Green Giant-The next force for business transformation won’t be digital, it will be horticultural.

That’s the disruptive idea behind the awe-inspiring Eden Project.

Who: Tim Smit
Affiliation: Cofounder
and chief executive, the
Eden Project
Location: St. Austell,
Cornwall, England

by Ian Wylie
photographs by Steve Pyke
from FC issue 59, page 64

The next great force for
business
transformation won’t be
digital, argues Tim
Smit; it will be
horticultural. Smit is an
archaeologist turned
musician turned
botanist who is planting
the seeds of change at
the Eden Project, his
awe-inspiring, $120
million facility in
Cornwall, England. Eden is the world’s largest greenhouse, containing 250,000 plants
in two giant, enclosed biomes.

But Eden is about more than watching a garden grow. Smit believes that over the next
20 years, in-depth research on plants will result in new materials of unprecedented
strength and flexibility, new sources of food and medicine, and new approaches to
renewable energy. "We are on the verge of a revolution that is greater than any in the
20th century," says Smit. "There are now composite materials that you can make from
plants that are stronger than steel and Kevlar. The implications are phenomenal. Every
country in the world could have access to advanced materials created from their own
plants."

Barely a year after it opened, the 34-acre facility has become one of Europe’s most
popular and celebrated tourist attractions. Meanwhile, Smit is hard at work on his next
big project: a campus where business leaders, artists, scientists, engineers, and
bureaucrats will commit to spending five days a year sharing their knowledge. "Tithing
College is central to my manifesto," Smit explains. "It will attract those who want to
imagine a new beginning and contribute to the debate, What does ‘great’ look like, and
how do we get there?"

Visit the Eden Project on the Web ( http://www.edenproject.com ).

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