 2030 as part of its

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plan to replace its turboprop fleet with green aircraft, following its 2018 deal with turboprop manufacturer ATR to develop hybrid technology.

But, why the hype? Interest in the light colourless gas has boomed as many countries view hydrogen as a key way to decarbonise transport.

It’s a renewable energy with minimal environmental impact and is considered a clean fuel as it only produces water, not carbon dioxide, during production.

Furthermore, hydrogen can be seasonally stored and transported cost-effectively over long distances by ship or pipeline. Renewable hydrogen in combination with renewable electricity has the potential to entirely replace hydrocarbons in the long term.

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Since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the arrival of low carbon hydrogen has seen governments adopting net zero targets to slash emissions from highly polluting sectors. In 2020, hydrogen strategies were released from many countries and regions around the world, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, Chile, Morocco, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain, among others. The European Commission released the Hydrogen Strategy for a Climate-neutral Europe, as part of its European Green Deal, setting out a target of one million tonnes per year of hydrogen and electrolyser capacity of six gigawatts (GW) by 2024, and ten million tonnes per year and ‘2×40 GW’ by 2030.

More importantly then, why the wait?

To produce usable hydrogen, it has to be separated from water, biomass (plant and animal waste), coal or natural gas. Around 95 per cent of the hydrogen used today is produced by a process called steam reforming, which separates hydrogen atoms from carbon atoms in methane. And this process

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releases greenhouse gasses, which contributes to global warming.

There’s also the pertinent issue of supply and infrastructure, or lack of it. Green hydrogen, the holy grail of fuel made by using clean electricity from renewable energy technologies to electrolyse water, currently accounts for just 1 per cent of global hydrogen supply. Even if supply increased, the infrastructure to fulfil demand is virtually non-existent. That’s because green hydrogen needs to be made at locations with good solar and wind resources to keep transport and storage costs down. Good examples of these are desert regions, such as the Sahara Desert, Patagonia and certain coastal areas, as well as offshore wind farms.

But this then requires a trans-national hydrogen gas pipeline system to get the hydrogen from the point of production to the point of demand, i.e. airports, ports and motorways, as well as large-scale hydrogen storage facilities. At present, there are only nine hydrogen stations in the UK, five of which are inside the M25.

While these factors are not insurmountable, they do require action

Previous page A helicopter flies over Sinot Design’s hydrogen-powered concept yacht AQUA The page, from left The bow observatory, beach deck lounge, beach deck and exterior bow of the AQUA concept superyacht; Airbus hopes to make its ‘ZEROe’ aircrafts a reality by 2035

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from governments. Europe has a well-developed gas grid that can be converted to accommodate hydrogen at minimal cost. In July 2020, a group of 11 European gas infrastructure companies presented their roadmap for realising a dedicated European Hydrogen Backbone, which would consist of about 75 per cent converted gas pipelines and 25 per cent new hydrogen pipelines. The development of such large-scale sites for renewable hydrogen production requires governments to designate these areas.

All of this – along with uncertainty over cost – has understandably led to growing scepticism over the fuel’s efficiency and commercial viability, particularly at a global scale. But on the upside, the cost of renewable energies is falling exponentially, while investment in electrolysers (the ‘clean’ technology used to create green hydrogen) is booming worldwide. It’s currently estimated that green hydrogen production capacity could achieve a 50-fold increase within the next six years, which would put it on track to supply up to 25 per cent of the world’s energy needs by 2050. The European Commission also recently announced longer-term plans to install at least 40 GW of electrolyser capacity or up to 10 million megatons of green hydrogen by 2030. If achieved, this would transform Europe into the world’s largest producer of green hydrogen.

According to the Hydrogen Council, Europe is leading with investments of $130 billion. Governments across the region have reacted enthusiastically, including the UK which, in 2021, unveiled a hydrogen economy plan to create 9,000 jobs and unlock £4 billion of investment by 2030.

As a result, blue sky thinking from global creatives is finding its wings.

When Sinot Design’s superyacht concept AQUA hit the docks in 2018, it wasn’t just the glass-front observation lounge that turned heads but the futuristic-looking vessel’s liquified hydrogen propulsion system. The same year, the superyacht concept ACIONNA, designed by Andy Waugh Yacht Design, was inspired by a similar system currently being trialled in cruise ships and ferries, meaning the yacht would be equipped with its own hydrogencapturing drivetrain. Motivated by the International Maritime Organisation’s commitment to decarbonise vessels by 2050, new ideas from the maritime sector keep on coming.

However, perhaps one of the biggest areas of potential lies within aviation, which could see a reduction of CO2 emissions by up to 50 per cent. In 2020, the world’s first hydrogen-powered passenger plane took off from a British airfield. Retrofitted with a hydrogenpowered engine, the six-seater aircraft completed a 19-mile demonstration around Cranfield Airport in England.

Within commercial aviation, Airbus fully expects green hydrogen to power its future zero-emission aircraft – all codenamed ‘ZEROe’ – when they reach the market by 2035. The concepts rely on a ‘turbofan design’ with a range of 2,000+ nautical miles, capable of operating trans-continentally and powered by a modified gas-turbine engine running on hydrogen through combustion. The liquid hydrogen will be stored and distributed via tanks located behind the rear pressure bulkhead.

“This is a historic moment for the commercial aviation sector as a whole and we intend to play a leading role in the most important transition this industry has ever seen. The concepts we unveil today offer the world a glimpse of our ambition to drive a bold vision for the future of zero-emission flight,” says Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus.

“I strongly believe that the use of hydrogen – both in synthetic fuels and as a primary power source for commercial aircraft – has the potential to significantly reduce aviation’s climate impact.”

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THE H Y DROGEN R A INBOW

GREY is the most common form using the aforementioned steam reformation production BROWN is the cheapest yet least desirable, as it uses thermal coal in its production TURQUOISE uses methane pyrolysis but remains unproven at scale PURPLE uses methane pyrolysis but remains unproven at scale and is made from nuclear power BLUE is produced using natural gas but requires carbon emissions to be captured and remains in its infancy GREEN is made by using clean electricity from renewable energy technologies to electrolyse water, but at present is eye-wateringly expensive

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LIFT OFF FIVE DECADES AFTER HUMANS FIRST WALKED ON THE MOON, A NEW ERA OF SPACE TOURISM IS BEGINNING. JOHN ARLIDGE REPORTS

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“Few have come before and many are about to follow,” Commander Jared Isaacman said last September as he and three Americans strapped themselves inside a slightly sooty 229-feet-tall Falcon 9 rocket and blasted off from Florida into space. “The door to space is now open.”

The five-hour jaunt, part of Tesla boss Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket programme, was the first around the Earth by private citizens and it certainly won’t be the last ‘civilian’ space flight.

Sir Richard Branson, the British serial entrepreneur, who successfully flew to the edge of space in his Virgin Galactic Voyager craft in July, says he’ll begin taking paying passengers on stellar flights “early next year”.

He claims to have signed up 700, including Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher and Justin Bieber. Each will pay $250,000 for the experience. Virgin Galactic hopes to raise prices as demand grows. “I think we’re going to be deluged with people wanting to go to space,” Branson says.

A steep price? It’s worth the price, says Hayley Arceneaux, one of Isaacman’s crew members. “That last view of the Earth from the cupola made me emotional because it was just so awe-inspiring, and I knew I’d be thinking about that for the rest of my life,” she said after landing. “All you could see was the entire planet… stars and the moon, and that was such a lifechanging moment.”

As well as space tourism, Branson has his sights on longhaul air travel above the Earth’s atmosphere, where lower gravity and lack of air resistance would save vastly on time and fuel. He believes it will be possible, in his lifetime, to fly ‘hypersonic’ through space from London to Australia in a couple of hours. Sydney for lunch, anyone?

Branson and Musk are not alone in their cosmic ambitions.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man with a net worth of almost $200 billion, travelled into low orbit in his Blue Origin craft a week after Branson last summer. He unbuckled his safety harnesses and experienced weightlessness before the roughly four-minute free-fall back to Earth. “Best. Day. Ever,” he proclaimed in a message from the capsule. He is expected to sell tickets to paying passengers for between $200,000 and $300,000.

Good old-fashioned ego is the rocket fuel of the privatesector rivalry among the new space cowboys. Being the first to create a business that is out of this world will give Musk, Branson and Bezos bragging rights for life. But there’s cash at stake, too. Lots of it. Analysts estimate that the global space industry will grow from about $400 billion now to more than $1 trillion by 2040, comprising tourism and possible mineral extraction.

Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have created dedicated teams to conduct financial research on the emerging space travel sector. Wall Street likens it to bioscience: an area that will produce big “hits” for investors over the long term, even if the short-term risks are great.

“

Good old-fashioned ego is the rocket fuel of the private-sector rivalry among the new space cowboys

”

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Bezos hopes that many of us will one day work in space, in manufacturing and mining. Asteroids hold minerals that will eventually be exhausted on Earth. “We have sent robotic probes to every planet and we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Earth is the best,” he says. “The only way to protect it is eventually to move heavy industry off Earth. Space is a much better place to do heavy manufacturing. In space, you have 24/7 solar power.

Every kind of element is available.”

Bezos also wants humans to live in space. In May, he unveiled plans for a lunar lander. ‘Blue Moon’, as it is called, is just one phase of a bold plan to establish large off-world settlements. “It’s time to go back to the moon – this time to stay,” Bezos said in Washington DC in May. “We are going to build a road to space and then amazing things will happen.”

Exactly what these settlements might look like so far remains unclear. But Harold Bloom, a member of the board of governors of the National Space Society, reckons that Bezos is heavily influenced by Gerald O’Neill, a physicist at Princeton, whom Bezos met as a student.

“Bezos is keeping alive the idea of the O’Neill colonies that can be 20 miles in one direction and 1 mile around and that can have 500 square miles of territory with forests, parks, farms, and puppy dogs, plus cities,” Bloom recently said.

Musk also aims to set up permanent colonies on the Moon and (ultimately) Mars to guarantee our survival in the event that Earth suffers a devastating asteroid strike or devastating global pandemic. “Becoming a multi-planet species beats the hell out of being a single-planet species,” he says with typical ambition.

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Could it really be possible to colonise other planets? Mars is a stretch alright. Of the 49 missions up to December 2020, only about 20 have been successful, despite some big names throwing bucket loads of cash at the voyage. In 2016, the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli Mars Explorer crashed into the surface. Ongoing technical difficulties have forced the ESA to postpone its next mission until 2022.

But Nasa is on the hunt for a lunar base that can guarantee light and frozen water. It faces competition from a planned joint Russian-Chinese lunar research station which Moscow and Beijing say should be ready for crewed visits by 2036.

The challenges remain huge. The first is cost – $100 billion is often quoted as the anticipated cost to set up a few settlements on the Moon. Even establishing a basic outpost would be a grindingly costly affair. Robots would have to excavate rock samples and return them to Earth for analysis to find a suitable site. Unmanned spaceships would then have to transport the construction materials the Moon and more robots would have to use them to create settlements.

Eventually, the humans would turn up.

