The One Planet Centre

The Board

David Thorpe is Founder/Director of the One Planet Centre and co-founder/patron of the One Planet Council. He’s a consultant, project manager and inspirational speaker in the fields of rural and urban sustainability, energy management and renewable energy. He’s a lecturer in ‘one planet’ development/governance at the University of Wales Trinity St David and author of The One Planet Life – a manual for low impact living by individuals, families and communities; and One Planet Cities – a compendium of solutions for towns and cities, and a suggested roadmap for transitioning to ‘one planet’ status, plus eight more books and 1000s of articles on these subjects, and several novels and screenplays. He believes in using his detailed knowledge to show the multiple benefits that are available from positive change. He is expert at interpreting complex information in an engaging, straightforward way, and runs workshops and courses.

Lisa Sture, Company Secretary, has a background in training, management and organisational development, having worked in the London civil service, and as a staff development manager. She was chair of a not-for-profit where she helped launch the government’s Community Renewables Initiative; founding director of the Devon Association for Renewable Energy; CEO of a small renewables company; and Sustainability Appraisal Officer for Torridge District Council. Skills also include nutrition training, permaculture, horticulture, and supplying a local veg box scheme. She finds the beautiful interdependence of everything in nature to express an uplifting story, a blueprint for growth and expansion within a circular, self-maintaining system.

Tom Skipworth, Treasurer, has a strong background in compliance and funding opportunities and is passionate about sustainable living and environmental awareness. He also has experience in sales and staff development and is learning about organic soil restoration. He believes everyone should be made aware of the environmental impact of their choices and be able to influence them.

 

Advisory Board

Virginia Isaac, Assistant Director, has a strong background in sustainability, previously CEO of the Inspiring Futures Foundation – a national and international careers guidance organisation for young people. Other Non-Executive directorships, include governor of the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. She is a Founder/Director of Alter Via Ltd which specialises in developing and building third stream revenues within charities and publicly funded organisations. She and her husband are practising regenerative farming in Wales with a particular emphasis on its relationship to health. Her father, Fritz Schumacher, was a pioneer of the ecological movement and author of the ground-breaking ‘Small is Beautiful’ amongst other publications.

Jane Davidson: Wales’ Environment and Sustainability Minister (2007-2011) in the Welsh Assembly Government who oversaw the introduction of the Well-Being of Future Generations Act, One Wales One Planet, and the One Planet Development planning policy. Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for External Engagement and Sustainability and Director of INSPIRE, (Institute for Sustainability Practice, Innovation and Resource Effectiveness) at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. Jane is passionate about the environment and resource efficiency. She holds honorary fellowships from CIW (Chartered Institute of Waste) and CIWEM (Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management) and is a member of WWF’s UK Council of Ambassadors. She is Patron of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and Tools for Self-reliance Cymru (TFSR).

Andy Middleton: a sustainable innovation specialist, connecting people and ideas to accelerate the speed, scale and impact of positive change. He founded the TYF Group, an employee-owned B Corp, and supports their mission to grow unshakeable curiosity and confidence people’s ability contribute to a better world, whilst playing and living lightly on the planet. Andy is Non-Executive Director of Natural Resources Wales and a member of the Innovation Advisory Council for Wales. As a Founding Partner of the Do Lectures and mentor with the Unreasonable Group, he helps leaders and teams solve grand challenges by joining dots in new ways.

 

Eurgain Powell is a Change Maker at the Future Generations Commissioner’s office leading their work on transport, decarbonisation and procurement. She developed the Future Generations Framework for projects and authored the “Transport fit for Future Generations” report. She is currently working on the new Transport Strategy, use of WelTAG guidance, Transport for Wales rail franchise and Metro, Low Carbon Delivery plan and procurement pilots.

 

Jasmine Dale: Jasmine’s One Planet journey began at Crystal Waters ecovillage in 1999, where she discovered the power of creative learning and practical solutions for the challenges of our times. Motivated by living simply and respect for nature, she and her husband Simon later built a natural home deep in the heart of a Welsh woodland, which became an internet phenomena known as the ‘hobbit house’, inspiring millions of people. In 2009, Jasmine co-founded the Lammas ecovillage with 9 other families. Starting from bare fields, her experience is now rooted in many years of transforming degraded land into a biodiverse, edible landscape and living within a One Planet footprint. She has taught permaculture design and practical skills to regenerate land and create ecologically sound homes through grassroots solutions for over a decade. She has trained, and learnt from, more than 1000 people and groups from all walks of life, many of whom have gone on to establish thriving smallholdings; build their own natural homes and create productive food gardens in Wales, Ireland, USA, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Romania, France, Croatia, South Korea, and Norway. Her practical workbook, the Permaculture Design Companion, is the harvest of all those interactions and years establishing an off-grid, resilient smallholding.

Lewis Whitehouse, statistician and ecological footprint analysist, is a Mathematics graduate and holds an Ecological Economics MSc with a passion for sustainability and the environment. His dissertation focused on ecovillages and their potential for offering a better way of living in accordance with nature, and he now plans to focus his career on finding sustainable solutions that can help achieve a one planet life.

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