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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).
The war of words over home-produced electricity feed-in tariffs could cost dearly
March 18th, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
On March 2nd, Guardian columnist George Monbiot launched an extraordinary attack on feed-in tariffs and on solar photovoltaics (PV) in particular. Even for George, who has honed his invective skills to a fine point over the years, his language was remarkably intemperate: “pricey conceit … great green rip-off… scam…comically inefficient…squandering the public’s money…perfectly useless… a …
The Landfill Prize
March 12th, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
I was sent this the other day by John Naish, author of Enough: breaking free from the world of more, and thought I might just pass it on. It’s really very entertaining! But also an indication of just how idiotically wasteful our world still is.
My favourites are the ‘Dryear Ear Dryer’ and the ‘organic cotton …
M&S set a sustainable benchmark for the retail world
March 11th, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
I spoke at the annual M&S Suppliers’ Conference on Tuesday, which took place in Kensington Town Hall. This venue has a particular resonance for me as it was where the votes for the 1979 and 1984 European elections were counted – and every time I’m back there, I can’t help but recall that sense of …
No more niches – we need sustainable innovation at scale
March 9th, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
It’s the scale of it all that is sometimes daunting. On energy, for instance, we have to transition from around 90% dependency on fossil fuels to around 90% on renewables – allowing a little bit of residual space for cleaner and super-efficient fossil fuels (aviation, amongst other things, where technological substitution is always going to …
Genetically modified fetishism
March 1st, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
The assembled great and the good of the National Farmers Union must have been absolutely delighted to hear Chris Smith, Chair of the Environment Agency, extol the benefits of GM technologies earlier in the week.
He stressed that he was speaking in a ‘personal capacity’, despite the fact that he was invited as Chair of the …
The Marmot Review: health and inequality in the spotlight once more
February 22nd, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
I spent last Friday at the launch conference for the Marmot Review – a report on health and equality and what we should be doing about them here in the UK.
It’s a really good report and powerfully reminds all those who see themselves as active in the ‘sustainable development community’ of the overlap with …
Lesson from Kraft’s Cadbury takeover
February 12th, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
So the first blow has fallen on Cadbury’s from its new owners, Kraft.
The Keynsham plant near Bristol will close, despite the fact that Kraft promised to keep it open (that was actually a bit weird, as Cadbury itself had announced that Keynsham would be closed at some stage in the future).
And the fear, of course, …
Time to press the panic button?
February 5th, 2010 by Jonathon Porritt
Apologies for the six weeks blog-oliday. Put it down to Copenhagen blues!
I’m still reeling from the surreal sight of Lord Whacko Monckton (the climate contrarians’ eccentric of choice), captured on Newsnight last night doing an imitation of Al Gore at a public meeting in Australia. Frightening stuff.
Whenever I see Monckton at work, it …
The media and climate change contrarians
December 16th, 2009 by Jonathon Porritt
Here we are, four days away from (all being well!) a new global agreement on man-made climate change, and the front page of the Daily Express carries the following headline: “100 Reasons Why Global Warming is Natural”.
This is getting beyond a joke. I have always argued that it is critical to carry on giving airtime …
Blogging and ‘Phlogging’
December 11th, 2009 by Jonathon Porritt
You can listen to my latest phonecasts here.
Camden Council gains possession of 100 homes in illegal sub-letting crackdown 
Stockport Homes is one of the best places to work! 
'Self-styled countess' jailed for 200,000 benefit fraud 
Alan Duncan meets Spire tenants 
Professor Peter Roberts OBE becomes chair of KHT 