The Numbers

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“

I believe that, once people have gone to space, they will come back with renewed enthusiasm to try to tackle what is happening on this planet

”

Previous page, from left The Earth from space, as captured by NASA; The crew of Shepard

by Blue Origin, founded

by Jeff Bezos; New Shepard lifts off from its Texas launch pad in July 2021

This page, from left Virgin Galactic’s Vss Unity spaceship glides home after a supersonic flight; Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-build commercial spaceport; Virgin Galactic Founder Richard Branson; A sneak peek inside the Vss Unity spaceship

EACH VIRGIN GALACTIC PASSENGER WILL PAY $250,000

THE GLOBAL SPACE INDUSTRY WILL GROW FROM ABOUT $400 BILLION NOW TO MORE THAN $1 TRILLION BY 2040

The new ‘astropreneurs’ have their critics. Detractors argue they could better invest their cash on Earth to benefit more people. Promoting space tourism when ordinary citizens are being asked to change their Earth-bound diets and travel and consume less to fight climate change is a very tough sell. In a recent interview, Prince William wondered whether the likes of Musk, Bezos and Branson don’t need to get their heads out of the clouds and focus on what’s at their feet. “We need some of the world’s greatest brains and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not trying to find the next place to go and live,” he told the BBC. But perhaps, as so often is the case, the answer lies in pursuing both arguments at once. Fixing the climate emergency will take time. Many countries aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The new space cowboys argue that by that time we could already be moving carbon-heavy industries such as mining off Earth.

In any case, the successors to Gagarin, Armstrong and Aldrin have achieved one thing: they have made it possible for any of us – for a price – to knock on heaven’s door and maybe change it and the world for the better.

SPACE IS A MUCH BETTER PLACE TO DO HEAVY MANUFACTURING. IN SPACE, YOU HAVE 24/7 SOLAR POWER

RUSSIAN–CHINESE LUNAR RESEARCH STATION SHOULD BE READY FOR CREWED VISITS BY 2036

JUST SO WE’RE CLEAR We’re the only private aviation company that’s always been transparent

You know the operator you’re going to be flying with, at the point of quotation You know every detail of each aircraft including fuel burn, fuel efficiency and total carbon emissions You know we offset every flight by 200% and offer a sustainable aviation fuel upgrade where available You know we publish our independently audited total flight emissions and carbon offset investment More transparency, more peace of mind A better way to fly

DISCOVER VICTOR

Total CO2 emissions = 20,942 tonnes from 2,770 flights CO2 emissions offset = 200% of total emitted Offsets purchased and retired = 45,084 carbon credits via Vertis & South Pole Total investment in climate action = 2.4% of Gross Profit All data for 2020, audited by Cooper Parry LLP

WHEN YOU KNOW

flyvictor.com | UK: +44 (0)20 7384 8550 | US: +1 877 275 9336 | DE: +49 89 242 18 236 | FR: +33 805 086 683

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The Offset Balance AS CALLS FOR GREATER ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION BECOME LOUDER, WHAT ROLE DOES CARBON OFFSETTING HAVE ON A PATH TO CLIMATE SUSTAINABILITY? WE SPEAK TO FOUR INDUSTRY EXPERTS TO FIND OUT introduction > JAMES FARLE Y

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The world’s first carbon offset project was launched in 1989 when Connecticutbased Applied Energy Services financed an agriforest in Guatemala to offset the emissions of its new coal-fired power plant.

While the project’s founders claimed the venture to be a success, several independent studies argued that while the project design was well intentioned, the environmental and social impact was significantly lower than initially modelled and, ultimately, the emissions were never fully offset.

In many ways, a failure would not be surprising. Innovative projects burdened with a myriad of sensitive dependencies rarely succeed first time. What’s undeniable though is the fact that this initiative was visionary. Eight years later, the signing of the Kyoto Protocol enabled the global commoditisation of the carbon market.

It allowed countries that had emission units to spare – emissions permitted but not ‘used’ – to sell this excess capacity to countries that were over their targets.

With globalisation on an unstoppable rise, this was a global solution to a global problem. Over time, the conversation around offsetting has become more complex and its place in sustainability increasingly debated.

Critics point to the fundamental fact that the practice of offsetting does not itself create an actual carbon reduction.

They argue that the positive effects of offsetting projects are difficult to estimate and monitor and, in some cases, projects would’ve been viable without investment.

Critics claim that the unregulated Voluntary Carbon Market encourages adverse behaviours, and that individuals and organisations may choose an easier path of pay-to-pollute to avoid the complexities and costs of reducing emissions at the source.

Proponents of carbon offsets are equally entrenched. They claim that offsets create new environmental benefits where they do not exist, that projects can bring a multitude of other social benefits to countries that greatly need them, that the scientific standards are transparent and that there is a high level of independent auditing at both the project scoping and monitoring stages.

The key argument that advocates offer is that without carbon offsets and an offset market, what other open market mechanism is there available to individuals and organisations that wish to generate environmental improvements in all areas of the world?

As we emerge from the pandemic, there is growing public support for a more environmentally sustainable future and more aggressive actions to realise this aim.

These calls are met with varying levels of

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commitments by corporations that, over time, will face increasing pressures to formally chart their paths to Net Zero. Expanding offset markets while investing in carbon reduction systems and infrastructure will be key.

In Europe, former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has been looking to improve the carbon markets. His position is that the voluntary offset market “operates in the shadows,” with some good “but lots of bad” schemes that “hurt” carbon-reduction efforts.

Carney’s recent Taskforce On Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets recommended that a regulator oversee the market’s growth and allay fears of ‘greenwashing’ or using ineffective credits to selfpromote eco-credentials.

At a macro level, we know that carbon credits represent the potential to offset about 10 per cent of overall climate change, so, while they certainly have a part to play on the path to a more sustainable future, they only form part of the solution.

Private aviation offers a prime case study of an industry that needs to go through several stages of reinvention to reach true sustainability. In the long run, electric and hydrogen planes will herald the advent of true Net Zero for the industry, although electric solutions are at least a decade away and hydrogen is on a longer path to viability. However, given that a private jet emits up to 20 times more CO2 per passenger mile than a commercial airliner, action needs to be taken now and a defined, practical and multi-stage path for the industry be charted.

Victor, the environmentalism leader in the private aviation sector, has laid out a clear direction for others to follow.

You can see the breakdown of the company’s climate actions on page 54.

“Our sustainability mantra has always been: Avoid, Reduce, Mitigate and Innovate for the future,” says Victor Chairman Clive Jackson. “To mitigate means that if you have to fly, then at least have the good grace to clean up after yourself. That might include purchasing carbon offsets, optimising flight routes or flying with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to reduce emissions. We do all three. It’s a substantial cost – hundreds of thousands of dollars each year – that comes out of our bottom line. But we fly the leaders of the world and we need to embrace the responsibility that comes with the privilege.”

CHARLIE KRONICK Senior Climate Advisor, Greenpeace UK

Carbon offsetting, at its simplest, involves paying for someone else to reduce or remove carbon, while you carry on pumping into the atmosphere. This is nothing new. But, right now, it’s being supercharged. As thousands of businesses announce netzero pledges, too many are banking on carbon offsetting as a substitute for the hard but necessary work of decarbonisation.

The problem is that carbon offsetting doesn’t do what it says on the label. Offsets don’t ‘neutralise’ or cancel out emissions. To meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement, and to avoid the worst impacts of catastrophic climate change, it is essential to begin a massive reduction in carbon emissions now – by around 50 per cent in the next decade. Protecting forests and restoring natural ecosystems is vital both for biodiversity and the climate, but we must be doing that as well as cutting emissions directly, not as a substitute.

Greenpeace UK doesn’t buy carbon offsets. However, in 2009/2010, we set a target to reduce emissions by 42 per cent in a 10-year period.

This target was achieved by planning and prioritising projects based on their environmental, economic and social impacts. Our 2020 emission levels are approximately 42 per cent lower compared to 2010.

We also reduced our environmental impact in a financially sustainable

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way: the global net present value (NPV) of all the projects implemented during the 2010–2020 period is positive. This means that instead of spending money on improving our environmental performance, we achieved an overall costreduction per tonne CO2 saved (over the lifetimes of the projects). We are now entering a new 10-year plan, focusing on reducing our energy consumption while maximising on-site renewable energy generation.

The ambitions of Total, EasyJet, Goldman Sachs, etc., as part of the Taskforce to Scale Voluntary Markets that propose to scale that market up to 160 times its current market value seem far more based on the money from trading carbon credits and reputational gloss for participants, than whether these efforts help us stay below the 1.5°C temperature rise limit – the objective of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Schemes that claim to have ‘avoided’ harm through a simple bank transfer are impossible to verify and too often based on exaggerated claims. A one-off payment for a carbon credit does not assure the growth of trees, nor protection of forests from fires or industrial pressures, across the centuries that polluters’ emissions will linger in our atmosphere.

Greenpeace emission levels

100%

42%

2010

2020

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KATERINA KOLACIOVA Carbon and EAC Trader and Sustainability Advisor, Vertis Environmental Finance

Since 2015, 194 nations have signed the Paris Agreement but, to date, national policies are proving inadequate and it’s clear that corporations must go beyond compliance to help achieve the 1.5°C target. Every company needs to measure and understand its climate impact, set science-based goals, develop a mitigation strategy with short-, midand long-term roadmaps, and establish a climate

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advocacy strategy to guide supply chains, customers and stakeholders on their climate journey. Some emission reductions are quick and easy, while others require years of work and large investment.

At Strive, Vertis’ new climate action consultancy, we help our clients with all these challenges and where required, we support our clients to take responsibility of their footprints via carbon offsetting. The role of global carbon markets is to accelerate the emission reductions and channel financing towards projects that verifiably reduce or sequester GHG from the atmosphere in the most cost efficient and timely manner. As the majority of projects are implemented in developing countries, they contribute co-benefits such as improving local livelihoods through

ERON BLOOMGARDEN CEO, Emergent & Leaf Coalition

10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to tropical deforestation

We launched LEAF this past April on Earth Day at the White House Climate Summit where we announced an initial commitment of

$1 billion

The world has an urgent window of opportunity to address the climate crisis.

We need to think big, move quickly, and find large-scale solutions.

Emergent is a mission-led, non-profit company, dedicated to reversing tropical and subtropical deforestation.

Emergent acts as a market intermediary between forest jurisdictions and corporate buyers to facilitate transactions of high-quality emissions credits. The nonprofit works

job creation, conserving biodiversity and increasing the use of sustainable agricultural practices.

It is therefore vitally important that our client investments are credible and have environmental integrity.

Established in 1999, Vertis is a pioneer in the carbon markets, helping clients navigate climate policy, the markets and implementing high quality offsetting strategies where internal reductions require time. Our due diligence process assesses credible crediting schemes that ensure additionality, permanence, traceability, transparency and other key criteria for registered projects.

We assess the financial and reputational health of project developers and annually review the project integrity as we examine the monitoring and third-party audit reports, that

are compulsory under each internationally recognised scheme. Our analysis is verified by established, global leaders in method certification such as SGS and Bureau Veritas, who audit our decision making at both the project design and project monitoring stages.

At Vertis and Strive, we believe that voluntary carbon offsetting plays an important role in increasing corporate environmental investment and meeting of the Paris Agreement targets. We are dedicated to bringing finance to projects with verified impacts on climate, biodiversity and communities and we continue to support recognised voluntary carbon schemes such as Gold Standard or Verra, as in our opinion currently they provide the most robust structure for the delivery of credible emission reductions.

with some of the largest companies in the world to protect the world’s forests by changing financial incentives on the ground. The aim is to make standing forests worth more alive than dead.

Tropical deforestation accounts for nearly 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and reversing deforestation can be a significant part of the climate solution. In fact, we know that the path to achieving the goals of the Paris agreement runs straight through protection of the world’s forests and ecosystem at massive scale. In other words, there really is no feasible way to achieve a safe climate without dramatically and quickly reversing deforestation in the coming decade. The good news is that nature-based solutions are starting to play an increasingly important role in corporate climate commitments.

Emergent works with large corporations that aim to protect nature as part of their climate commitments.

We focus on large-scale impact by working with forest jurisdictions of whole countries and states, rather than just on individual projects.

Emergent is also the coordinator of the LEAF Coalition, a public-private coalition launched earlier this year, which aims to mobilise large-scale finance to protect tropical forests.

We launched LEAF this past April on Earth Day at the White House Climate Summit where we announced an initial commitment of $1 billion. The goal of LEAF is to bring unprecedented scale of finance to support systemic change in reversing deforestation. We recognise that to address the multiple crises we face – climate, deforestation and extinction –

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The Paris Agreement aims to limit the global average temperature increase to

1.5°C

above pre-industrial levels

GILLES DUFRASNE Over

190 parties

have signed the agreement

Parties committed to a net domestic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least

55%

by 2030

we need collective action and coordination from public and private sectors, as well as civil society.

Companies participating in LEAF are committing to first and foremost reduce emissions within their own operations and value chains, and then purchase emissions reduction credits for emissions they can’t reduce on their own. In this way, LEAF is a high-ambition coalition of companies increasing ambition to climate action, and forest countries increasing ambition to reduce deforestation.

Currently participating in the LEAF coalition are the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, and Norway – and leading companies including Amazon, Airbnb, Bayer, BCG, Delta Airlines, GSK, McKinsey, PwC, Salesforce, Unilever, Nestlé, and Eon.

Policy Officer, Carbon Market Watch

Recently, a mining company in Cumbria said it wanted to make its coal mine carbon neutral by using carbon credits. That is one of the best examples I’ve seen of how not to use carbon offsets. You can’t make your new coal mine carbon neutral. Also, I don’t think there is such a thing as a “carbon neutral” fossil fuel.

It’s a bit of an oxymoron.

When it comes to carbon credits, it’s quite tricky for the average consumer to know whether a credit is good or not. They must be careful regarding the quality of the credits and how they’re being used. They need to ask themselves, what am I buying, are they good credits and being used in the right way?

There are independent agencies like the Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standards that monitor projects, but just because a credit is issued by those agencies doesn’t mean it’s a good credit.

No programme is perfect.

They all issue credits which have a high level of uncertainty and risk of nonpermanence (e.g. credits for soil carbon or avoided deforestation). There’s an ongoing disagreement about how to avoid double counting. Standards are relatively transparent, but highly complex. What is not transparent are the transactions, e.g. data about volumes of credits traded and prices. Many projects are overestimating the

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impact they’re having and issuing too many credits.

There needs to be a shift in mentality so people understand that buying carbon credits does not fully make up for your carbon footprint, because there is a degree of uncertainty in measuring both emissions and reductions.

The best way of avoiding greenwashing is to start from the idea that whatever credit you purchase, your decisions still have an impact on the climate, and addressing this impact is your best chance of making a difference. But private flyers should not simply rely on offsets, because that’s easy. If the wealthiest actors do not invest in actual decarbonisation of the aviation sector, then who will? For private business aviation, offsetting is a cheap excuse.

carbon credits

Consumers need to ask themselves

“

what am I buying, are they good credits and being used in the right way?

”

The best way of avoiding greenwashing is to start from the idea that whatever credit you purchase, your decisions still have an impact on the climate

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Flight

Framework for Change WITH THE NEW DAWN OF 2022, VICTOR IS ON A MISSION TO BUILD ON ITS PREVIOUS COMMITMENTS. GOING BEYOND THE COMPANY’S AMBITIONS, VICTOR RE-SETS INTENTIONS TO POSITIVELY IMPACT THE ENTIRE AVIATION INDUSTRY – AND THE WIDER WORLD

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LEADING BY EXAMPLE Building on its long-held commitment to climate action, Victor follows a five-step environmental action plan created in 2021 with approval from the European Business Aviation Association. The proposal calls for greater education, access, investment and transparency across the private aviation industry and gives businesses a fivestep framework by which they can demonstrate their commitment to building a more sustainable industry.

REFRESHING COMMITMENTS Since 2019, Victor has been the first private aviation company in the world to double carbon offset the CO2 emitted from its flights.

Unwavering from this commitment throughout 2020 and 2021, Victor recommits its pledge for 2022 – and beyond. Contributions fund carbon reduction projects, selected by carbon credit providers Vertis and South Pole, such as the Jiangxi Province Le’an County Forest

Farm Carbon Sink Project in China, the Kariba REDD+ Project in Zimbabwe and the Tambopata-Bahuaja Biodiversity Reserve in Peru.

TAKING ACCOUNTABILITY Victor understands that transparency is vital, so the team has committed to publishing its environmental performance online. The report, which is produced annually and audited by Cooper Parry, discloses the CO2 emissions from the company and its flights, as well as the amount of carbon offset and projects the carbon credits are invested in. Victor encourages others within the industry to do the same and open themselves up to third-party verification.

RAISING AWARENESS Every Victor charter quote sent from the company to its customers highlights the fuel burn and CO2 emissions created by their flight to ensure flyers have access to the carbon data associated with the flight and in a bid to encourage them to choose the most fuel-efficient

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aircraft type when they travel.

Looking ahead, Victor’s ambition is to ignite future generations and inspire and engage the world’s youth through innovation programmes in schools across the globe, as well as well-known influencers.

ENGAGING FLYERS While Victor already commits to carbon offset flights by 200 per cent, flyers are encouraged to add their own contribution and match Victor’s 200 per cent pledge, bringing the total offset to 400 per cent. On average, the cost to offset miles adds just 0.3 per cent to the cost of a flight, meaning that it’s a low-cost commitment for flyers with a high-value reward for the planet. Victor is also supporting the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Some popular airports in Europe, such as Biggin Hill and Farnborough, have SAF onsite and Victor encourages customers to add a blend of SAF on their charter flight, to reduce the lifecycle carbon emissions by up to 80 per cent compared to traditional jet fuel.

Clockwise from top left The TambopataBahuaja Biodiversity Reserve in Peru: helping local farmers’ transition to sustainable cacao production and providing a habitat for incredible biodiversity; The Kariba REDD+ Project in Zimbabwe supports a range of activities beyond environmental protection, including the provision of school subsidies to the poorest quartile of the population; Conservation farming at the forest protection project

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Five Steps to Change Victor’s five-step proposal for a better aviation industry.

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AWARENESS Investing in education and raising awareness with consumers, supply chain and future generations of the impact of their carbon footprint and how they can reduce or mitigate it.

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MITIGATION Every flight must be beyond carbon neutral.

This can be achieved by offsetting more than the total emissions of that flight or by engaging a hybrid solution of offsetting and sustainable aviation fuel, where available.

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NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS Choose offsetting providers and projects that offer nature-based solutions and are Gold Standard or Voluntary Carbon Standard accredited.

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THIRD-PARTY VERIFICATION Openly publish the carbon emissions of the company operations and flight performance, as well as the mitigation strategy. The emissions and associated carbon credit retirement should be audited by a third party as the company itself cannot objectively mark its own efforts.

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INNOVATION AND REDUCTION Invest time and research into exploring new technologies that will deliver a proven reduction on the impact on global warming. Smart technology might include SAF viability, optimising flight routes or research into contrails to reduce the quantum of emissions.

THE ART OF LUXURY Premium Caviar

Attilus proudly presents an exclusive collection of caviars for food lovers.

Handcrafted on the banks of the River Elster, Attilus’s caviar is produced by Siberian and Russian sturgeon, and cleansed with pure artesian water. The precise seasoning process results in an extraordinary taste that is both smooth and luxurious. find out more at:

www.attilus.co.uk www.attiluskaviar.de © Copyright 2019 Attilus. All rights reserved.

LIFE TASTES GOOD Be discerning.

The world is changing at a rapid pace. From arctic adventures to the cities of the future, discover the best opportunities for exploration across the globe

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What to Do in

22 VICTOR’S ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO 22 BRAND NEW EXPERIENCES AND MUST-SEE DESTINATIONS ACROSS THE GLOBE IN 2022 – AND BEYOND

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Journey to the land of the midnight sun BEST FOR ADVENTURE TRAVELLERS

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Journey by train, plane and helicopter on an epic voyage through the mighty fjords and rugged landscapes of Norway with award-winning luxury tour operator Scott Dunn. Travelling from Oslo towards Bergen along the iconic Flåm railway, venture off the beaten path to stay at 29/2 Aurland. Find space and solitude at this authentic familyrun Norwegian home, set on a rural farm deep in the Aurland fjord region. In the company of your local hosts, Tone and Bjorn, enjoy endless outdoor adventures and dine on exquisite Norwegian produce harvested straight from the property’s garden. Continue by helicopter to the Storfjord Hotel, with a private boat trip through the UNESCOlisted Geirangerfjord, sailing between the rising mountains and still waters of this magical region. Onwards to Flatflesa private island for a truly solitary escape, staying in the island’s eerily beautiful lighthouse.

Join the islanders to catch your own crabs and feast on a typical Norwegian seafood meal in a rustic crab shack. Flying back to the mainland by helicopter, take in the fairytale Nordic landscape below – the perfect conclusion to your Norway adventure. scottdunn.com

Browse art in Ghana BEST FOR COLLECTORS

The Pan African Heritage World Museum is scheduled to open in 2022. Housing archives, exhibits, galleries and a theatre, it aims to become a must-visit for anyone interested in Africa’s history and its people’s heritage. A new architecture school, the African Futures Institute (AFI), will open in summer 2022, to cultivate regional talent. The AFI is the brainchild of Lesley Lokko, the founder and director of the Graduate School of Architecture in Johannesburg, in collaboration with award-winning London-based Ghanaian architect David Adjaye. While in town, also check out ADA, a contemporary gallery that launched in late 2021 and showcases the work of emerging creatives such as Nigerian artist Eniwaye Oluwaseyi and South Africa’s Zandile Tshabalala. ada-accra.com

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Retreat to the Middle East’s first full-immersion wellness resort BEST FOR WELLNESS ENTHUSIASTS

Chiva-Som in Thailand is one of the world’s best known and best-loved destination spas, catering to an international clientele with a menu of services steeped in local tradition and knowledge.

That same spirit of holistic care now finds a sister home in Qatar at the new Zulal Wellness Resort by Chiva-Som, located on the coast in northern Qatar. Discover practices grounded in traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine and be guided along healthy routes to better nutrition, movement and rest. chivasom.com

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Charter a sleek superyacht BEST FOR GROUPS

Named after the insect due to her shape and speed, Moskito is one of the most sought-after superyachts in the charter market. Built by Dutch shipyard Heesen with exterior design by Omega Architects and interiors by British design duo Bannenberg & Rowell, the 55-metre superyacht, which launched in 2021, is stylish, spacious and speedy. The special design of her slippery hull means she can slice through the water elegantly and reach top speeds of 15.5 knots, but you won’t feel it on board. Moskito is available for charter in the Mediterranean during the summer and in the Caribbean during the winter via International Yacht Collection.

