Paul is Founder Chair of CDP.
He founded CDP in 2000 with an ambition of creating a global economic system that operates within sustainable environmental boundaries and prevents dangerous climate change. CDP represents institutional investors with assets of over US$130 trillion and uses this investor authority to persuade companies to disclose and manage their environmental impacts. In addition, CDP represents the purchasing power of over 200 corporations with aggregate purchasing spend of over $5 trillion. In response to this enormous financial authority, over 18,700 large companies representing over 60% of global market capitalization disclosed data regarding climate change as well as other environmental information covering water security, deforestation and biodiversity through CDP in 2022.

This is in addition to the over 1,000 major cities, states and regions that disclosed, making CDP’s platform one of the richest sources of information globally on how companies and governments are driving environmental change. CDP data is purchased by Bloomberg, FTSE, MSCI, Moody’s and many other financial services providers as well as academics and NGOs.

Paul previously co-founded Rufus Leonard Corporate Design and EyeNetwork, which was the largest videoconference booking service in Europe. He has served as a member of the Environmental Research Group of the UK Faculty and Institute of Actuaries. Paul has authored various publications including the book Beautiful Corporations published in 2000 by Financial Times Prentice Hall. The book introduced the concept of sustainability product marketing which is growing in significance as a force in contemporary commerce.

Paul is Chair of the Trustees of the NGO ShareAction as well as a Trustee of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland. He is an advisor to the NGO Influence Map and is a trustee of the grant making Friends Provident Foundation. He is a co-presenter of the leading climate change podcast in the world: ‘Outrage and Optimism’ with Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac, with over 5 million downloads. He is also Chair of Giki Zero, a company with tens of thousands of employees enrolled in carbon reduction programs.