Jonathon Porritt, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, is an eminent writer, broadcaster and campaigner on sustainable development. Established in 1996, Forum for the Future is now the UK’s leading sustainable development charity, with 70 staff and over 100 partner organisations, including some of the world’s leading companies. The Forum has a growing presence in the United States, and is doing more and more work in India, Singapore and Malaysia.
In addition, Jonathon is President of Population Matters, President of The Conservation Volunteers, a Non-Executive Director of Willmott Dixon Holdings, and a Director of Collectively (an online platform celebrating sustainable innovation). He is a Trustee of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, and is involved in the work of many NGOs and charities as Patron, Chair or Special Adviser.
He was formerly Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90), co-chair of the Green Party (1980-83), of which he is still a member, a Trustee of WWF UK (1991-2005), and a member of the Board of the South West Regional Development Agency (1999-2008). He stood down as Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission in July 2009, after nine years providing high-level advice to Government Ministers.
Jonathon was installed as the Chancellor of Keele University in February 2012.
His latest book Hope in Hell: A Decade to Confront the Climate Emergency (Simon & Schuster, 2020), an urgent call to how we can tackle climate change in this decade. Previous books include Capitalism As If The World Matters (Earthscan, revised 2007) and ‘The World We Made’ (Phaidon 2013)
Jonathon received a CBE in January 2000 for services to environmental protection.
