John Andersen
Business Advisor

John Andersen is a key Business Advisor related to Earth Knowledge’s corporate business development with a special focus on Chicago and the US Midwest Region.  John is President and Founder of Greenleaf Advisors and helped Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), as International Director, scale from their earlier days with 200 people to IPO with 40,000 people.  John brings to Earth Knowledge his mission-driven alignment, outstanding business success and Harvard-based education and networks.  

John Andersen founded Greenleaf Advisors, LLC and Greenleaf Communities, NFP to advance a healthy and sustainable world through innovative business practices, policies, and market transactions that sustain the natural resources that support society (land, water, material, energy, and climate).  He works with and advises leading businesses, investors, nonprofits, research centers, governments and social organizations in the U.S. and internationally.  He serves as Executive Director of Intelligent Generation, an innovative technology company that optimizes distributed renewable energy. 

Previously, John was International Director and member of the Americas Board at Jones Lang LaSalle, a global real estate firm, where he managed one of its U.S. businesses and led the company’s partnership initiative in China.  He helped JLL scale from 200 to 40,000 employees and the business from early high growth stage company to IPO. He also served as Great Lakes Director of The Nature Conservancy, leading a multitude of strategies to protect and conserve biodiversity in the largest freshwater ecosystem on earth.  John holds an AB in Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.  He was an adjunct Professor at DePaul University’s Kellstadt School of Business where he taught Sustainable Finance, and a trustee of several education, conservation, and social service organizations.

Greenleaf Advisors, LLC and Greenleaf Communities, NFP

Greenleaf Advisors is a consulting and transaction-services firm that builds sustainable enterprises and communities by bridging them to the resources, partners and strategies they need to develop in a healthy way. They focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation, clean energy, sustainable water resources, healthy soils, and material reuse.  Greenleaf engages at the intersection of capital, business, science and policy sectors to optimize solutions that often require integration of complementary expertise, knowledge, and resources.  Greenleaf Communities is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established to advance applied research for a healthy and sustainable world through policy development and industry practice change.