John Elkington

John Elkington is a Volans Founding Partner and Director. A co-founder of SustainAbility in 1987 (Chair from 1995 -2005), he is seen as a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. In 2004, BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades”, and 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.” John has authored or co-authored 17 books, including 1988’s million-selling Green Consumer Guide and Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (1997), and has written or co-written some 40 published reports. His latest book was co-authored with Pamela Hartigan, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, and was published by Harvard Business School Press on February, 2008. Through SustainAbility and Volans, he has been working with The Skoll Foundation on a $1 million, 3-year field-building program in relation to social entrepreneurship.

John is a Visiting Professor at the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management. He also chairs The Environment Foundation and the Aflatoun Impact and Policy Analysis Steering Group, sitting on advisory boards for the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, a new Cleantech Fund developed by Zouk Ventures, Physic Ventures, LP, 2degrees, Business in the Environment, and Instituto Ethos, Brazil. He recentlystood down as Chairman of the Export Credits Guarantee Department’s Advisory Council, to allow more time for new ventures. He is also a member of the WWF Council of Ambassadors, the Evian Group Brain Trust, the Tomorrow’s Global Company Inquiry Team, the Cambridge Research Advisory Group for the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry (CPI), the United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme (UNGCCP) International Advisory Council, and the International Judging Panel for the DHL YES Awards, Asia and an advisor to the Fast Company Social Capitalist Awards. John was a Faculty member of the World Economic Forum between 2002 and 2008. Also see his personal website.

To contact John, click here.