John Elkington

a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development

John Elkington is a Founding Partner & Director of Volans Ventures and co-founded SustainAbility and is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.” In 2008, The Evening Standard named John among the '1000 Most Influential People' in London, describing him as "a true green business guru," and as "an evangelist for corporate social and environmental responsibility long before it was fashionable."

Conference topics 

Sustainability / CSR (corporate social responsibility) – the global picture and the business case

The opportunities arising from the current financial and economic crisis – ‘The Phoenix Economy’ Innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to the world’s most pressing problems

The Triple Bottom Line
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World (accelerating solutions to ‘insoluable’ problems)



Bio

John Elkington is a Founding Partner & Director of Volans Ventures, launched in April 2008 and co-founded SustainAbility in 1987 (Chair from 1995 -2005) and is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. In 1989, John was elected to the UN Global 500 Roll of Honour for his “outstanding environmental achievements”.  In 2004, Interiors & Sources magazine in the US profiled him as an ‘Environmental Trailblazer’ and BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.” In 2008, The Evening Standard named John among the '1000 Most Influential People' in London, describing him as "a true green business guru," and as "an evangelist for corporate social and environmental responsibility long before it was fashionable."

Established in 1987, SustainAbility advises clients on the risks and opportunities associated with corporate responsibility and sustainable development. Working at the interface between market forces and societal expectations, SustainAbility seeks solutions to social and environmental challenges that deliver long term value.   With offices in London, Zurich, New York and Washington, DC and team members representing more than ten nationalities, SustainAbility works with leading companies, NGOs and influencers around the world. Clients include ABN Amro, BP, Coca-Cola, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, Nike, Norwich Union, Shell, Swiss Re, Unilever and Wal-Mart. A global network of experts and partners helps SustainAbility to track emerging agendas, evaluate the market implications and engage business and its main stakeholders worldwide. Volans Ventures aims to find, explore, advise on and build innovative scalable solutions to the great global divides that overshadow the future. Volans is carrying forward John’s work with The Skoll Foundation's 3-year field-building programme in relation to social entrepreneurship.

John's latest book is on entrepreneurial solutions and particularly on the work of leading social and environmental entrepreneurs.  Co-authored with Pamela Hartigan, at the time the Managing Director of The Schwab Foundation and now a Founding Partner of Volans Ventures, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, was published by Harvard Business School Press on 5th February 2008. 

John has authored or co-authored another 16 books and some 40 published reports, including the No.1 best-selling Green Consumer Guide and The Chrysalis Economy: How Citizen CEOs and Corporations Can Fuse Values and Value Creation (Capstone, Oxford/John Wiley, New York 2001).  His book Cannibals With Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (Capstone, 1997/New Society 1998) was a finalist in the Global Business Book of the Year Award, organised by the Financial Times and Booz-Allen Hamilton.

Other books have included:

The Ecology of Tomorrow’s World (ABP, 1980)
Sun Traps (Pelican, 1984)
The Poisoned Womb (Viking/Pelican, 1985)
The Gene Factory (Century, 1985)
Green Pages (Routledge, 1987)
The Green Capitalists (Gollancz, 1987)
The Green Business Guide (Gollancz, 1988)
The Green Consumer’s Supermarket Shopping Guide (Gollancz, 1989)
The Young Green Consumer Guide (Gollancz, 1990)
Holidays That Don’t Cost the Earth (Gollancz, 1992)
Manual 2000: Life Choices for the Future You Want (Hodder & Stoughton, 1998)
The New Foods Guide (Gollancz, 1999).

John has written hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines and journals, and was Editor of Biotechnology Bulletin from 1982 to 1995, producing over 170 issues. He has also been a regular contributor to New Scientist on environmental, energy and development issues (1975-78), Tomorrow magazine (1995-2000) and The Guardian (1981-2001). He contributes regular columns to Nikkei Ecology in Japan, chinadialogue in China, Brazil’s Época Negócios, and Director magazine in the UK.

John has spoken at over 500 conferences and other events throughout the world, among them the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum, of which he has been a Faculty member since 2002. He has moderated sessions in New York (2002), at Davos (2003 through to 2008) and in Palo Alto (2007) and Dalian, China (2007).

In addition to his role at Volans Ventures and  SustainAbility, John is a Visiting Professor at the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield University School of Management and:

Member of 2degrees Advisory Board
Chair, Aflatoun Impact and Policy Analysis Steering Group
Senior Advisor, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, spun off by Amnesty International
Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR)
Member of newly formed Cleantech Group LLC’s Cleantech Innovation Council
Member of the Advisory Board, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI)
Member of EcoVadis Advisory Board
Member of Advisory Panel for the first annual Environmental Defense Innovations report
Chair of The Environment Foundation
Member of the Evian Group Brain Trust and Council of Global Thought Leaders 
Member of Methodology Panel for the Fast Company Social Capitalist Awards
Founding Member of Gaia Energy Advisory Board
Member of Greenopolis.com Advisory Council
Member of the Global Leaders Academy
Honorary Fellow of The Hub Foundation
Member of the International Advisory Board of Instituto Ethos, Brazil
Member of Strategic Advisory Board of Physic Ventures, LP
Member of Strategic Advisory Board of Polecat UK
Member of the Tomorrow's Global Company Inquiry Team
Member of the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme (UNGCCP) International Advisory Council
Member of Cambridge Research Advisory Group for University of Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI)
Member of the WWF UK Council of Ambassadors
Member, Cleantech Industry Advisory Group, Zouk Ventures.

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