Steve Howard

CEO

Steve is the CEO of The Climate Group which he co-founded in late 2003. Steve has worked on global social and environmental issues from within business, NGO and UN settings. He has lead the establishment of the Climate Group in the US, Australia, China, India, Canada and Brussels.  He Chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Climate Change and is an Advisor to the Virgin Earth Challenge.

Whilst at the Climate Group, Steve has advised many companies, including assisting HSBC in becoming the world’s first carbon neutral Fortune 100 company ahead of schedule; BSkyB in becoming the first Carbon Neutral Media Company; and News Corporation in the development of the Climate and Energy Initiative. He worked with the City of London to help establish the London Climate Change Agency and found the C40 large cities initiative. 

Steve has worked with many State Governments. He has helped build support for the passage of California’s benchmark legislation and together with the Premier’s of Quebec and Manitoba faciliated the Montreal Declaration of States and Regions on climate change, which has led to emissions reductions in states and regions around the world.  He has also led the formation of a major consumer climate campaign and formed a partnership with LiveEarth.

Steve has advised and briefed leading companies, CEOs, and State and Government leaders and VIPs on various aspects of climate change. He has given several hundred climate change presentations and speeches to audiences around the world and has chaired meetings with business and government leaders including Al Gore, Governor Schwarzenegger and Prime Minister Tony Blair.  He was named by Scientific American in the SA50 for demonstrating leadership in the protections of the Earth’s climate; a Climate Crusader by Time Magazine; and one of Britain’s top 100 Environmentalists by the Independent on Sunday.

Prior to his role with The Climate Group, Steve was a Partner in the consultancy ERM where he led on Corporate Social Responsibility. Previously he was the founding Director of the Global Forest and Trade Network for WWF International and Chairman of the 95+ Group. He was also Chairman of the UK Forest Stewardship Council, where he helped achieve a far-reaching consensus on a national forest certification standard and founding Chairman of the Tropical Forest Trust, which he helped establish to deliver ethically sourced tropical timber.

Steve has a first class honours degree in ecology and a PhD in Environmental Physics based on work as a Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry in Kenya and the University of Nottingham. Over the course of his career Steve has worked in more than thirty countries.  He has a wife, a young son and squeezes in running and triathlons between work and family commitments