John Sauven, (born in Ealing, west London, on 6 September 1954) is a British environmentalist who was the executive director of Greenpeace's UK division from 2008 to 2022, and previously responsible for Greenpeace's communications. Sauven started working in a temporary position for Greenpeace in 1991 while waiting for a place at teacher training college. As director, Sauven has helped to shape Greenpeace UK's commitment to defend the natural world and promote peace by investigating, exposing and confronting environmental abuse, and championing environmentally responsible solutions.

Education

John Sauven was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing and graduated from the

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with a BSc (Econ).

Career

Sauven helped to develop Greenpeace's "Greenfreeze" campaign (greenfreeze technology is now a global refrigeration industry standard utilising isobutane and propane as refrigerants and

cyclopentane Cyclopentane (also called C pentane) is a highly flammable alicyclic hydrocarbon with chemical formula C5H10 and CAS number 287-92-3, consisting of a ring of five carbon atoms each bonded with two hydrogen atoms above and below the plane. It occu ...

for producing the insulating foam) to protect the ozone layer from disappearing because of our use of CFCs and other ozone layer destroying chemicals. John also famously bought a plot of land in the path of the proposed Heathrow third runway. Currently he is helping to strategise action-led, non-violent initiatives to save the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

from

Big Oil Big Oil is a name used to describe the world's six or seven largest publicly traded and investor-owned oil and gas companies, also known as supermajors. The term, particularly in the United States, emphasizes their economic power and influence ...

. Sauven advocates urgent action to protect the area of sea ice around the North Pole, which is currently not national territory, by designating the area a 'global commons', collectively owned by humanity under the auspices of the United Nations." In specialising on solutions and working with business, Sauven is conscious that Greenpeace's ongoing work may win fewer headlines, but the effort to evolve new, more sustainable business models is where the future will be won or lost. This is particularly the case with climate change where cleaner, more efficient products, processes and ways of producing energy need to be brought to market by government regulation and company innovation. As well as his work with Greenpeace, Sauven has edited ''Sanity'', the magazine of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,

CND The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

. Sauven has collaborated on several award winning films with film director

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and film producer Eski Thomas, commissioning ''The Ancient Forests'' to which

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and

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lent their talents. In 2012, John became a board member of '' Videre Est Credere'' (Latin for "to see is to believe") a UK Human Rights Charity. Videre describes itself as "give nglocal activists the equipment, training and support needed to safely capture compelling video evidence of human rights violations. This captured footage is verified, analysed and then distributed to those who can create change." He participates alongside movie producers

Uri Fruchtmann Uri Fruchtmann ( he, אורי פרוכטמן; born 1955) is an Israeli human rights activist, film producer and director.Astrid ZweynertSecretive human rights group fights abuses with military-style precision ''Reuters'', April 15, 2016 Career H ...

Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...

and music producer Brian Eno.

Personal

Sauven lives in Crouch End, north London, and is married to Janet Convery, a campaigner at the charity Action Aid. He has two sons.

References

John Sauven profile in ''The Guardian''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sauven, John 1954 births People from Ealing Living people People educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing Alumni of Cardiff University British environmentalists People associated with Greenpeace