Jonathon Porritt

Jonathon Porritt, was born in 1950. "The next couple of decades flowed by effortlessly at Eton, Magdalen College, Oxford, and dossing around planting trees and farming in New Zealand and Australia. I first got involved with environmental issues in 1974, at the same time as I became a teacher in a West London comprehensive, which I absolutely loved. Ten years later, I left teaching to become Director of Friends of the Earth where I stayed until 1991, just prior to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 – which for me, was a life-changing experience." His father was Baron Porritt of Wanganui and Hampstead.

"Co-Founder and Programme Director of Forum for the Future, is an eminent writer, broadcaster and commentator 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.

"Jonathon was appointed by the Prime Minister as Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission in July 2000. This is the Government's principal source of independent advice across the whole sustainable development agenda. In addition, he has been a member of the Board of the South West Regional Development Agency since December 1999, and is Co-Director of The Prince of Wales's Business and Environment Programme which runs Senior Executives' Seminars in Cambridge, Salzburg, South Africa and the USA. In 2005 he became a Non-Executive Director of Wessex Water, and a Trustee of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. He is also Vice-President of the Socialist Environment Resources Association (SERA).

"He was formerly Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90); co-chair of the" UK Green Party "(1980-83) of which he is still a member; chairman of UNED-UK (1993-96); chairman of Sustainability South West, the South West Round Table for Sustainable Development (1999-2001); a Trustee of WWF UK (1991-2005)."

"He is a Non-Executive Director of Wessex Water, and of Willmott Dixon Holdings. He is a Trustee of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.. Jonathon became co-Chair of the Green Party in 1980, a position which he held until he took over as Director of Friends of the Earth in 1984. The next six years provided the foundation for the rest of Jonathon's career, as they coincided with a huge surge in interest in environmental issues. In the years after that, he wrote a number of books (including 'Save the Earth', at the time of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, which sold more than a million copies) and fronted various television series. Since then he has been Chairman of UNED-UK (1993-96)... and a member of the Board of the South West Regional Development Agency (1999-2008)."

Affiliations

 * Cofounder, The Other Economic Summit
 * Former Chair, Agricultural Reform Group
 * Co-director, Prince of Wales's Business & Sustainability Programme
 * Trustee, Foundation for GAIA
 * Director, Natural Step International
 * Sustainability Board, Lifeboat Foundation
 * Patron, Compassion in World Farming
 * Patron, Human Scale Education
 * Patron, Population Matters
 * Patron, Springhead
 * Patron, Tree Aid
 * Patron, Countryside Restoration Trust
 * Advisory Panel, BP's targetneutral
 * Advisory Group, Green House
 * Advisory Board, Action for Renewables
 * Advisory Board, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership
 * Advisory Board, Ecotricity
 * Advisory Board, WHEB Ventures
 * Advisory Panel (2009), Resurgence
 * Advisory Council, Environmental Law Foundation
 * Advisor, Converging World Group
 * Co-vice President, British Trust for Conservation Volunteers
 * Council, Schumacher Society
 * Commission Member, Carnegie UK Trust
 * Patron, Alister Hardy Trust
 * Patron, UK Social Investment Forum
 * Patron, Wyse International
 * Working Group, People and the Planet
 * Member, Our Forests
 * Fellow 2010/11, Institute of Advanced Study (Durham University)
 * Environmental Steering Committee, Climate Care
 * Member, Balanced Migration

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