Services
Incredible claims
(source: JE via Artiphoria, 2024)
Anyone with children knows the question: Are we nearly there yet? Well, in relation to the transformation of our economies, markets and businesses, the answer must be no. Not even close—and often heading in the wrong direction entirely.
In effect, this story has only just begun.
How leaders view what I do
Still, we should ask what an ‘X-curve-aware’ board, C-suite or management team might look like? How would it think? How would it plan? For one thing, it would probably excel at managing its exit from old order markets while investing in new ones.
My own work has routinely crossed this divide. As former Tesco CEO Sir Dave Lewis kindly put it, my contribution involves “coaching the enlightened—and confronting the laggards.”
Along the way, I have worked with an A-to-Z of major businesses, in many sectors, and in 50-plus countries. To give a sense of the wider world in which this plays out, and of how some key players see my work, here are some perspectives from leaders:
“John Elkington is unusual in that he has ridden—and helped shape—so many waves of change. But perhaps his central contribution has been in helping to ensure that the tremendous opportunities offered by responsible and sustainable business models are increasingly understood by CEOs and boards.”
Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, campaigner, and co-author of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, UK
…
“By coaching the enlightened—and confronting the laggards—John has helped put the issues and opportunities firmly on the top tables of some of the world’s largest and most impactful businesses.”
Sir Dave Lewis, former CEO, Tesco PLC; chair, WWF-UK
…
“I once asked John what it took to lead a sustainable business. He said, ‘imagination and stamina in equal measures.’ Well, there is no one who has more of these qualities than he. More importantly, he and his team know how to bring these alive in any organisation. He’s truly the Godfather of Sustainability.”
Alannah Weston, former chair, Selfridges Group, UK
…
“With significant support from John, and over a number of decades, we formed models and experimented with them. Reflecting on our successes and failures is the critical next step by which we all learn and move forward.”
Patrick Thomas, former chair, Johnson Matthey PLC; former CEO, Covestro AG and Bayer MaterialScience at Bayer AG, UK
…
“Curious and independent-minded, John has always been ahead of his time. I share his view that the next wave of change in business and markets will be about regeneration—environmental, social, economic, and political.”
Guilherme Leal, cofounder and co-chair, Natura &Co, Brazil
…
“John’s work has been key—his provocations and criticisms of companies, his advice for business leaders, and, above all, his sharing of inspiring stories that help us keep believing that big change is possible. We need more ‘Johns’!”
Cristiano C. Teixeira, CEO, Klabin S.A., Brazil
…
“John Elkington has been both our sage and our visionary, guiding EcoVadis as we grew from a handful of people in Paris to 1,700 based in 14 countries, covering over 130,000 businesses worldwide.”
Pierre-François Thaler, Fred Trinel and Sylvain Guyoton, cofounders and chief rating officer, EcoVadis, France
Boards and Advisory Boards
Going in circles with UBQ advisory board
(I’m fourth from left, with former US Environmental Protection Agency Head Gina McCarthy fifth, and former EU Environment Commissioner Connie Hedegaard third from right; source: UBQ Materials, 2024)
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it,” observed writer and social activist Upton Sinclair. Still, if there is such a thing as a ‘CEO-whisperer,’ I have been one.
A key route to influencing top teams is by appointing non-executive directors and advisory boards. Still, even I am surprised to have served on over 80 boards and advisory boards, their hosts ranging from companies like Covestro, Neste, Nestlé and Novartis through to a range of governments, civil society organizations, finance houses and startups.
Ongoing advisory roles
Currently I serve in related roles at:
- American University in Cairo, Onsi Sawiris School of Business, Egypt
- Blue Earth Summit, UK—a conference series committed to transforming the way the world works
- Conservation Without Borders, UK—Sacha Dench’s platform for campaigns like the Flight of the Swans, the Flight of the Osprey and the Flight of the Vulture
- EcoVadis, France—the leading sustainability intelligence platform for supply chains everywhere
- Edify Collective, UK (launching in April 2025)—a micro-learning platform that equips teams to manage and lead tomorrow’s workforce
- futur/io, EU and USA —where I am a Grand Jury member for the Chief Sustainability Officer Awards
- GIST Impact, Switzerland/India—a leading impact data and analytics provider
- Mitiga Solutions, Spain—a spin-off from the National Supercomputing Center in Spain, bridging the gap between boundary-pushing science and forward-looking businesses
- Nova School of Business & Economics, supporting the ERA Chair of Social Innovation, Portugal
- Royal Society of Arts (RSA), RSA Journal editorial board, UK
- Smart Surfaces Coalition, USA—enabling cities to thrive despite climate threats, decreasing urban heat as the world warms and saving cities billions of dollars
- UBQ Materials, Israel—a circular economy player, transforming trash into high-value materials
- Volans Ventures, UK—helping future-proof companies and other organizations for tomorrow’s challenges
- Zouk Capital, UK—providing private equity for the digital and sustainable economies
London Stock Exchange Group joins Anthropy—I’m second from far left
(source: Anthropy, 2025)
Ambassadorships
In addition, I am proud to be an Ambassador both for the Churchill Fellowship and for WWF UK. I have been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) since 1983, am a longstanding patron of the Science Museum, and belong to various other networks—including the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) and Pi Capital. I was also part of the founding group for Anthropy, now the largest UK gathering of future-makers.
