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THE FACE OF ENVIRONMENTALISM

Erika Yarrow profiles leading environmentalist Jonathon Porritt

For many, myself included, Jonathon Porritt has been the face of the environmental movement for the best part of four decades.  As a former teacher, it is not surprising that his ability to communicate complex environmental challenges, using language accessible to the wider public, was soon recognised by a media in search of a spokesperson for the environment.  His straight talking, unapologetic stance, has made him a gift to the media.  This approach has also fuelled criticism, most notably, from more conservative members of the green movement.

Born on 6 July 1950, Porritt was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, before training as a barrister, and then going on to teach English at St Clement Danes Grammar School in Shepherd's Bush, London, in 1974.  A leading member of the Ecology Party (now the Green Party), he became chair of the Party in 1978, continuing in the role until 1984, during which time the Party grew in membership and became more widely recognised in the public conscience.  Giving up teaching to dedicate his time to environmental campaigning, he became Director of Friends of the Earth UK in 1984, a post which he held until 1990.

In 1996, together with Sara Parkin and Paul Ekins, he founded Forum for the Future, a non-profit organisation with a mission to, 'work globally with business and government to create a sustainable future, by inspiring new thinking, building creative partnerships and developing practical innovations'.  Porritt has described Forum for the Future as an organisation that is about making things happen, rather than stopping things happening.  This move from traditional conservation saw him heavily criticised by a section of the environmental movement who felt his work with big business - some of the world's most significant polluters - as tantamount to supping with the Devil. 

Porritt's response was characteristically self-assured.  He was convinced that by working with, rather than against, the corporate giants, he could deliver greatest environmental benefit.  The successes of Forum for the Future testify this.  Forum for the Future has worked with organisations such as Unilever, BP, BT, Carillion, The Cooperative Group, RWEnpower and TSB, to improve sustainability. 

Perhaps its most celebrated success, is the delivery of the M&S Plan A initiative, which aims for the company to be the world's most sustainable retailer by 2015.  Such an achievement would surely bring the environment into the mainstream, making more sustainable choices available to the masses and in turn educating consumers about the improvements that can be made, so challenging less sustainable competitors.

Today, when one considers the breadth of environmental improvements that have been made by the business sector over the last decade alone, those voices calling for the environmental sector to remain aloof from corporate influence seem outdated and isolationist.  Now it seems clear that significant environmental gains will only be achieved by making high environmental standards the norm, rather than the exception.  And we now know that many forward looking corporate businesses understand the necessity to factor in the environment to ensure that their businesses remain on a stable footing. 

The critics also failed to recognise Porritt's unswerving ability to put his environmental principles first, whoever the client may be - even when that client was Prime Minister Tony Blair.  In 1997 he was appointed the inaugural chair of the Labour government's Sustainable Development Commission, from which he retired in September 2009. This never stopped him being critical of the Labour government's environmental performance and outspoken about the government's position on nuclear power.

The latest controversy to see Porritt at the mercy of green critics is his determination to see the population issue addressed properly. He is a Patron of Population Matters, the UK's leading population charity, which aims to influence policy makers and increase global access to contraceptives, empowering women to choose when and how many children they wish to have, with the aim of slowing the population growth that is ravaging the planet's resources.

Writing in The Independent in October 2011, to mark the day the human population reached seven billion, Porritt was keen to highlight the plight of the 215 million women who do not have access to contraception, resulting in 53 million unwanted pregnancies each year and the death of 70,000 women each year through illegal abortions and complications in pregnancy.

He wrote: 'The simple truth is that continuing population growth is a multiplier of every one of today's converging sustainability pressures - including climate change.'  Continuing: 'Every country needs an active population strategy, including the US and the UK, which are the only OECD countries still to have growing populations. Advocating such an approach, however, gets the fluffy progressives in the Green Movement even more incensed. Arguing, for instance, that for a couple to decide to have no more than two children represents a much bigger commitment to sustainable living than flaunting your Prius or lagging your loft, induces apoplexy.'

Whilst Porritt's frustration is clearly felt in the above words, looking at his history of being ahead of the environmental argument, I can't help but wonder if the population issue - now controversial - will in time become a political no brainer; if countries are to maintain secure supplies of water, food and energy, population must be maintained within the limits of these resources.  As David Attenborough, fellow patron of Population Matters confirms: 'I have never seen a problem that wouldn't be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.'

Jonathon Porritt will be a keynote speaker at Water & Environment 2012, CIWEM's Annual Conference, on 20-21 March 2012 at the Olympia Conference Centre, London