Jonathan Withey

I remember scratching my head at school trying to think about what degree to take. I liked the idea of being a doctor – helping people, stable career etc but I wasn’t quite academically smart enough and didn’t love the idea of having to take exams until the age of 30!I ended up choosing a BSc in Geography at the University of Leeds.

I enjoyed learning about how the natural world works and how it has been shaped by time and I chose Leeds for the social scene (which was good fun). I was, however, slightly worried that my career opportunities would be limited to Geography teacher (nothing wrong with that) and that most people would consider my skill sets to be mostly the ability to ‘colour in’ maps…As well as looking back over the Earth’s history I also learnt about the incredible way in which us humans have impacted Earth’s life support systems in a way that is unsustainable.

That is ultimately why I have chosen to spend my time creating a business case for nature restoration and why you might want to join naturethrive’s mission of making nature restoration profitable for all.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and grew up in a house where my Dad built multiple successful businesses’ from scratch so being around that naturally made me curious about the world of business and the opportunities that it presents. I knew that we needed a lot of money to solve the world’s challenges.

That capital predominantly sits in the private sector so once I finished my Geography degree I undertook a Masters in Sustainability & Business to learn how to build the business case for sustainable development.

I have spent the last 15 years focusing on how to generate business value through environmentally sustainable practices. I headed up Business Development and Transformation for the Planet Mark Certification over the last 6 years which helps over 800 businesses achieve annual carbon reductions whilst unlocking significant business opportunities.

I love business and I love nature and wanted to combine those 2 passions to help be a catalyst for the flow of private sector capital into nature restoration in a way that makes business sense. Nature is more accessible and feels more tangible than other issues such as climate change and if we can better connect with it and focus on the business case for protecting and restoring it we might just solve our growing challenges, together.