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Indulge in conscious travel at a Kenyan sanctuary BEST FOR PHILANTHROPISTS

The Sanctuary at Ol Lentille that sits on a mountain ridge on Kenya’s Laikipia plateau, surrounded by its own 40,000 acre conservancy, has just undergone a full refit, making it one of the finest private lodges in Africa. Its four large houses – no mere rooms, here – accommodate a total of just 16 guests. As well as great game viewing – on horseback if you like, the long hikes up mountain peaks are a big draw. Ol Lentille is owned by the local Maasai community. Stays fund the Ol Lentille Trust, which supports about 10,000 members of the neighbouring Maasai and Samburu communities. The Trust has built 12 schools, a hospital and water management systems. New activities for 2022 include an evening at the Manyatta, a Maasai village, hosted

by Maasai elders where guests dine and are treated to conversation and traditional entertainment. A ‘cinema under the stars’ will show classic movies on a giant screen by a campfire and, for younger guests, the Young Morani Camp, a bush lore and survival camp led by a Maasai or Samburu warrior caters to children and families. ol-lentille.com

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Rediscover the beauty of Hawaii

Visit the first hotel in Dubai’s World Islands

BEST FOR ENVIRONMENTALISTS

BEST FOR LUXURY SEEKERS

Nicknamed the Big Island, the island of Hawaii has made use of the lockdownenforced pause to rethink and reset the direction of tourism – and better protect its natural beauty. The statewide ‘Malama Hawaii’ initiative encourages visitors to connect with the land in more restorative ways. Among other initiatives, hotels are partnering with local NGOs to offer activities such as planting a koa sapling and participating in beach cleaning. Elsewhere on the island, Volcanoes National Park is undergoing a recovery project to repair damage from the 2018 eruption of the Kilauea volcano.

When the man-made World Islands, built by dredging sand from Dubai’s coastal waters, were first unveiled, they gained international attention but fallout of the 2008 financial crisis meant they lay undeveloped for many years – until now.

The development finally has its first hotel, located in the South America ‘continent’. The milestone Anantara World Islands Dubai Resort, which opened in late 2021, is accessible only via boat and features chic beach villas with private pools and some pretty spectacular views of the city. anantara.com

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Sail the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser BEST FOR KIDS

It’s not an actual starship that flies you round a universe far, far away, but it feels very close to it. Walt Disney World Resort Florida’s new all-inclusive hotel opens up an immersive experience in 2022, with an itinerary for your stay that invites you to live out a Star Wars story over two days and two nights, with starry characters, galactic cuisine and scenes of space right outside your windows. It’s taken the Disney Imagineers five and a half years to build this first-of-itskind experience. You and your children can be some of the first to wield a lightsaber if the force is with you. disneyworld.co.uk

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Re-boot your immune system BEST FOR HEALTH-CONSCIOUS TRAVELLERS

Palazzo Fiuggi Wellness Medical Retreat in Italy has launched a post-Covid-19 programme to evaluate and treat organs and internal systems that may have been weakened by the virus. Guided by a team of medical and wellness professionals, the course is designed to support and rebuild a resilient and improved immune system.

Blending science-based practices with holistic treatments and nutrition, the retreat aims to heal and energise the body from the inside out, and leave guests with the knowledge and tools to live a longer, healthier life after experiencing Covid-19. palazzofiuggi.com

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Stay in the Palace of Versailles BEST FOR HISTORIANS 10

Encounter mountain gorillas in Rwanda BEST FOR ANIMAL LOVERS

It’s a moment no bucket list should be without. Trekking Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park to spend time with one of 12 habituated mountain gorilla families in the area, watching them play, feed and interact. To do it in style, stay at One&Only’s recently opened Gorilla’s Nest, a sublime sanctuary, surrounded by eucalyptus trees, which offers a variety of compelling activities. With numbers visiting the gorillas tightly restricted, the hotel takes care of all permits and guides. Rest easy in the knowledge the conservation scheme is a Rwandan success story, helping to protect gorillas and support the local community. oneandonlyresorts.com

Once the royal seat of Louis XVI, the Palace of Versailles is opening its doors to overnight visitors for the first time.

Airelles Château de Versailles, Le Grand Contrôle, which opened within the palace grounds in summer 2021, offers the ultimate immersion into French history. The hotel, housed in a 400-yearold building, has secured exclusive palace access for guests, who have the choice of 14 spectacular suites named after notable French persons. arielles.com

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Go heli-skiing in Chile

Hire Richard Branson’s mansion on Necker Island

BEST FOR THRILL SEEKERS

BEST FOR CELEBRITY FANATICS

Canada and Norway may be among the world’s best-known heli-skiing destinations, but there’s an emerging place where enthusiasts can enjoy the high-octane sport away from the crowds. Chile, known for its flavoursome cuisine and colourful culture, is home to the Patagonia mountains – a thrill-seeker’s playground. In the winter months, visitors can enjoy some of the best skiing in the continent – with the most elevated spots being reached by helicopter. Luxury travel company Leo Trippi organises an action-packed itinerary centred around the Rio Palena Lodge in a remote corner of Patagonia.

Longtime fans of Necker Island can finally rent Richard Branson’s 11-bedroom mansion on the famous Necker Island, which has hosted the likes of Barack and Michelle Obama, Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela. Three of the island’s ten private estates are available to rent, alongside two uniquely designed estates on Branson’s new purchase, the 12-acre neighbouring Moskito Island. The estates are available for exclusive buyouts through Virgin Limited Edition. virginlimitededition.com

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Meet a Geiko in Kyoto BEST FOR CULTURE VULTURES

The iconic white makeup. The immaculate lacquered hair. The ceremonial kimono.

Meeting a geiko (geisha) or maiko (an apprentice) in Kyoto, the ancient imperial capital of Japan, is one of life’s rare honours.

The recently opened Aman Kyoto, set in tranquil gardens close to 17 Unesco World Heritage sites, has privileged access to such cultural events out of reach for many travellers. Stay in its magical, minimalist haven and let them arrange it all. Watch your maiko perform traditional dances and play Japanese musical instruments, engage in parlour games and take tea with her. We bow slowly and politely at the possibility. aman.com

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Take a Grand Tour of Arabia

Take a working holiday at Aerial BVI

BEST FOR CULTURE CONNOISSEURS

BEST FOR ENTREPRENEURS

After ten years of delay – and anticipation – the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is finally scheduled to open this year (2022) in Giza. It will become the largest archaeological museum in the world, with more than 100,000 ancient artefacts – including thousands from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Go visit and then continue your cultural grand tour of the Middle East by travelling ‘around the corner’ to Doha to check out the new Rem Koolhaas-designed Qatar National Library, the new(ish) National Museum, penned by Jean Nouvel, and the latest exhibitions at the Museum of Islamic Art, I. M. Pei’s modern Islamic masterpiece. For your last stop, fly the 20-minute hop to the UAE to visit the Louvre Abu Dhabi (nouvel again) where the Western and Islamic art worlds collide. grandegyptianmuseum.org, qnl.qa, mia.org.qa, louvreabudhabi.ae

Aerial BVI, a new private island retreat in the British Virgin Islands, claims to guide guests on the path to further wealth and success. Guests can sign up for transformative incubator programmes called ‘Elevate Summits’ – 2022’s schedule includes Dream, Presence and Abundance – or join a calendar of open host summits. The set-up is pretty spectacular, too, with five seafront residences sleeping a total of 30, and various gastronomy and leisure opportunities.

The whole island can be booked for private events. aerialbvi.com

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Sleep in train upcycled by Bill Bensley BEST FOR DESIGN ZEALOTS

Designed using upcycled train carriages, the InterContinental Khao Yai National Park is set to be Thailand’s most unusual hotel. The brainchild of visionary designer Bill Bensley, who’s renowned for his creative storytelling, the resort is inspired by the area’s history as a gateway for rail transportation during King Rama V’s reign. Scheduled to open in 2022, the property tells the story of a train conductor and his love for train travel around southeast Asia.

It’s also got a sustainable edge – its 45 rooms and 16 suites are actually re-purposed heritage train cars. ihg.com

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Stay in a former royal Indian fort BEST FOR ROYALISTS

Holiday like Indian royalty at a 14th-century fort that’s been sensitively converted into a Six Senses sanctuary of well-being. Originally owned by a Rajasthani royal family, the walled fort reinterprets the regal ambience of a bygone era. It houses two palaces and two temples dating back 700 years, a spa where guests can indulge in traditional Ayurveda treatments, and a rewilded forest brimming with wildlife. sixsenses.com

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Hike to the North Pole – while you still can BEST FOR POLAR EXPLORERS

With global warming thinning ice caps at a worrying rate, expeditions to the North Pole are becoming increasingly perilous. Therefore, 2022 might be your last chance to make the quest, at least in the way it was intended – unsupported, unassisted and by foot. A number of adventure travel companies are still supporting such expeditions, including Cookson Adventures, founded by British polar explorer Henry Cookson, who took part in a race to the Magnetic North Pole in 2005. As well as guiding the complex expedition, which can often be delayed due to the weather, Cookson and his team organise activities from the staging post in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, turning the journey into an experience in itself. cooksonadventures.com

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Explore the deep blue in a submersible BEST FOR UNDERWATER EXPLORERS

Fraser & Uboat have come together to launch the Deep Blue Experience, giving divers and non-divers alike the chance to unlock the mysteries of the ocean with a charter trip on the U Boat Navigator. Diving up to 3,000 feet underwater, the submersible takes passengers on deep-sea expeditions to some of the best dive sites in the world, such as HMHS Britannic, the sister ship of Titanic, and the Seven Sisters in Sicily, where they can get a rare up-close look at shipwrecks, marine life and underwater relics.

Between dives, up to six guests and six crew stay on a yacht, which is available to charter yearround at a cost of $80,000 per week. fraseryachts.com

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Take a tailor-made safari with a purpose BEST FOR CONSERVATIONISTS

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Take a wilderness retreat in the Arctic Circle BEST FOR FAMILIES

Exclusive luxury wilderness reserve in northernmost Finland, Octola, is so elusive its exact location has not been disclosed. Located ‘just inside the Arctic Circle’, the 12-room private retreat is nestled in 300 hectares of private wilderness – look out of your window and spot wild reindeer trekking through the snowy forest. Visitors can indulge in fine cuisine prepared by a private chef and take part in family-friendly activities such as reindeer sledding before relaxing in a traditional Finnish sauna. octola.com

Owned by Dan and Christine Olofsson, Sweden’s largest philanthropic investors in Africa, the conservation-focused Thanda Safari game reserve has introduced a ‘Collars for Conservation Safari’ offering guests an immersive experience with positive impact.

Each visit to the premium lodge funds a collar and guests have the rare opportunity to join the wildlife conservation team in identifying, darting to sedate and placing the collar on one of Africa’s iconic species – a lion, leopard, elephant, cheetah or hyena. thandasafari.co.za

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UNMATCHED EXPERTISE HARRIET HIRSCHLER SPEAKS WITH TOM PERRY, VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, EUROPE, AT TEXTRON AVIATION words > HARRIET HIRSCHLER

In a period where flight activity continues to rebound, Textron Aviation continues to go from strength to strength. In 2020, it was the world’s third largest jet manufacturer after Boeing and Airbus, and its aircraft now lead the list of the most active business jets in Europe, with the King Air 200 and the Citation Excel XLS taking the first and second spots, according to the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA).

As reflected across much of private aviation, the Textron Aviation customer base is growing, too. “We are seeing a lot of new inquiries from individuals or corporations that we have never

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heard from before,” explains Tom Perry, Vice President of Sales, Europe, at Textron Aviation. In 2020, the jet manufacturer delivered nearly 560 aircraft to customers worldwide, leading GAMA’s (General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s) annual shipments and billings report.

With health, safety and comfort still paramount as travel resumes, Perry believes there is no doubt that the true value of business and private aviation has been demonstrated.

