Tony Juniper best known as one of the UK`s leading environmentalists. A successful writer campaigner and speaker , Tony is the former Executive of Friends of the Earth and Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth International.
Always a popular choice as a speaker on the environment, Tony is also a speaker on Leadership and Teamwork having driven one of the worlds leading voluntary organisations through its most dynamic period.
For nearly 30 years Tony has worked for change toward a more sustainable society at local, national and international levels. From providing ecology and conservation experiences for primary school children, to making the case for new recycling laws, to orchestrating international campaigns for action on rainforests and climate change, his work has sought change at many levels.
He is presently a Special Advisor to the Prince of Wales's International Sustainability Unit and a Fellow with the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. As a co-founder of the Robertsbridge Group he advises a range of global companies in the adoption of cutting edge sustainability strategies. He is also President of the Society for the Environment.
From 1989-1990 he spearheaded a program with Birdlife International to prevent the extinction of critically endangered parrots. He became a recognized expert on this group and in 1998 co-published (with Mike Parr) Parrots: A guide to the parrots of the world, which was judged in 1999 as 'reference book of the year' by the UK Library Association.
In 1990 he joined the staff of Friends of the Earth, where he helped to maintain their strong public presence and carry forward high impact campaigns, initially on tropical rainforests and then a wide range of other subjects. From 2003 to 2008 he was the organization's director in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. From 2001 to 2008 he was also elected Vice Chair of the 70-strong network of national organizations that comprise Friends of the Earth International.
He contributed to many of Friends of the Earth's most important achievements, including legislation enacted to protect the UK's finest wildlife habitats, new laws to require more recycling and policy changes in the transport and farming sectors.
However, Friends of the Earth's greatest achievement during Juniper's time as director was the success of the Big Ask campaign, which set out to gain legal controls on carbon dioxide emissions. This was delivered through a huge grass roots lobbying effort in partnership with Radiohead's Thom Yorke. The UK's world-leading statutory greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008 resulted directly from the success of this campaign.
SPEAKER
Juniper frequently speaks and lectures on environmental and sustainability subjects - his expert knowledge allowing him to tailor his subject to each specific brief. Topics he has spoken on include
- Sustainability
- Corporate and Responsibility and sustainability
- Climate change and what to do about it
- What nature does for us
- Little by Little What Steps we can all make to be better to the Environment.
- How many lightbulbs does it take to change a planet?
Tony is also an authoritative speaker on leadership and from his time at Friends of the Earth can speak passionately on
- Leading Change
- Motivating Staff and Volunteers to One Common Goal
- How to Compete Keeping Your Campaign Ahead of Others.
- Overcoming Obstacles to Change
Tony speaks to companies on a regular basis, encouraging and supporting their efforts in developing their leadership potential, especially in their efforts to conceive sustainable business strategies
Tony has been an amazingly influential, insightful and challenging friend to Interserve as we have jointly developed our SustainAbilities plan. He has also mentored me on my own personal sustainabiltiy journey, combining just the right amount of business-aware pragmatism with his infectious idealism. I can honestly say, we could not have done it without him Tim Haywood, Group Finance Director & Head of Sustainability, Interserve Plc
A very charismatic and sophisticated speaker who clearly knows what he is talking about and communicates it with passion and clarity. National School of Government
"He is by popular consent the most effective of Britain's eco-warriors" The Independent, 2008
One of the top ten environmental figures of the last 30 years. The ENDS Report 2008
One of the "all time eco heroes" the Environment Agency, 2006
Books
What has Nature Ever Done for Us? (Published Jan 2013) was a Sunday Times 2013 Top 10 Bestseller.
From Indian vultures to Chinese bees, nature provides the 'natural services' that keep the economy going. From the recycling miracles in the soil; an army of predators ridding us of unwanted pests; an abundance of life creating a genetic codebook that underpins our food, pharmaceutical industries and much more.
It has been estimated that these and other services are each year worth about double global GDP. Yet we take most of Nature's services for granted, imagining them free and limitless... until they suddenly switch off. This is a book full of immediate, impactful stories, containing both warnings (such as in the tale of India's vultures, killed off by drugs given to cattle, leading to an epidemic of rabies) but also the positive (how birds protect fruit harvests, coral reefs protect coasts from storms and how the rainforests absorb billions of tonnes of carbon released from cars and power stations). Tony Juniper's book will change the whole way you think about life, the planet and the economy.