John Elkington

Founder and Chief, Pollinator

John is one of the founders of the global sustainability movement. He has worked as a strategic advisor to businesses across the globe for more than 50 years, and has a very active role within Volans, working across several Clients. 

He has served on over 70 boards and advisory boards. He currently chairs an Advisory Council on Sustainability and New Markets for Neste (Finland) and an Impact Valuation Advisory Council for Novartis (Switzerland). 

John is also a highly regarded keynote speaker and author. He has addressed over 1,000 conferences around the world and was a faculty member of the World Economic Forum from 2002-2008. He is the author or co-author of 20 books including the million selling Green Consumer Guide. His most recent book – Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism – was published in April 2020 by Fast Company Press and has re-enforced his position as ‘The Godfather of Sustainability’. 

John has helped create and incubate movements including the B Team, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, the Global Reporting Initiative, and B Lab UK and he was a faculty member of the World Economic Forum from 2002-2008, In 2009 John was named 4th in an international survey Top 100 CSR leaders, after Al Gore, Barack Obama and Anita Roddick.  

And almost 30 years ago John coined the phrase; “Triple Bottom Line” of People, Planet and Profit (also known as the 3Ps, TBL or 3BL). Up to today it is still gaining popularity and it has become part of everyday business language. 

In September 2021, John won the globally renowned World Sustainability Award.