Summary Biography
Jonathon Porritt is an eminent writer and campaigner on sustainable development.
For the last 30 years, Jonathon has provided strategic advice to leading UK and international companies to deepen their understanding of today’s converging environmental and climate crises.
He is also focused on intergenerational justice, supporting young people in their activities around sustainable development issues as they face a future defined by the twin crises of the Climate Emergency and Biodiversity Emergency.
He is President of The Conservation Volunteers and is involved in the work of many other NGOs and groups.
In 1996, he co-founded Forum for the Future, a leading international sustainable development charity, working with business and civil society to accelerate the shift toward a sustainable future.
Jonathon was formerly Co-Chair of the Green Party (1980-83) and Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90). He stood down as Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission in 2009, after nine years providing high-level advice to Government Ministers, and served a ten-year term as Chancellor of Keele University (2012-2022).
Jonathon was awarded a CBE in January 2000 for services to environmental protection.
His latest book, Hope in Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020, revised 2021) is a powerful ‘call to action’ on the Climate Emergency.
Biography – longer version
Jonathon Porritt is an eminent writer and campaigner on sustainable development.
For the last 30 years, Jonathon has provided strategic advice to leading UK and international companies to deepen their understanding of today’s converging environmental and climate crises, and supports them in developing solutions to those challenges. He has convened and chaired many sectoral dialogues, advisory panels and inquiries to address in depth some of the most intractable issues in sustainable development today (such as palm oil, aviation, and BECCS).
He is also particularly focused on intergenerational justice, supporting young people in their activities around sustainable development issues as they face a future defined by the twin crises of the Climate Emergency and Biodiversity Emergency.
He is President of The Conservation Volunteers and Population Matters, and is involved in the work of many other NGOs and groups.
In 1996, he co-founded Forum for the Future, a leading international sustainable development charity, working with business and civil society to accelerate the shift toward a sustainable future. He was also a co-founder of the Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Programme.
Jonathon was formerly Co-Chair of the Green Party (1980-83), of which he is still a member, Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90), a Trustee of WWF-UK (1991-2005), a member of the Board of the South West Regional Development Agency (1999-2008), and a Trustee of Ashden (until 2020). He stood down as Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission in 2009, after nine years providing high-level advice to Government Ministers. Jonathon served a ten-year term as Chancellor of Keele University (2012-2022), and was a Non-Executive Director of Willmott Dixon until 2022.
In 2017, Jonathon received Ethical Corporation’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Responsible Business Awards. He was awarded a CBE in January 2000 for services to environmental protection.
His latest book, Hope in Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020, revised 2021) is a powerful ‘call to action’ on the Climate Emergency. Earlier books include Capitalism As If The World Matters (Earthscan, revised 2007) and ‘The World We Made’ (Phaidon 2013), a positive vision of how we get to be living in a fair and sustainable world in 2050.
