Dr Alan Knight

In March 2012 Alan was selected to join business-led charity Business in the Community (BITC) as Environmental Sustainability Director. The appointment marks the growing importance of the environmental sustainability agenda as a mainstream consideration for all responsible businesses.

Alan has nearly 20 years’ experience of working with global and national organisations advising them at board level on sustainable development.  Alan is also the independent advisor to the Virgin Group. He also runs the Virgin Earth Challenge (a US$25 million prize for carbon sequestration). He has worked with clients as diverse as AXA insurance, Body Shop, Coca-Cola, United Nations, Prudential and the Mayor of Calgary City. He is a founding director of the Forest Stewardship Council, introduced the concept of "choice editing" into the product policy debate and frequently lectures on sustainable lifestyles and product centric corporate sustainability.

Before founding Single Planet Living, Alan’s roles included leading sustainability action for some of the UK’s biggest companies including SABMiller, Kingfisher Group and B&Q plc .

Alan has served as a Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission, authoring "I will if you will" and "You are what you sell". He co-chaired the UK Government’s Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption which led to introduction of the concept of choice editing. For six years, he was chair of the Government’s Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment (ACCPE). This committee led to consumer products becoming a central element of DEFRA's policy. The committee's advice directly led to the energy label on cars and in the Homeseller's information pack.