With Extinction Rebellion and the climate crisis finally making the top of the news agenda, sustainability in business is one of the topics that the Account Managers at JLA are being asked about with increasing regularity. Here is a list of seven: a sustainability speaker to cover every eventuality.
Leo Johnson is the author of Turnaround Challenge and is the head of PwC’s Disruption practise. As the co-founder of Sustainable Finance and the host of Radio 4’s Futureproofing, where he looks at the big ideas shaping business and society, he is the perfectly placed keynote speaker to focus on sustainability and trends.
Chadden Hunter is a producer and director of natural history documentaries, and has worked with the great Sir David Attenborough on Planet Earth 2 and Frozen Planet, as well as on The Life of Mammals and Natural World. Chadden is a fabulous keynote speaker, using mesmerising footage and photos of his travels to illustrate his sustainability message.
Gabrielle Walker is a climate science expert, authored The Hot Topic with Sir David King, and has made over a dozen trips to both the North and South Poles, where she has witnessed first-hand the effects of climate change. She is also a sustainability consultant and keynote speaker, aiding a wide range of businesses and industries to focus on sustainability, new energy and the challenges of climate change.
Lewis Pugh is a keynote speaker with an excellent title: he is a United Nations Patron of the Oceans, and deservedly so. He has completed swimming challenges in every one of the oceans in the world, and was the first person to undertake a distance swim in the North Pole. A former lawyer, now an environmentalist and keynote speaker, Lewis has a wealth of anecdotes on how to deal with seemingly impossible challenges, as well as a mission to raise awareness about a fragile maritime environment.
Ellen MacArthur is best known as a round-the-world sailor, the youngest person to finish the gruelling Vendee Globe race. She is now a keynote speaker and advocate of the circular economy, helping businesses to create products and services with little or no excess and to redesign their processes so that waste is seen as a design flaw.
Michael Pawlyn was the lead architect on The Eden Project in Cornwall. As a keynote speaker, he explains how he looks to the natural world when designing, using ‘biomimicry’ or inspiration from sources in nature to produce sustainable buildings. He shows how advances in materials can have a real impact on the environment, and believes that small changes in established thinking patterns can have huge, and positive, impact.
Mike Rann was the Australian High Commissioner to the UK, and was previously one of the world’s first Environment Ministers. As a keynote speaker on sustainability, he draws on his experience as Premier of South Australia, where he was responsible for starting the transformation of the city of Adelaide into a world-first, carbon neutral city. In speeches, Mike cites the necessity of compromise; as a politician, he had to set aside the short-termist nature of most decision making processes and be willing to work with rivals in order to achieve a long-term vision of a sustainable future for his region.
And before you ask, Greta Thunberg is not looking to kick-start her career as a keynote speaker.
To book these or any other sustainability speaker for your event, please contact JLA here.