The world celebrates entrepreneurs who are ahead of their time – big names like Steve Jobs and Google co-founder Larry Page. In our industry, though, it’s not always the case. Innovative and passionate people are often labelled ‘stubborn’ or ‘difficult to work with’. I suppose that asking the right questions at the wrong time or in the wrong team earns you those titles. : Having talked to tons of people in the hallways of conference centres, I know there is more to this story. I’ve heard how people championing recycling as a top priority years ago were put in a dusty office to be forgotten about by the rest of the company (like Scully and Mulder in the X-files). I’ve heard how they didn’t get funding, weren’t taken seriously and weren’t allowed to assemble a team to pursue ‘silly’ sustainability themes such as recycled content or eco-design. And yet these are becoming common goals in society today. Does this mean our political and commercial leaders have upgraded their vision? If ...