Craig Bennet - Friends of the Earth

Craig Bennett is Head of Corporate Accountability Campaign at Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). He has a BSc (Hons) in Human and Physical Geography and an MSc in Conservation and he is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). He is a visiting lecturer at Oxford University, Bristol University and The London Business School.

Craig started working at Friends of the Earth (FOE) in 1999 where, as Wildlife Campaigner, he worked on a highly successful campaign that ultimately resulted in The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 – the legislation that now forms the basis of wildlife protection in the UK. A major focus of the campaign included the impact that industrial agriculture was having on wildlife.

In January 2001, Craig became Friends of the Earth’s Corporate Accountability Campaigner and he has run high profile campaigns on Shell, Premier Oil, The Scotts Company, BAT, Rio Tinto and many other large corporations. He project managed Friends of the Earth corporate campaign work on “AGM Season”, The World Economic Forum and The Corporate Responsibility Bill. In 2002, he represented Friends of the Earth at the Johannesburg Earth Summit.

He regular appears in the broadcast and print media. The Sunday Times has described how he has “campaigned vociferously against oil companies and international mining firms” and how “At Johannesburg he was credited with persuading the conference to adopt clauses for the regulation of big business”. He was recently the subject of a cover feature in The Sunday Times Magazine about corporate campaigners.

Craig now manages Friends of the Earth’s Corporate Accountability Campaign (and team) which seeking to change the legal and political framework in which corporations operate, so that they operate in the interests of people and the environment, not just private vested interests. The activity team consists of twelve staff, of which six are assigned to the activity full time.