Managing Director, Earning Local Support Architecture (ELSA)

Biography

John Aston works at the interface between large project development and host communities, focusing on how projects can be designed to earn local support and move forward more reliably. He is co-founder of ELSA, the Earning Local Support Architecture, and of the Renewables AT PACE framework for supported project development in shared space. He represents Ireland on IEA Wind Task 62 | BRIDGE (Social Science and Wind Energy Deployment), where he serves as Co-Operating Agent. John is a Chartered Civil Engineer with an MSc in Environmental Management from Imperial College London, and has 35 years of experience in renewable energy, infrastructure, and critical minerals project development, environmental assessment, and stakeholder engagement across more than 15 countries.