Managing Director, Earning Local Support Academy

Biography

John Aston is the founder of the Earning Local Support Academy (ELSA). A Chartered Civil Engineer with an MSc in Environmental Management (Imperial College London), he has 25 years' experience in natural-resource project development, environmental assessment, and stakeholder engagement across 15+ countries. John supports developers, authorities, and host communities by bridging engineering and social science to co-design renewable-energy projects that align investment goals with local priorities. Earlier in his career he worked as a design engineer on the Scotland-Northern Ireland gas interconnector and on flood protection in Turkey; as an impact assessor for the extractive industries; and as a natural resource developer within Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2007 he has focused on collaborative assessment and design, helping teams move beyond DAD (Decide-Announce-Defend) towards supported projects. He represents Ireland on IEA Wind Task 62 (Social Science) and led a symposium on collaborative wind-energy planning at WESC25.