Sara Parkin is a founding Programme Director of Forum for the Future and has been an independent campaigner, writer and broadcaster on environmental and sustainable development issues for over 30 years. She chairs the Real World Coalition (of NGOs campaigning on the sustainability agenda), sits on the Board of the Environment Agency and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Research Council’s Sustainable Energy Programme. She also sits on the board of the new Leadership Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council, and in recognition of her work with the engineering profession she has been made a companion of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institute of Energy.
Sara hails from Scotland, was originally a Ward Sister in Edinburgh, and now lives and works in Hackney. During the 1970s and 1980s she played leading roles in both the UK Green Party and the development of Green Parties worldwide. She was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to education and sustainable development.