In this article, we will delve into everything you need to know about Hazel Henderson, the famous environmental activist and futurist that our readers at Zatrun.com are curious about.
Who is Hazel Henderson?
Hazel Henderson (formerly known as Mustard; March 27, 1933 – May 22, 2022) was a British-American futurist and environmental activist. She authored numerous books, including “Creating Alternative Futures”, “Beyond Globalization”, “Planetary Citizenship” (co-written with Daisaku Ikeda), and “Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy”. Henderson was born in Bristol, Somerset, England to Kenneth and Dorothy May Mustard in 1933. She graduated from Clifton School in 1950 and went on to work as a salesperson, hotel receptionist, and telephone operator. In 1957, she moved to New York City with her husband. The area surrounding her city home was constantly covered in dirty air due to the presence of garbage incinerators, which forced her to constantly wash the dirt off her baby daughter.
Her numerous complaints to the city officials went unanswered, leading her and fellow concerned parent Carolyn Konheim to form a citizens’ group for clean air. The group made early contributions to clean air activism by lobbying for local, state, and federal pollution laws. The group also ensured that the air pollution index was included in weather reports. The group had around 20,000 members at its peak, with about 75% of them being women. In the 1960s and 1970s, she wrote for the Harvard Business Review. From 1974 to 1980, she worked as a consultant for the Office of Technology Assessment and the National Science Foundation.
Career Life
Hazel Henderson worked as a Regent’s Speaker at the University of California, Santa Barbara and held the Horace Albright Conservation Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also worked as a traveling speaker and panelist. In 2004, she founded Ethical Markets Media, LLC to disseminate information on green investments, socially responsible investing, green business, green energy, business ethics news, eco-friendly technologies, good corporate citizenship, and sustainable development, using reports, articles, newsletters, and video from around the world.
In 2007, Hazel Henderson published “Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy,” which formed the basis of the Ethical Markets television series on PBS. In the later part of her career, she served on the boards of publications such as Futures Research Quarterly, The State of the Future Report, E/The Environmental Magazine (US), Resurgence, Foresight, and Futures (UK). She was a member of the World Future Society, the National Press Club, the Evolutionary Economics Society, and the World Future Research Federation. She was listed in Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Science and Technology, and Who’s Who in Business and Finance.
Awards
Hazel Henderson was named “Citizen of the Year” by the New York County Medical Society in 1967. In 1996, she received the Global Citizen Award from the Boston Research Center, alongside Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. In 2007, Henderson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has been awarded Honorary Doctor of Science degrees by San Francisco University, Soka University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
