Jon Dee is an award-winning social entrepreneur, broadcaster and campaigner.
He is a leading expert on business innovation, sustainability and efficiency. His business guidebooks ‘Sustainable Growth’ and ‘EnergyCut’ have shifted over 130,000 copies.
On Sky News Business channel, Jon researched, wrote and presented 115 episodes of ‘Smart Money’ – a live weekly TV program where he showed businesses how to become more innovative, efficient and sustainable.
Using real world case studies, he presented over 700 stories that showed how innovation, efficiency and sustainability can boost the business bottom line. He also initiated regular coverage about the plant-based future of food and the business potential of a more Circular Economy.
Since 1986, Jon has run campaigns that have created major change. He is currently the Australian Coordinator of the international RE100 initiative. In that role, he has been successful in getting 10 of Australia’s biggest companies to commit to using 100% renewable electricity in their operations (this includes Australia’s top 5 banks). More major companies are set to follow.
As a philanthropist, Jon Dee co-founded Planet Ark with Pat Cash in 1991 and ran the organisation for its first 15 years. Jon also started the DoSomething Foundation and Rock Aid Armenia charities.
Jon is the Global Director of One Tree Per Child which he founded with Olivia Newton-John. Jon and Olivia also founded Australia’s highly successful National Tree Day and fronted the event for the planting of its first 10 million trees.
Jon has also just launched his DoSomethingNearYou.com.au website that shows Australians what they can do to give back and volunteer in over 15,000 towns, cities and suburbs around Australia. In 2008, Jon also launched his FoodWise.com.au food waste website which put the issue of food waste on the Australian media map.
Every week, Jon is on 53 ABC Radio stations with the ‘Good News With Jon Dee’ segment where he talks about the latest positive sustainability news. Jon has also produced and directed hundreds of sustainability-themed TV ads which featured stars such as Tom Cruise, Kylie Minogue, Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Richard Branson, Jeff Goldblum, Olivia Newton-John, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin McCloud and many others.
Jon also had a top 40 UK hit with his all-star Rock Aid Armenia charity remake of ‘Smoke on the Water’. The associated album was the first UK charity album to go ‘Gold’. The bands recruited by Jon to join Rock Aid Armenia included Queen, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Rush and Deep Purple, to name but a few.
As part of this project, Jon and his friend Ara Tadevosyan built a music school in the Armenian earthquake zone. Opened in 2015, the school currently teaches 220 children a year.
Jon was Australian of the Year 2010 (NSW). In 2009 the President of Armenia gave Jon Armenia’s highest award – ‘The Order of Honor’ – for his long term work helping people in the Armenian earthquake zone. In 2016, his ‘Smart Money’ TV show was awarded the International Media Prize by Green Accord in Italy.
Sessions
Plenary 2
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