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John Elkington

John Elkington

A world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

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You are here: Home / About / Professional / Awards & Listings

Awards & Listings

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In retrospect, the main benefit from many of the awards I have been privileged to receive has been that they have introduced me to different communities and networks of similarly motivated people. This section was a last-minute addition to the revamped website, so we will fill in more detail over time. But the list below suggests the very different forms of recognition our work has attracted over the years.

  • 1973: University College London, travel fellowship to the USA
  • 1981: Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship, again taken to travel to USA, feeding into my 1985 book, Sun Traps: The Renewable Energy Forecast
  • 1989: United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honour, alongside Julia Hailes
  • 2006: 3-year, $1 million grant from the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, which covered work both at SustainAbility and later at Volans
  • 2008: Fast Company Social Capitalist Award (on behalf of SustainAbility)
  • 2010: American Society for Quality Spencer Hutchens, Jr. Medal for champions of quality and social responsibility
  • 2011: Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowship, used to write part of The Zeronauts
  • 2013: Inducted into the Sustainability Hall of Fame by The International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) in honor of “extraordinary contribution” to the field through research, publication, teaching and innovation.
  • 2014: Honorary Doctorate, University of Essex

In addition to such awards, I have featured in a numbers of surveys, for example:

  • In 2004, BusinessWeek described me as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.”
  • In 2008, The Evening Standard named me 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.”
  • In 2009, a CSR International survey of the Top 100 CSR leaders placed me fourth: after Al Gore, Barack Obama and the late Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, and alongside Muhammad Yunus of the Grameen Bank.
  • In 2011, I was named among the ‘100 Global Sustain Ability Leaders for 2011’ by ABC Carbon and the Sustain Ability (nothing to do with SustainAbility) Showcase Asia, based on nominations and recommendations received from around the world.

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From the Journal

The Bright Side Of Life

6 May 2023

Miserable weather for a Coronation, but Elaine and I went across to Richmond this morning: partly to have our ears looked into, partly to escape a local street party featuring karaoke (which was then postponed anyway); partly to get away from the constant hammering as our roof is stripped and renewed; partly to visit bookshops […]

What’s The Plural Of Tardis?

29 April 2023

The Volans team clambered aboard two of (Sir) Tim Smit’s time machines this week: The Lost Gardens of Heligan beamed us back into a sustainable version of the past, while The Eden Project transported us into a version of a sustainable future. Along the way, I found myself pondering what the plural of Tardis might […]

Regenerating Eden

25 April 2023

Delighted to see my interview with Dr Azzam Alwash of Nature Iraq appearing in @worldofTOPIA today: https://worldoftopia.com/john-elkington-nature-iraq-azzam-alwash-conversation/…. Stems from our Green Swans Observatory fact-finding process.

About

John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. He is currently Founding Partner and Executive Chairman of Volans, a future-focused business working at the intersection of the sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation movements.

Contact

john@johnelkington.com  |  +44 203 701 7550 | Twitter: @volansjohn

John Elkington

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