Regeneration: collecting seagrass seed off the Isle of Wight with fellow WWF Ambassador, actor Kedar Williams-Stirling
(source: WWF UK, 2024)
After the meltdown, emergence
It is one thing to think around corners, quite another to help others do the same. But if you can prime people with a sense of what the future might hold, you can help them detect and understand weak signals they might otherwise miss or dismiss.
In my ‘Ambassador from the Future’ role, I have delivered over 1,500 keynotes and speeches in more than 30 countries—among other things serving for seven years as a faculty member at the World Economic Forum.
Impact can be a headache
But measuring the impact of all that activity remains a headache. Yes, you can calculate effort with timesheets (I have long avoided them), but how to track real-world transformation?
As our economies enter an era of metamorphosis, it would be even riskier to picture tomorrow as more of the same. As RethinkX warns: “A butterfly is not a caterpillar with wings.”
In my 2001 book, The Chrysalis Economy, I compared the looming disruptions with how a caterpillar’s organs break down into a slurry within a chrysalis—as so-called ‘imaginal cells’ begin to assemble a butterfly. I explained:
The Chrysalis Economy incubates future wealth creators
(source: Volans/Silvio Rebêlo, 2021)
When successful, such processes show startling similarities with natural world processes that transform ravenous, earthbound caterpillars into gossamer-light butterflies. When unsuccessful, however, they can tear apart a company, rupturing key links in its value chain. The outcome can be a company or value-web digested by the economic world’s versions of maggots. Maggots have their role, of course, going through their own forms of metamorphosis—but even with a long-standing interest in industrial archaeology, I am more interested in the dynamics of regeneration than in those of decay and degeneration.
Caterpillar economies chew holes in the biosphere
(source: Volans/Silvio Rebêlo, 2021)
Blurry, but Cranfield University students in Somerset House capture the spirit
(source: Volans, 2022)
Generally, education is the single most important investment any society can make—and must now be directed at every age group, not just at the young.
Where I studied
So, first, my own education. After leaving Bryanston School in 1966, I collected a BA (Hons) in sociology and social psychology from the University of Essex (1970) and, in 1974, an MPhil in urban and regional planning from UCL’s School of Environmental Studies (now the Bartlett School). In 2014, I was delighted to receive an honorary doctorate from The University of Essex.
Where I teach
Then, second, my role in educating others. Some of my books have become required reading at universities and I have enjoyed teaching at dozens of universities and business schools around the world. I have lectured at Imperial College, London, for nearly 30 years. And I have also served as a visiting professor at both Cranfield University School of Management, for over ten years, and at UCL.
How I learn
As for my own adult education, reading, conversations and learning journeys have been key. But perhaps the most powerful learning opportunities have been writing my books and my memberships of boards and advisory boards.
Judging
Celebrating leading Chief Sustainability Officers
(source: future/io, 2024)
Without wishing to sound my age, it is crucial that standards of excellence are defined and maintained—and, in the spirit of tomorrow’s X-curves, that they are continuously stretched.
In that spirit I have served on many judging panels, the first being for the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Pollution Abatement Technology Awards (PATAS) and Better Environment Awards for Industry (BEAFI), back in the 1980s. Both resulted from a report I had written for the Department of the Environment. In turn, these initiatives led both to a European award scheme and to the Queen’s (then King’s) Award for Sustainable Development.
More recently, I have served on a jury for the Climate Safe Finance Network and on the Grand Jury for the CSO Awards, offered in Europe and North America by Hamburg-based future/io.