Jonathon Porritt

picture of Jonathon Porritt

Jonathon Porritt, 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 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).

Holding government to account

You probably won’t believe it, but our collective hearts sink every time the Sustainable Development Commission has to publish its annual report on the Government’s progress against its own sustainability targets – quite simply because the significance of the Government’s own performance in this area is enormous. Enormous in terms of impact on the […]

March 20th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Procurement in the public sector

I know that everybody finds procurement really tedious. Even serious SD enthusiasts can’t seem to stop their eyes glazing over just as soon as the “p” word makes an appearance in any conversation. But from the Sustainable Development Commission’s perspective, how we spend roughly £160 billion of tax payer’s money is absolutely fundamental – so […]

March 7th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Wanted: a code for sustainable buildings

What a treat yesterday (28/3): a visit to the EcoBuild Exhibition at Earls Court. I think this is the fourth or fifth of these exhibitions – and it started out very small and very ‘niche’.
The 2008 Exhibition is big, bold and bullish. With dozens of mainstream industry giants mixing it with innovative […]

March 3rd, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Alice in Wonderland

Paul Ekins is an old mate of mine – indeed, a co-founder of Forum for the Future. He is now Professor of Energy and Environment at Kings College London.
Paul is a seriously rigorous academic, very focussed on whatever task is in hand, with very high expectations of himself and everyone he deals with. Despite all […]

February 28th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Renewable energy in Wales

Helped launched the new Renewable Energy Route Map for the Welsh Assembly Government yesterday – out for consultation until May, and well worth a look.
What grabs you immediately is the seriousness of intent – with an ambition to generate all the electricity Wales uses from renewable sources within the next 20 years. And […]

February 25th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Loony vs Mainstream

Politicians must be finding it harder and harder to work out in the wider sustainability agenda what still falls in the ‘loony’ category (as climate change once did) and what now falls in the ‘emerging and increasingly mainstream’ category – which they better get their heads around for fear of appearing out of touch. […]

February 12th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Cyclical success

I vaguely remember being very rude about the Department for Transport at some stage last year, regarding their continuing failure to get really serious about walking and cycling. That was in the context of the Cycling England report showing that a £50 million investment in cycling could result in cumulative health, pollution and congestion […]

February 11th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Answers to your questions

I was recently invited to take part in The Independent’s ‘You ask the questions’. Here’s the full list of responses I supplied, for those that are interested.
Judging by your early writing, you used to be a real green radical. Have your beliefs mellowed over the years?
Josh Hogan, Cheddar
Not really, I wrote “Seeing Green” […]

February 11th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Future Leaders Survey 07/08

I was trying to think the other day what it felt like to be 18 – back in 1968. A spate of 40-year on retrospectives covering the Paris riots and other events at that time have stimulated all sorts of dubious attempts on my part to re-capture the mood and the moments of that […]

January 30th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt

Bali - the final analysis

So that’s Bali done: a binding timetable agreed – for more talks through to the end of 2009. And an agreement for something more substantial to slow deforestation - by 2013.
Against such meagre pickings, I wonder how Bali will be remembered in the annals of climate change diplomacy? A “good […]

January 10th, 2008 by Jonathon Porritt