The latest generation of Beechcraft and Cessna aircraft is designed with return on investment in mind, such as Textron Aviation’s newest flagship product, the Cessna Citation Longitude, a super midsize jet that has transatlantic range and advanced engineering.

“The Longitude has the quietest of all cabins in the super midsize class, which is tremendously valuable and something people instantly notice as you take off,” says Perry. “It’s a very relaxing statement that the aircraft makes right at that early stage and then through stages of climb, which gives the feeling of wellbeing and sense of comfort and reducing stress-reducing fatigue.”

Sustainability is also at the forefront of Perry’s mind as he looks to the future of the business. “We are being challenged more and more by our customers, regulators and environmental campaigners to make sure that our industry and products are as sustainable as they can be,” he explains. “It’s not a new science, but it is something that we are taking much more seriously.”

This approach translates to the use of sustainable materials wherever the company can, whether they’re natural fibres or wood veneers, Textron Aviation ensures that it’s from a sustainable source. “Another regulation at the front of people’s minds is fuel,” adds Perry.

“Sustainable alternative jet fuels are now fully regulated for use by airlines and owners, and we are also making it available to our customers upon delivery of their new aircraft in Wichita.”

Textron Aviation is also addressing its carbon footprint by recycling scrap back into the business and assessing how it uses energy and water. As well as being committed to GAMA and IBAC’s (International Business Aviation Council’s) approved sustainability goals, which are part of business aviation’s commitment to climate action.

Electric aviation also excites Perry. “Many of our products are being flown by entrepreneurs in this space already,” he says. “We’re involved in our own programmes around that and I can’t tell you where that’s going to lead us exactly – whether it’ll be in the piston space, the propeller space or the more sophisticated aircraft – but I’m glad to see that the technology is around the corner.”

To find out more about Textron Aviation, please visit txtav.com

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EXPEDITION CRUISES TO THE ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC HAVE HIT RECORD NUMBERS, BUT WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS? words > SHANEY HUDSON

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Ambition

Polar exploration is changing. A far cry from the first tourist chartered ship that edged tentatively south in the 1960s, today, record numbers of visitors have been able to go further and deeper into the frozen wilderness of Antarctica – and they’re doing it in style. A flotilla of luxury expedition ships slip past cathedrals of ice, slow to watch whales feeding in glacial bays and slide-through narrow fjords where seals and penguins rest on icebergs.

While interest in the polar regions has never been greater, the environmental stakes have never been higher.

The polar regions are as fragile as they are spectacular, with humandriven climate change greatly impacting the polar environment.

“Polar travel is in vogue at the moment,” says Sven-Olof Lindblad, founder, former CEO and co-chair of Lindblad Expeditions. His father LarsEric Lindblad pioneered travel to the polar regions, running the first tourist charter in the 1960s. “There was more SUCCESS AND SATURATION Between 2009 and 2019, the global conversation about climate change. cruising industry experienced ten There was a lot in the news about years of record growth, and expedition glaciers breaking apart. And then cruising was viewed by many as the next people became more curious and it target market. Fourteen new ice-class wound up on a lot of people’s bucket passenger expedition vessels were on lists,” Lindblad says. order, many for cruise companies that had traditionally never sailed the Polar A CHANGING CLIMATE regions with high passenger numbers, According to NASA, the planet’s average each more luxurious than the next. temperature has risen 2.12°F since the late 19th century, with the ocean absorbing much of the heat caused by carbon monoxide. Both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass: glaciers are retreating, the sea is thinner, melting earlier and freezing later, and the ocean is becoming increasingly acidic.

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Previous page A polar bear in the Arctic, photographed from above by Stewart Cohen

“Our guides and expedition leaders have certainly noticed the glaciers retreating in South Georgia and on the Antarctic Peninsula, and changes in the distribution patterns of some of the wildlife,” says Moniqure Poonfort, CEO of Aurora Expeditions, an operator that has been travelling to the polar regions for 30 years. “For example, the Adélie penguin colonies, which used to be more spread out across the entire peninsula, are increasingly moving further south.”

The Arctic has experienced the most accelerated growth in ice loss: Greenland lost 279 billion tonnes of ice between 1993 and 2019; by comparison, Antarctica lost 148 million tonnes.

“The Arctic is where we’ve seen the most dramatic changes of the loss of the summer sea ice. A bittersweet result of this is that where the Northwest Passage used to be more challenging to get through, it is now much more accessible,” says Poonfort.

With less ice, a longer season and big passenger demand, ice-class ships can go deeper and further into the polar regions in the Arctic. But should they?

ISSUES WITH GROWING TOURISM “My concern is that the number of ships that have been commissioned, related to the number of personnel that have been developed who really understand Antarctica and its challenges is not in proportion. And so there is a distinct possibility of an increased number of accidents,” says Lindblad.

Lindblad Expeditions launched its new PC5 Category A ice-class ship, the National Geographic Endurance in July 2021. It is by far the most luxurious ship in the company’s 15-strong fleet; but Lindblad believes having the right crew behind it is critical to a successful and safe voyage. “From our point of view, the real experience is outside of our windows, not inside of our windows.

And that, to me, is luxury: knowing how to use people’s time really, really well.”

This page Lindblad Expeditions guests exploring Antarctica

by Zodiac boat

Opposite page, from top Sven-Olof Lindblad; An encounter with an Emperor penguin on, Snow Hill Island. Photo

by Ralph Lee Hopkins

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Time is critical; although most passengers are unaware that each designated landing site in Antarctica is carefully timetabled by the International Association of Antarctic Tourism Operators, a self-governing tourism body.

This avoids bottlenecks and overcrowding, and ensures tourists have no more than a transitory impact on the environment.

“I think what will probably be the biggest change in the Antarctic is the reality that there are a limited number of landing sites where it’s safe, it’s interesting and you can do so without excessive disturbance of wildlife,” says Lindblad, who believes that if demand continues, landing onshore may have to be restricted to one landing a day instead of two, which will ultimately change the experience.

Yet, despite the potential for overcrowding, the Antarctic experience is, for many passengers, transformative.

“We’re trying to get people focused on the experience and what they can learn as a consequence of being there,” says Lindblad. “I feel it’s a privilege to be able to provide people with experiences where you have the possibility to change their lives in a dramatic way or make them help them think about things from a different perspective.”

Visitors also have an opportunity to leave the polar regions better off.

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Lindblad Expeditions, for example, is a 100 per cent carbon-neutral company, and established the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund, which is funded mainly by guest donations. In 2019, the fund invested $1.97 million in conservation, education and research projects around the world.

“Those monies go directly into projects adjudicated by an independent board,” says Lindblad, who believes it is critical companies take care of the environment in which they operate, especially when they are driving increased demand to that area. “Nobody’s going to have a viable business in a degraded world”.

“

We’re trying to get people focused on the experience and what they can learn as a consequence of being there

”

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The Golden Pass SECOND PASSPORTS HAVE FOUND INCREASED PURPOSE IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD. SIMON BROOKE DISCOVERS THE CITIZENSHIPS WORTH INVESTING IN FOR BUSINESS OR LIFESTYLE ADVANTAGE

It’s one of the most important questions we all face – where to base our families and our wealth? The pandemic, political and economic uncertainty combined with the growing use of communications technology, mean more of us than ever are rethinking where we should base our families – and our assets. Knight Frank’s 2021 Wealth Report revealed that, globally, 24 per cent of UHNWIs are planning to apply for a second passport or citizenship. Meanwhile, advisory firm deVere Group reported that enquiries for second passports, citizenships and overseas residencies were up by more than 50 per cent year-on-year.

As they seek to attract foreign investments and talented individuals, a growing number of countries across the globe are now offering residency or citizenship solutions such as Investor Visas, Golden Visas and Citizenship by Investment. This offering increased during the pandemic.

“There’s no doubt that Covid continues to be a major game-changer and accelerator when it comes to the investment migration industry,” says Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, a residence and citizenship planning advisory.

“Interest in alternative residence and citizenship options continues to spike 18 months into the pandemic.”

In the first half of 2021, the company had already received nearly 80 per cent of the web enquiries that it received across the whole of 2020, already a record year for enquiries with over 25 per cent more interest than the year before.

Although the Henley & Partners client base has always been global, it has experienced a significant upsurge of interest from the Anglosphere,

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Ensuring future access to multiple residences or relocation options, or having dual citizenship, has become even more essential for entrepreneurs and investors and their families as a means to mitigate volatility and reduce their exposure to risk

” particularly from US citizens, with an increase of 208 per cent, Canadians (up 47 per cent) and Australians (up 41 per cent). Meanwhile, nearly a third more Britons have expressed an interest and demand from EU citizens is also rising. According to Astons, an international real estate company, some £6 billion was invested in residency schemes in 2020 with the figure for 2021 likely to show an increase.

“The current pandemic has made people feel their citizenship, and its limitations, restrictions, and benefits, more than ever before,” explains Volek. “Ensuring future access to multiple residences or relocation options, or having dual citizenship, whether by exploring one’s ancestry or by participating in residence- and citizenship-by-investment programs, has become even more essential for entrepreneurs and investors and their families as a means to mitigate volatility and reduce their exposure to risk at a national, a regional, and global level.”

Countries that are using citizenship and residency as a way of developing their economies include New Zealand where successful tech entrepreneurs can apply for residency. Australia’s Global Talent visa was specifically designed to attract dynamic, highly skilled individuals to relocate to the country.

Brexit has inevitably been a driver with a growing number of UK based businesspeople looking to citizenships and residencies that give them easy access to EU states.

As well as the obvious candidates, Vanuatu, which is near Australia, is a Commonwealth country, and passport holders benefit from visa-free access to the 26 countries in the EU’s borderless Schengen Zone. The citizenship process can take just 30 days and Vanuatu’s

minimum investment figure is one of the lowest of Citizenship by Investment programmes worldwide at just $130,000.

Rami Cassis, an international investor and entrepreneur who is CEO of Parabellum Investments, a family office operating as a global private equity firm an international investor and entrepreneur, advises those who are thinking of choosing new citizenships and residencies to look beyond purely economic factors.

“The decision on what an appropriate quality of life means is highly personal and will depend on a number of factors including whether the individual remains professionally active and where geographically those business interests lie,” he says. “Also, whether schooling, medical care or other factors such as where extended family and friends are based are important.”

Similarly, Konstantin Kaminskiy of Golden Visas Ltd advises those thinking of taking this step to take a considered, holistic approach. “First of all, we need to understand what goals they need to achieve with obtaining a new citizenship,” he says. “The most common answers are to obtain a freedom of travel visa free or to relocate their family to a country with higher education and living standards. Then we drill down to what country and city would suit their lifestyle needs the best. Then we advise on the type of government residency and citizenship programme they may participate in to successfully relocate.”

With a greater number of options for residencies and citizenships than ever before, as well as more drivers and motivations for making this move, it’s essential that you think carefully about your ultimate goals – and then take expert advice to ensure that you can achieve them.

NEW ZEALAND Individuals who make considerable investments are rewarded with entrepreneur work and resident visas

VANUATU Citizenship by investment programme is the fastest in the world and minimum investment is just $130,000

AUSTRALIA The Global Talent visa is a fast track to permanent residency for dynamic, highly skilled individuals

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The City of the Future AS OUR CITIES AWAIT THE FULL-SCALE EMERGENCE OF OUR GROWING POPULATIONS, JAKE TOWNSEND DISCOVERS THE NEW PROJECTS SHEDDING LIGHT ON HOW FUTURE GENERATIONS MIGHT LIVE IN THEM

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If the events of these past years have illuminated anything, it is how deeply interconnected our world actually is and that divisions, both of the material and the metaphorical, are merely imagined divides. It is in this age of heightened coexistence that our cities become even more emblematic of how we will live, far beyond these tumultuous times. The city of the future is in fact, the physical embodiment of our collective vision for ourselves.

