John Elkington

John Elkington is a writer, thought-leader, serial entrepreneur, and, at heart, an environmentalist. Described as the “Godfather of Sustainability,” he has now written or co-authored 20 books, including the million-selling Green Consumer Guide series. Elkington has worked with many scores of corporations, often at the board and C-suite level, as well as with the financial community, industry bodies, government, the media, NGOs, academia, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Along the way, he has co-founded four social-purpose businesses since 1978, including Environmental Data Services (ENDS, 1978), John Elkington Associates/CounterCurrent (1983), SustainAbility (1987) and Volans Ventures (2008). All four still exist and the last two were respectively the second and first certified British B Corporations in the U.K. Over the years, Elkington has also served on over seventy boards and advisory boards, advising companies, non-profits and policy-making organizations. He is a visiting professor at the Cranfield School of Management, as well as at Imperial College London and University College London (UCL). In 2004, BusinessWeek described Elkington as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.” He has received many awards and honors, including from the United Nations (Global 500 Roll of Honour, 1989). In 2005, he landed a “Social Capitalist of the Year” award from Fast Company, and that year was also awarded a three-year, $1 million field-building grant from the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2011, he was awarded the Spencer Hutchens, Jr. Medal by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), for “outstanding leadership, as an advocate for social responsibility, and for bringing about positive social change.” In 2014, he was awarded the Recycle/El Mercurio International Prize in Chile and in 2015 the Ethical Corporation Lifetime Achievement Award.