John Elkington (business author)
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23 June 1949
John Elkington | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | John Brett Elkington 23 June 1949 |
| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | University College London |
| Known for | Triple Bottom Line |
| Awards | 2011 Spencer Hutchens, Jr. Medal by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Sustainability Innovation Social entrepreneurship Environmentalism Ecology |
| Institutions | Volans |
| Website | https://johnelkington.com/ |
John Elkington CF (born 23 June 1949) is an author, advisor and serial entrepreneur. He is an authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.[1][2] He has written and co-authored 20 books, including the Green Consumer Guide, Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, and The Breakthrough Challenge: 10 Ways to Connect Tomorrow's Profits with Tomorrow's Bottom Line.
He is a founding partner and chairman & chief pollinator at Volans; co-founder and honorary chairman of SustainAbility;[3] honorary chairman of Environmental Data Services (ENDS, 1978); senior advisor to the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre; member of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Council of Ambassadors; visiting professor at Cranfield University School of Management, Imperial College and University College London (UCL). He is a member of over 20 boards and advisory boards.[4][5]
He coined the terms environmental excellence, green growth,[6][7] green consumer, the triple bottom line[8][9] and People, Planet & Profit.
Elkington was born in 1949 on an island in a tributary of the Thames.[10]
Career
He wrote his first book with Julia Hailes, the Green Consumer Guide, in 1980, at the age of 31.[11]
At the age of 28, Elkington co-founded Environmental Data Services (ENDS) with David Layton and Max Nicholson. In 1983, SustainAbility was established as a think tank consultancy that works with businesses through markets in the pursuit of economic, social and environmental sustainability. The company was launched as John Elkington Associates but renamed SustainAbility in 1987.
From 2002 to 2008, Elkington was a faculty member of the World Economic Forum.[12]
In 2008, he co-founded Volans Ventures with Pamela Hartigan, Sam Lakha, Geoff Lye, and Kevin Teo.[citation needed]
Elkington was described by Business Week in 2004 as "a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades."[13] In 2008, the Evening Standard had named him 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".[14][15]
Awards
He has received awards from the United Nations, Fast Company, the American Society for Quality, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Skoll Foundation. In 1981, he was awarded the Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship, UK.[16] In 2009, a CSR International survey of the Top 100 CSR leaders placed Elkington fourth after Al Gore, Barack Obama and the late Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, and alongside Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank. In 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Essex.[17]