As our fellow global citizens look toward brighter horizons, a whole slate of exciting new developments in locales as diverse as that of Paris, Copenhagen, Miami, Tokyo and even on the desert sands of Cairo, are set to create the foundations for large-scale urban planning meant to meet growing demand for green space, enhanced mobility, less pollution and increased electric propulsion.

DEALING WITH DENSITY Statistics make clear that we are in the very midst of the metropolitan age.

A United Nations working group estimates that by 2050, upwards of 70 per cent of the global population will be city dwellers. Our large global capitals have been steadily growing since the great industrial and technological leaps of the mid-20th century, with cities like London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Delhi growing by leaps and bounds, with population densities increasing along with it. With this growth comes the need for more energy to power it all and, once again, the issue of the car is driving so much of the coming change.

“One of the fundamental elements of the city of the future is mobility,” says John Rossant, founder of the NewCities Foundation, a non-profit organisation

dedicated to the future of our cities with a particular focus on sustainable development.

“The post-war boom saw cities that were completely designed around the car.”

Rossant sees the future in electric mobility and a shift away from combustion. Even cities like Los Angeles, where the car has reigned supreme for decades, have started looking at ways of creating electric vehicle master plans; an indication of what is to come around the world.

Density, and its associated needs in terms of housing, energy, sanitation and quality of life, is perhaps the twin issue alongside climate change that will determine the direction of our collective urban lives in the coming decades. Hong Kong, with its singular apartment blocks, is one example of how a city responded to a population growth that outweighed its available space. Singapore, which is among the most densely populated places on Earth, has responded to its own crises of sustainable growth with the “greening” of a number of newly created high-rise buildings like Tree House and The Park Royal.

Additionally, Singapore’s government recently implemented a mandate

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that it would produce 30 per cent of its own food by 2030 – a first for a metropolitan city-state of its population numbers, if it can reach this ambitious, and very green, goal.

CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE If there is any particular demand among those seeking to define the city of the future, it is one of pedestrianised livability with the health of our planet and populace the guiding force for coming change. In Paris, for example, gone is the focus on the individual automobile and, in its place, is a renaissance of public transportation; so-called ‘last mile’ electric devices; pedestrian-friendly promenades, and the seamless integration of private and public life.

“The ideal city should be three things: desirable, inclusive and sustainable,” says Philippe Chiambaretta, the Paris-based architect responsible for a number of public-private projects that have made great strides in bringing the city’s enchanting built landscape into the contemporary age.

Chiambaretta has been commissioned to redesign none other than the Champs-

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Élysées, as part of a $304 million project. “The ChampsÉlysées, with the influx of cars in the 1960s, was a disaster,” says Chiambaretta about the famous boulevard that has suffered in the last few decades. “It turned into something like a highway, with noise and air pollution.

Nobody wanted to walk around there.” Especially those who actually live in Paris: a steady decline in Parisian residents making use of the storied boulevard means that today the Champs-Élysées has become merely a tourist attraction, where only 5 per cent of pedestrians at any given time are city residents; the rest are tourists from abroad. It’s a dilemma faced by many cities; Venice, Italy, being another prime example.

The plan to reinvigorate the Champs-Élysées is projected for completion by 2030. The city of the future, according to Chiambaretta, is one in which pedestrians are given ample, wide space to enjoy new green spaces, art galleries, and restaurants, with the absence of traffic. It’s all in the name of fostering a ‘healthy city’: a trend that is being echoed in city planning from South America to Southeast Asia.

Miami, simultaneously one of the most culturally rich and environmentally challenged of urban centres, has started to answer the call for green, open, pedestrianfriendly spaces, while the ever-present threat of rising sea levels is driving attitudes toward urban development.

The newly announced Bentley Residences, to be developed by 2026 in conjunction with the luxury automotive marque, is heeding the call for futureproofed, or at least futuremitigating, luxury residential offerings by building up, and green. Standing at 749 feet and over 60 stories high above the gently rising tides of the Atlantic that will threaten

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much of that city’s low-lying coastline in the coming century, the tower will feature in-unit multi-car garages and elevators that will whisk your Continental GT directly from the street to your unit.

It is projects like this one, wherein vertical luxury serves to create exclusivity, space efficiency and protection from a changing world.

REWILDING THE CITY For anyone looking toward the future, it is clear that urban skylines will be verdant.

Milan’s Bosco Verticale, situated in an industrial area of Italy’s northern capital, is a high-rise residential structure positively awash in living plants. With a living façade designed by landscape agronomist Laura Gatti, the building is among the most striking examples of what may be the ‘new glass’. A 2016 study by Arup showed that buildings like this one in Milan, and other examples in cities like Bogota, could reduce air temperatures during heat waves by up to

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10°C, as well as convert C02.

Bosco Verticale is said to transform 20 tonnes per year of the noxious gas into oxygen.

Plans are also underway for the creation of cities in places where none had existed previously. A whole cluster of ground-up cities of the future in both Japan and the Middle East have broken ground, each one designed for a future where cars are electric, energy is sustainable and life is lived at a human scale. They arise

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at a time where an everexpanding global populace, must learn to coexist with a changing planet, and the global community is evolving quickly toward an increasingly interdependent world.

LOOKING FORWARD Our changing world will see an increasingly restless, and mobile, populace seeking quality of life, made possible by pedestrianfriendly city centres, efficient and accessible public transportation and reliable

Where to buy next?

Three urban investment hotspots, as seen in the 2021 Knight Frank Wealth Report DANUBE RIVERSIDE, VIENNA The ability to live by and access the waterfront is unique to this area of the city. Good connections to the schools, culture and amenities of both Vienna centre and Klosterneuburg, are the main drivers of growth in this neighbourhood.

Previous page Champs-Élysées 2.0: makeover for world’s most famous avenue Opposite page Bosco Verticale, a model for a sustainable residential building, in Milan This page The world’s first Bentley-branded luxury residential tower in Sunny Isles Beach, Miami

infrastructure, including modernised electrical grids and sustainable services, with a well-run government that supports private sector growth. Although this balance sounds slightly utopian, according to findings in JLL’s latest Cities Research Center report and other macroeconomic and real estate investing trends, there are numerous global capitals that fit the bill.

Locales in Asia-Pacific like Auckland, Tokyo or Singapore, and European cities like

London, Copenhagen or Vienna, to name just a few, offer residents a mix of old and new, with a culture that’s future-focused yet historically rooted. Not to mention a public and private sector with a bent toward that careful tightrope walk between modernisation and preservation. It’s all in the context of forwardthinking infrastructure and development that will likely make for a more stable environment during these most interesting of times.

NOMAD, NEW YORK CITY Exciting new condos in the pipeline include Madison House, The NOMA, plus the first Virgin Hotel location in New York (scheduled to open in 2021), and Jeff Bezos’s $80 million penthouse.

GANGNAM, SEOUL Boasting Seoul’s highest price per square metre, Gangnam has a high concentration of wealth and apartment prices have risen by 86 per cent in the past 18 years. Its location and transport links attract a million commuters every day.

LG, Lotte and other firms are redeveloping entire blocks to relocate their headquarters here. Schools are famous for getting students into top universities.

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Game Changers WITH SO MANY INCREDIBLE GOLF DESTINATIONS TO CHOOSE FROM IN 2022, VICTOR FOR GOLF HAS HIGHLIGHTED FIVE TO PUT YOU BACK ON COURSE – AND ELEVATE YOUR GAME

The waiting game is over for travellers and avid golfers to get back on the globe’s finest fairways. Victor For Golf, in partnership with award-winning golf tour operator, Golf Traveller, allows you to plan the impossible and access the inaccessible with private charter, unlocking world-class golfing gems and hidden treasures around the world.

DESTINATION TO WATCH…

↑ Iceland

Hitting headlines, topping bucket lists, wooing nature lovers and dazzling increasing numbers of visitors, there seems to be no end to the talents of this breathtaking northern destination. Golfing against Iceland’s dramatic landscape is something that will stay with you long after you leave, with bragging rights aplenty for when you return. Sweeping mountains, lava fields and majestic ocean views are the most prominent features of the courses unique to Iceland.

And, due to its northerly location, the summer months of June and most of July offer 24 hours of sunlight, offering visitors the chance to experience the magic of midnight golf.

When to go: May – September

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FOR FAR-FLUNG GOLF...

↓ Lofoten Links, Norway Amazing things await those who are prepared to venture off the beaten track. Situated almost 100 miles above the Arctic Circle on an archipelago in the clear, crisp waters of the Norwegian Sea, off Norway’s north-west coast, lies a breathtaking golf course worthy of a place on every bucket list. At Lofoten Links you not only get a spectacular 18 holes but in a setting bordered by white sandy beaches on one side and rugged Lofoten mountains on the other, you may also get to see the Northern Lights, which light up the skies in these parts from August to April.

When to go: May – September

FOR UNMISSABLE ACTION…

← The Masters, Augusta National

Golf Club, Georgia, United States

Home to golf’s most prestigious tournament, Augusta National Golf Club boasts an electric atmosphere and buzz that few clubs can beat. Many people will only make it to the Masters once in their lifetime and Victor For Golf is here to help make that one time unforgettable. They’ll create a custom-crafted programme that delivers your perfect golf experience at this legendary tournament, with options to play the best private golf while staying in first-class accommodation, and much more. So whether you’re travelling for leisure or planning a corporate event, let Victor For Golf design a personalised travel package to ensure a golf experience to remember.

When to go: 7 – 10 April 2022

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BY INVITATION ONLY....

↑ Castiglion del Bosco, Italy The Club at Castiglion del Bosco, Tuscany, provides Europe’s finest golf and wine experience at Italy’s only private, members-only golf club.

Featuring a Tom Weiskopf designed golf course, overlooking a UNESCO listed landscape, The Club sits within one of the best preserved estates in Tuscany, comprising an award-winning winery, producing prestigious Brunello di Montalcino wines, and the luxury Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco hotel.

Victor For Golf has been granted a limited number of exclusive invitations to visit The Club and enjoy the comforts, amenities and privacy of Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco, accessible by private jet to Siena-Ampugnano.

When to go: May – October

WHERE TO PLAY IN 2022

↑ Dubai + Expo 2022 Combine the final day’s play at the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic, which has recently become part of the Rolex Series, with golf on some of Dubai’s finest golf courses and access to the Dubai Expo 2022, the world’s greatest show. Enjoy a custom made trip that brings together the very best the Emirate has to offer, including five-star accommodation and famed golf courses. Not forgetting front row seats to the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic and Expo 2022, an event that explores the creativity, sustainability and innovation that will shape our planet’s future.

When to go: October Until March 2022

If you would like help in arranging a golf trip, scan the QR code of visit golftraveller.com

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Learn how to elevate your life and protect your future with insightful guides to philanthropy, wellness and cyber security in the modern world

Journal 86 — Give Back Better | 90 — How to Live to 120 94 — Shadow Economy | 96 — Jets

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Give Back Better WITH AN ALMOST OVERWHELMING AMOUNT OF OPTIONS FACING PHILANTHROPISTS TODAY, CLAIRE WRATHALL LOOKS AT THE STRATEGIES TO BEST OPTIMISE GIVING

During the pandemic, despite the uncertainty facing the world, global giving rose. According to the Giving USA Foundation’s annual IRS data-based survey, Americans gave a record $471 billion to charity in 2020, an uplift of more than 5 per cent on the previous year. And almost a fifth of this figure came from ultra-high-net-worth individuals – those with assets of at least $30 million – who between January and October 2020 pledged $7.4 billion to Covid-related and social justice causes alone.

