Jonathon Porritt is an eminent writer and campaigner on sustainable development.
Since stepping down from Forum for the Future in May 2023, Jonathon has “returned to his campaigning roots”, supporting the Green Party and radical climate campaigns such as Just Stop Oil and Defend our Juries.
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 Business and Sustainability Programme.
Throughout that time, Jonathon provided strategic advice to leading UK and international companies to deepen their understanding of today’s converging environmental and climate crises.
He is now much more 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.
Jonathon was formerly Co-Chair of the Green Party (1980-83) and Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90). He was a Board Member of The Southwest Regional Development Agency between 1999 and 2008. 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. Before that, he authored nine other books, the first being ‘Seeing Green’ in 1984.
Photographs
If you wish to use a photograph to publicise an event in which I’m involved, here’s a selection available for download:
