Forum for the Future
Forum was at the heart of everything I did from 1994 through to the end of 2023 – even though I was always able to combine it with other exciting challenges: as Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission (2000-2009), Board Member of the South West Regional Development Agency (1999-2008), and so on. And lots of writing projects (see my books).
Together with Sara Parkin and Paul Ekins (all of us Green Party or ex-Green Party members) we set up the Forum to bring some proper truth-telling both to business and the public sector. As a charity, we could “say it as we saw it”, without a lot of consultancy flim-flam. 30 years on, that’s what the Forum is still doing – now with more than 70 staff, and offices in New York, Singapore and Mumbai as well as London.
I loved my work with the Forum. After 2010 (when the newly-elected Tory/Lib Dem coalition set out to destroy all trace of sustainability both at the regional and the local level) all my work since then was with corporates.
That included working with leading companies like Unilever, M&S, BT, Wessex Water, Air New Zealand, Willmott Dixon – all of which succeeded in raising the bar. And I enjoyed the tough ones too: Sime Darby (at the heart of the palm oil industry); the PVC industry; Chemicals; even Shell and BP (until their hypocrisy and immorality became unbearable). Latterly, the partnership with bioenergy giant Drax has been both highly challenging and rewarding.
But from 2015 onwards, I realised that although corporate sustainability remains essential, it’s something of a busted flush. However committed a company may be, there’s nothing it can do to change our inherently unjust, undemocratic and fundamentally unsustainable economic system. They have no choice but to obey the rules of that increasingly destructive neoliberal “profit-maximising system” system.
What’s bugged me latterly is just how many business leaders are knowingly implicated in this insane suicide pact, all the while taking obscene salaries that lie at the heart of today’s worsening inequalities.
So I’m relieved to be moving back to campaigning work and supporting other causes that have been close to my heart for many years.
Forum for the Future
Forum for the Future – Challenging the status quo, letting go of ‘win-wins’ and finding hope in the next generation
Jonathon Porritt, one of the co-founders of Forum for the Future, steps down after almost 30 years with the international sustainability non-profit.
Here, he reflects on those three decades, and why we need to start thinking very differently about the role of business in accelerating the transition to a just and sustainable world. Jonathon also shares what inspired him to take action for environmental issues right at the start, at a time when few people were talking about it.
Published by Forum for the Future, 8th May 2023
Other Organisations
I’m often described as an environmentalist, but it’s sustainability that has underpinned my entire career. I care as much about social justice, human rights and democracy as I do about biodiversity, pollution and climate change. Environmental problems are really a subset of much bigger economic and social issues, and even those have to be tracked back to much deeper philosophical and spiritual concerns.
Which is why I consider myself very fortunate to be involved in a wide range of different organisations, reflecting the full depth and breadth of sustainability today.
Population Matters
I’m President of Population Matters, having been involved in population issues since the early 1970s. In my book, you’re not likely to be making much sense of today’s converging crises unless you include population – and I remain astonished at just how many environmentalists simply don’t get that.
The Conservation Volunteers
I’m very proud to have been the President of The Conservation Volunteers since 2014, and remain in awe of everything TCV does directly to improve the lives of people across the country through practical conservation work to protect and restore the environment – involving more than 100,000 people.
Compassion in World Farming
I’ve been a Patron of Compassion in World Farming for a very long time. It does brilliant work to promote improved animal welfare, to campaign for less meat consumption, and to help people understand why these issues are central to the whole sustainability movement.
Make Votes Matter
One of the (many!) reasons why this country is in such a mess is our broken electoral system – and the overall state of our democracy. We have to be able to put that right, and, for me, Make Votes Matter is the best organisation out there campaigning to make that happen.
Stop Ecocide
For the last 300 years, the juggernaut of industrial development has laid waste to every corner of our natural world – for the most part, perfectly legally. ‘Stop Ecocide’ is a brilliant campaign to put an end to that by making ecocide a crime that could be prosecuted through the International Criminal Court. I’m proud to be a member of the campaign Advisory Board, and excited at the incredible progress that has been made over the last couple of years.
Stop Hinkley C/Stop Sizewell C
I’ve been an anti-nuclear campaigner ever since I joined Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth in the early 1970s. We don’t need it. We can’t afford it. We don’t know what to do with the waste it produces. And it poses a serious threat to our long-term security. Stop Sizewell C is still fighting flat out to prevent new reactors being built at Sizewell in Suffolk.
The Aotearoa Circle
I was closely involved in setting up the Aotearoa Circle in New Zealand back in 2018 – a voluntary initiative bringing together Chief Executives from both the public and the private sectors. It’s a unique organisation, making an increasingly influential contribution to protecting and restoring the natural capital on which New Zealand’s prosperity completely depends.
Read more on my blog here
Resilience Project
The Resilience Project was set up in 2020 to work with young people to combat the growing problem of eco-anxiety: “young people are looking out for the planet. But who’s looking out for us?” I’ve been an Adviser to the Project since the start, working alongside the core team and its impressive Board of Youth.