But while the cataclysmic global events of 2020/21 boosted overall levels of giving – according to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), more than 30 per cent of the world’s population have given money to charity during the pandemic – they have also diverted funds from causes donors may have decided were less pressing. Such was the fall in donations to Cancer Research UK, for example, that it is cutting its spending on research by £150 million and its staff by a quarter.

So, how best to identify need in order to give back effectively? “We have been advising our clients to really think through their favourite charities and what they want to still be here when [the pandemic] passes,” says Mark Greer, CAF’s head of private clients, because not everything is likely to survive.

CAF acts as both a consultancy and a bank for the non-profit sector operating in the UK and USA. Individuals can set up their own fund within the foundation, which takes care of all the administrative and compliance issues, out of which the donor is free to make gifts to the causes he or she wishes to support. Those seeking guidance

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Of course, to support such a project, one has first to find it. Most wealth advisories and private banks have philanthropy specialists on their payroll to help investors select fulfilling ventures. And there is also a host of other specialist organisations and think tanks – New Philanthropy Capital, Philanthropy Impact, the Institute for Philanthropy among many – that can inspire and assist with due diligence to ensure that your donations are used effectively and in line with your objects.

Take the Philanthropy Workshop, a network of more than 450 active philanthropists – such as human rights advocate and investor Casey Box, retired tech executive Lorene Arey and women’s rights champion Lisa Kelley – spread across about 25 countries and ranging in age from their mid-20s to their 80s. Founded in 1995, it grew out of the Rockefeller Foundation to “really meet the needs of philanthropists who wanted to know tend to be advised to make unrestricted gifts how to get going and make an impact,” says rather than those that specify how the money Marie-Louise Gourlay, its managing director of should be used. Of course, charities need funds Europe. Initially, it was “focused on what we call for frontline work, but they also need to pay staff donor education, which was really taking people salaries and rent. on a deep MBA-style programme” that gave new When the German shipbuilder Peter Lürssen, and aspiring donors “a strategic framework to CEO of the shipyard Lürssen, decided that of the move forward with”. Over time, it has evolved into “zillion charities that support the oceans in one a global community of philanthropists for which form or another,” he would support the Blue Marine it continues to organise programmes with guest Foundation, he undertook to fund its core operating experts – from former presidents to grassroots expenses. A decision its CEO, Clare Brook, has leaders – thereby “accelerating learning about what called “completely invaluable. Often in NGOs, works and what doesn’t” and enabling its members people give money for specific projects, but no to pool intelligence and in some cases partner with one actually pays for you to keep the lights on.” governments to co-fund projects.

There is personal benefit, too. Although there is “There’s a lot of wealth just sitting there,” neurological evidence that the act of transferring she says, “and we want to mobilise it by creating a donation can signal neural responses that make you happy, there is nothing quite like the satisfaction conversations about social and impact investing and by brokering connections [between people] of knowing that, in some significant way, you have used your wealth to change the world for the better. who are able to work with one another and really drive action.”

Take British IT pioneer Dame Stephanie Shirley, “We don’t tell people where to put their money,” lovingly known as ‘Steve’. At the turn of the century, she adds. But they do help their members to she was worth £140 million and ranked three identify the world’s most pressing and urgent places below the Queen in the 2000 Sunday Times issues. “Discomfort,” she adds, is a “compelling Rich List of wealthiest women. Yet she gave away nearly £70 million of her fortune, mostly to projects proxy for change.” and causes focusing on IT or autism, causing her to become the first person to drop out of the Rich List as a result of their philanthropy. However, she told The Times that she feels “empowered” by giving her wealth away: “The money I have let go has given me infinitely more joy than the money I have hung on to.

Your money isn’t lost because someone else has it.

The money I have let go It is realising its potential.” has given me infinitely more For some, like former US president Jimmy Carter, it’s about creating a legacy. Thanks to the joy than the money I have hung work of the Carter Center, which he established on to. Your money isn’t lost after he left office, guinea-worm disease, an excruciating condition found mostly in Africa, because someone else has it. may soon go the way of smallpox, to date the only It is realising its potential disease that has been entirely eradicated. When they embarked on the programme, there were 3.5 million cases a year across 21 countries. In 2020 just 27 people were infected in six nations.

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This page Dame Stephanie Shirley was the first person to drop off the Sunday Times Rich List due to her philanthropic giving

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The gift of giving Reynir Indahl, founder and managing partner of Summa Equity and chair of Summa Foundation, discusses philanthropic giving and introducing a 10 per cent ‘moral tax’

This page, from left Reynir Indahl, founder and managing partner of Summa Equity; A kayak cuts through melting ice; A snapshot of the work of Football Beyond Borders, an education and social-inclusion charity working with disadvantaged young people; philanthropists are asked to consider giving to arts and culture organisations and venues hit hard by the pandemic, such as London’s Royal Albert Hall

I’m deeply worried about the challenges we have globally and how unfair our economic system is.

I happened to be born in Norway where I got a free education and a Harvard MBA, partially funded

by Norway. What if I was born in a different family in a different country? I feel a lot of responsibility to share my wealth because I’ve been greatly benefited by an unjust and unfair system.

Summa Equity is focused thematically on solving environmental, social and governance challenges. We’ve raised €1.6 billion since we started up in 2016 – 10 per cent of the carried interest and management fee goes into the Summa Foundation. While Summa Equity is investing to address challenges that can be solved in the commercial marketplace, the philanthropic foundation has been set up to address challenges that cannot be solved in a market-based way.

Our largest project is to save the Masai Mara Serengeti ecosystem [the most critical ecosystem globally for large mammals], together with LGT Venture Philanthropy and other parties. Our mission is to protect the Great Migration in Masai Mara, which has been impacted largely by the sale and

fencing of Masai land. At current rates, the whole ecosystem would disappear within a 10-year time frame. Together with Basecamp Explorer Foundation, we’ve identified, leased and protected large corridors, so the migration can still happen. We’ve taken a systemic view of the whole ecosystem, which means not only making sure the wildlife can survive but ensuring the Masais also benefit. For example, we’ve created eco-tourism and education opportunities, and re-planted forests, creating entities that could apply for carbon credits – these will operate as a revenue share with the Masais who own the land.

Everyone at Summa Equity knows that 10 per cent of the carried interest and management fee goes to Summa Foundation – if Summa delivers average returns, this is expected to be about €60 million of our current funds. The figure comes from ancient thinking where all should give a tenth to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We are all willing to share our wealth because seeing the results of our work and the wildlife prospering gives us tremendous meaning and pride. It gives much greater happiness than a new car or a bigger house.

When I realised I have much more than I need, I thought: “what should I do with the surplus?

Should I save it for my children or help those disadvantaged?” I feel much more responsibility to make the system fairer by sharing what I have – and my family agrees. My wife and my daughters are very attached to, and contribute to, our projects, which brings us together as a family.

But giving away money is very easy. Real change comes from leadership and becoming part of the solution, not only paying your way out of it.

I think all companies and individuals can make a difference. You can do it, for example, by setting up philanthropic projects, engaging employees and owners, and making it an integrated part of what the company does and its purpose. There is enough money in the investment industry if you do well, and just like everyone has to pay taxes, I call on the industry to impose a voluntary moral tax and take leadership in how that tax is used to solve our global challenges.

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Giving away money is easy. Real change comes from leadership and becoming part of the solution, not only paying your way out of it

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Where to give it According to YouGov (Q3 2021), seven of the top ten most popular charities are related to medical research and care, and the rest were concerned with the welfare of animals.

Your money might therefore go further directed to causes others tend to overlook.

THE ENVIRONMENT

There are thousands of charities working to clean up the environment but ClientEarth tackles climate change at a legal level. Described by its founder, James Thornton, as “a public interest law firm,” it helps governments “to write good laws,” implement and enforce them. But it also sues them (and corporations and their investors) if it believes they are accelerating climate change. For example, it has “stopped an entire generation of new coal-fired power stations in Poland,” he says; and sued the UK government over its violation of EU air-quality regulations – a case that reached the Supreme Court, which issued an injunction ordering it to bring the country into compliance.

SPORT

Manchester United and England forward Marcus Rashford’s campaigning for FareShare, the UK’s longest-running food redistribution charity, and his launch of the Child Food Poverty Taskforce raised the profile of philanthropy in sport. But there were already a wide range of football-related foundations.

Take Football Beyond Borders, an education and socialinclusion charity that works with disadvantaged young people.

According to its founder, Jack Reynolds, “Combining football with education [is] a fantastic way to develop so many of the key educational skills that young people need and encourage young people to thrive at school.”

ARTS AND CULTURE

The pandemic has been catastrophic for the arts. In the UK, individual giving to this sector fell by 42 per cent during the first nine months of 2020, and, during lockdowns, box office revenue fell to nothing. If the arts are to endure, their patrons and audiences need to support them. As for who to support, it’s really a matter of supporting those you’re most passionate about and don’t want to see go under. As one philanthropy adviser explained, this type of support is often the most personally rewarding, not only in terms of the impact your donations has on the beneficiaries, but because “you meet like-minded people who share your passions and can learn so much from seeing behind the scenes, whether it’s attending rehearsals or being invited into the conservation studios of art galleries”.

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How to Live to 120 IN A WORLD WHERE YOU CAN HAVE ANYTHING, HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOU’RE AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO ENJOY IT? FARZANA ALI DISCOVERS THE METHODS HEALTH EXPERTS ACROSS THE GLOBE ARE USING TO EXTEND LIFESPANS

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It’s an industry already worth more than $4.5 trillion, and it’s projected to grow exponentially in years to come. We are of course talking about the global wellness market – a huge part of which is dedicated to not only keeping us looking younger but actually keeping us young.

The longevity market has already captured the interests of the world’s wealthiest man.

Jeff Bezos has reportedly invested in an anti-ageing biotech startup, Alto Labs.

Its aim? To reprogramme cells to revert back to their stem cell origins and, in doing so, reverse the ageing process.

But if you think living longer, in optimal health, is purely science fiction, think again. According to the British Longevity Society, nature has given us the ability to live a healthy and productive life until the age of 120 years, but very few people reach this age in good health, mainly because their lifestyle increases the chances of early ageing and disease.

“Nearly 80 per cent of our health is non-heritable and therefore changeable,” says David A. Sinclair, author of Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To. He suggests our health isn’t held hostage by our genetics and we can impact our life expectancy.

Sinclair is not the only expert who believes that environmental factors like diet and lifestyle are key.

“Our genetics underpin most of our predispositions but how these come to the surface depends on our lifestyle environment,” says Dr George Gaitanos, chief operating and scientific director of luxury state-of-the-art medical spa facility, Chenot Palace Weggis in the Swiss Alps.

BASELINING YOUR DNA A comprehensive metabolic and sports facility at the Chenot Group’s flagship

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property, complete with a world-class, in-house molecular laboratory, provides guests with a bespoke longevity plan using the latest tech available.

“Today, we can quantify with incredible precision the relative activity of important genes associated with our health and the ageing process,” explains Dr Gaitanos. “By performing gene expression analysis for certain genes, we are able to evaluate gene activity on a personal level and obtain an accurate picture of gene activity that reveals our epigenetic profile – the barometer of our future health.” Meaning the key to extending both your health and your lifespan isn’t just being told to exercise and eat well, but involves having access to a detailed, personalised breakdown of how to do so.

Essentially allowing you to biohack your health.

The advancement of technology means that more information than ever is at our fingertips, too. Monitoring heart rates, steps walked and REM cycles are the new normal and tech that enables us to calculate our metabolism and outsmart our brainwaves into deeper slumbers is also here.

“Having a good body composition can add years to your lifespan,” says Ryan Saraco head of partner success at Lumen, the world’s first hand-held device to accurately measure your metabolism on-the-go. “Our device gives you real-time data, letting you know if your body is burning carbs or fat so you can tailor your food choices throughout the day.”

The rise of genetic, or even biological, testing means quicker and efficient testing with more accessible results being done more frequently too. “We have clients who take our microbiome tests before and after starting probiotics or different vitamins and

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Living longer isn’t all about using tech to eat, sleep and work out better.

Dr Gaitanos advocates for a full 360-degree outlook on increasing lifespan

supplements so that they can check if it’s really working for them,” explains Anna Kachurets, Atlas Biomed’s managing director.

This ability to use technology to hack our way to good health has also seen the rise of other essential products too. Sleeping well keeps cells young, repairs muscle, maintains a healthy immune system, and drastically cuts the risk of illness such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and even Alzheimer’s, and yet over a third of us (36 per cent) regularly struggle to fall asleep. Products like the Zeez Sleep Pad mimic relaxing alpha frequencies and deep sleep delta frequencies, to let any poor sleeper get some much-needed quality rest.

Meanwhile, AI advancements have meant that efficiency and time spent no longer correlate when it comes to working out effectively. In just eight weeks, you can wipe two years off your biological age on the AI-powered CAROL exercise bike. According to research by Dr Lance Dalleck at the High Altitude Exercise Physiology Program at Western Colorado University, simply working out on a CAROL bike for eight minutes and 40 seconds, three times a week will reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes by 62 per cent (the same as taking Metformin), reduce blood pressure by 5 per cent, increase good cholesterol by 6 per cent and reduce blood sugar by 2 per cent.

But living longer isn’t all about using tech to eat, sleep

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and work out better. And, while Dr Gaitanos advocates a very bespoke approach at his facilities, he also advocates for a full 360-degree outlook on increasing lifespan.

“Meditate and practice deep breathing techniques; spend time in natural light, whether it be by a window, balcony or garden,” he says.

“But also boost your positive thinking, take care of yourself, learn new things and connect with your loved ones.”

A holistic approach, with a connection to nature at its core, is embedded in wellness practice in the East. No wonder then that ‘J-Wellness’, aka Japaneseinspired wellness, has rapidly increased in popularity according to research by the Global Wellness Summit.

“In Japanese cultural heritage, nature influences every aspect of daily life,” says Yuki Kiyono, global head of wellness and spa at luxury retreat group Aman. “From plant-based nutrition and medicinal herbs for one’s physical state to achieving inner peace through Shinrinyoku (forest bathing) sessions or onsen (hot spring) bathing.”

Aman’s first hot spring destination, Amanemu, enjoys the mineral-rich thermal waters of the surrounding Ise Shima National Park.

“We offer hikes along the Kumano Kodo – a Unesco World Heritage Site – and walks along ancient pilgrimage routes at the nearby Kii Mountains.

All of which provide the perfect backdrop to ‘taking in the forest atmosphere’

– a practice that combines the healing benefits of mindfulness and nature.

You can also indulge in Zazen meditation sessions with a local monk,” explains Yuki.

The drive towards longevity doesn’t end when you leave either, as each Amanemu Wellness Immersion also includes a departure consultation. “A practitioner will offer bespoke guidance and provide nutrition and lifestyle advice to enable guests to continue their transformation post-trip,” adds Yuki.

The formula to living forever may not yet be in our grasp but we can increasingly use technology and bio data to ‘hack the code’ of life – and prolong it.

Previous spread Cardiorespiratory fitness assessment; neurac treatment; pool and spa at Chenot Palace Weggis, Switzerland This page Amanemu, a luxury ryokaninspired onsen resort in the forested hills of Ise-Shima; Local and seasonal Japanese ingredients await guests at Amanemu

The Whole Journey VICTOR’S RENTAL CONCIERGE SERVICE WITH SIXT GRANTS DIRECT ACCESS TO SIXT’S EXTENSIVE FLEET OF RENTAL VEHICLES & DRIVERS BASED ACROSS THE WORLD Chartering a jet with Victor means flying on your schedule, with a totally transparent and high-quality service offered throughout your entire journey.

This extends after you land, too.

Thanks to Victor’s partnership with SIXT, one of the world’s leading chauffeur and vehicle rental providers, reaching your final destination has never been more seamless. Plus, earn Alto points each time you book with SIXT.

D O O R -T O - D O O R S E R V I C E With over 40,000 airports in 157 countries at their fingertips, Victor customers can be certain about reaching their destination with ease by private charter. Choose your on-the-ground transportation to your final destination before you depart. With access to mobility services in over 2,200 locations across 105 countries worldwide, one of SIXT’s global car rental stations will never be too far away. But if you’re flying into an airport or airstrip in a remote location, the dedicated Flight Management service can arrange for a SIXT chauffeur to pick you up when you land.

DR I V E T O DE S T IN AT ION Whether for a single day or the full duration of a long trip, the team at Victor will be available throughout to coordinate your request with Victor’s preferred partner SIXT. You might have an ideal vehicle in mind for a special occasion, or simply just prefer a certain type of car.

For this, SIXT has a wide selection of rentals to suit your specific needs and budget. Branches offer a comprehensive and diverse selection of vehicles, including SUVs, hatchbacks, family estates, people carriers, minibuses, convertibles, 4×4s and luxury cars.

EARN POINTS With each qualifying SIXT Rental booking, Victor members earn a minimum of 500 Alto points, with the potential for additional points during seasonal promotions. And earn three Alto Points with every euro spent on a booking of one of the premium limousine services through SIXT ride. Just enter your ride details, select your premium car class (business or first) and enter your Alto ID in the last booking step and your Victor account will be credited with the qualifying Alto points.

To book and to find out more about earning Victor Alto points with SIXT, visit sixt.com/victorride

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Shadow Economy IN TODAY’S HYPER-CONNECTED DIGITAL WORLD, WE’RE ALL MARRIED TO OUR DEVICES – BUT WHAT ARE THE RISKS TO BE AWARE OF WHEN OPERATING IN THE DIGITAL SPHERE? words > BOYD FARROW

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As the physical world increasingly melds with the digital one, new vulnerabilities are manifesting across cyberspace which pose particular risks to your personal reputations, your companies and your investments. There are certain actions, however, that you can take to reduce the risks in each of those three areas.

CREATE A DIGITAL TWIN “A lot of successful people used to tell me: ‘I don’t do online. I like to keep a low profile’,” says Andrew Wessells. “I told them if they were successful, they were already online, so they might as well control how they present themselves.”

For £3,000, The Marque, Wessell’s London-based digital-profile management platform, will build a client’s up-to-date biography, and links to social media, videos, articles and anything else he or she wants the world to see. The SEO team, meanwhile, works to keep this ‘digital twin’ at the top of a Google search in every territory and provides ‘performance reviews’ so clients know how much their profile is being looked at and from where.

A bolt-on ‘digital briefcase’ service, which costs an extra £10,000 a year, tracks clients’ online presence and monitors any potential threat to their personal or professional reputations.

Clients are also alerted every time their names are mentioned in the news or on social media.

“Many of my clients use private jets and they wouldn’t dream of getting on a plane that had not been thoroughly checked,” says Wessells. “Likewise, when it comes to their image, they don’t leave anything to chance.”

DON’T TRUST YOUR COLLEAGUES The biggest cyberthreat to companies is not malicious hackers in Albania but mild Henry in accounts, who retired six months ago, and whose former colleagues never changed his computer password. This is according to Annabelle Lee of US cybersecurity firm Nevermore Security. “I have eight hand-written pages of passwords and I change them all regularly,” says Lee. “It is amazing how many businesses still use the same easy-to-guess password for everything and never change it. They are inviting in cybercriminals.”

Lee notes almost all major breaches are enabled by human error. The hackers who extorted ransom from

Colonial Pipeline last year accessed the system by stealing a single password using a Virtual Private Network system that did not use multi-step authentication. Hackers infiltrated a Florida water treatment plant by using remote access software used by an employee working from home.

“Look at the underlying technology behind every security system.

A VPN is useless unless it uses good cryptography, validated by an organisation such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),” says Lee. “Similarly, don’t assume using distributed ledger technology is safe, because there are ways to undermine the security too.” In other words, hackers like Bitcoin too.

Nevertheless, apart from regularly updating passwords, the most crucial thing companies can do to minimise risk is to update their software. Failure to update basic security patches has led to several high-profile ransomware attacks, including the one on the UK’s National Health Service in 2017.

Yet even software updates can be fraught. Last spring, Texasbased SolarWinds made one such update available to its customers and inadvertently unleashed a major cyberattack on America.

“Businesses definitely need to invest more resources on ‘threat hunters’ – specialist companies that can evaluate their security programmes, identify risks and prevent severe breaches,” says Lee. “Staying vigilant is a full-time job.”

Of course, even vigilance has its dangers too: in 2019 customers of major Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX reportedly lost $190 million after the sudden death of its 30-year-old CEO Gerry Cotten – the only one with the cryptographic key to retrieve the money.

GO CASHLESS, GO COLD Inevitably, as a whole ecosystem of virtual assets, marketplaces, traders and other jobs is emerging across a range of online platforms – leading to some predicting a fully immersive, parallel digital universe, or ‘metaverse’ – there are plenty of new dangers for the unwary.

“Because the virtual economy is still emerging, it can be incredibly profitable,” says Giorgio Tarraf, technology intelligence director at L’Atelier, BNP Paribas’ future market division. “The downside though is there is little

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Businesses need to invest more resources on ‘threat hunters’.

Staying vigilant is a full-time job

” regulation in place and many scammers.

You really do need professional advice if you’re dropping serious money.”

In other words, although the recent frenzy of investment in cryptocurrency and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) means many people now have a ‘hot wallet’ on their phone or have transferred funds to an exchange platform, if you are going to invest £200,000 on a piece of digital art, you should be aware of the risks.

One art buyer lost roughly that amount in September after Banksy’s website was hacked. Although, in the inevitable Banksy twist, the money was later returned, the incident highlighted the fact that once a bid is accepted on an auction site – OpenSea, say, the eBay of NFTs – it is irreversible. Moreover, cybercriminals are just as likely to impersonate artists by hacking curated markets, or by infiltrating online art communities and ‘helpfully’ offering their ‘friends’ technical support.

Of course, even storing your virtual money to buy that virtual van Gogh carries risk. “A good option for the wealthy is ‘cold storage’, an offline wallet such as a USB stick, or even a sheet of paper where you store your key,” suggests Tarraf.

He says that if you do use an online crypto wallet though – as most people do – the wallet provider should use cold storage, provide insurance and use a second verification layer as well as password. Moreover, the exchange – where you can buy and sell crypto – should have a ‘bug bounty’, rewarding ethical hackers for detecting site vulnerabilities, and an external security audit.

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Jets HEAD OF STATE

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Fuel Burn: 62 102 USG per 100 Nm

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Models: Citation CJ1, Citation Mustang, Citation M2, Phenom 100 Range: 1,300 nautical miles Fuel Burn: 44 102 USG per 100 Nm