Jonathon Porritt

Jonathon Porritt has been one of the most influential advocates on behalf of the environment over the last 25 years. His numerous appearances on television and radio, countless public lectures and many hard-hitting articles in newspapers and magazines throughout the world have made him probably the best-known 'green' in Britain today. Jonathon established Forum for the Future in 1996 together with fellow Programme Directors, Sara Parkin and Paul Ekins. He believed that there was a clear role for an organisation offering a solution-orientated approach to today's environmental problems. One that developed strategic partnerships across different sectors which encouraged and multiplyed examples of best environmental practice wherever possible. As a result of the kind of approach he has been pursuing through the Forum, Jonathon was appointed by the Prime Minister as Chairman of the new Sustainable Development Commission in July 2000. This will be the government's principal source of independent advise across the whole sustainable development agenda. Over the last seven years, he has been closely involved in setting up and running the Senior Executive's Seminars in Cambridge and Salzburg under The Prince of Wales's Business and Environment Programme. Jonathon is a Trustee of WWF UK, Vice-President of the Socialist Environment Resources Association (SERA) and Chairman of the Agricultural Reform Group. He was appointed to the Board of the South West Regional Development Agency in December 1999.

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 and Chairman of Sustainability South West, the South West Round Table for Sustainable Development (1999-2001). He is the author of Seeing Green (1984), Coming of the Greens (1988), Where on Earth are We Going (1990), Save the Earth (1991), a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph, BBC Wildlife Magazine, NFU Countryside, and he has written and presented a number of major television documentaries. His latest book, Playing Safe: Science and the Environment, was published by Thames & Hudson in May 2000. Jonathon received a CBE in January 2000 for services to environmental protection.