With 30 years experience in the sustainability sector, I’ve worked with the Centre for Alternative Technology, Awel Aman Tawe, the One Planet Council, the Welsh Government and United Nations, and now with the host organisation, Calon Cymru Network, as Administration Officer, which supports the sustainable regeneration of rural Wales. I lecture in one planet development at the University of Wales Trinity St Davids, and have written 13 books and 1000s of articles on my specialist subjects: standard works on Passive Solar Architecture, Solar Energy, Best Practices for Industrial Energy Efficiency, The One Planet Life on sustainable agro-ecology and housing, electric vehicles and Sustainable Refurbishment.

Why are you drawn to this area of work and how have you helped community groups take their first steps to action in the past?

I’ve always been passionate about environmental issues. I worked for the Centre for Alternative Technology for seven years and then for Defra and other government and corporate clients. I co-founded the One Planet Council, for which I’m a patron, and run courses on one planet development. I advise people on renewable energy and sustainable building refurbishment and energy efficiency. I’ve helped Awel Aman Tawe with both their share issues – for a wind farm and community building solar PV roofs – which has raised a million pounds. No job is too small or big – from starting a therapeutic garden in Machynlleth to advising the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation on their energy efficiency improvement programmes, and Calon Cymru Network on community land trusts to start a new sustainable neighbourhood.

What is your vision of your region in 2050?

A rural Wales of diverse, thriving communities and rural enterprises, agroecological land use and affordable homes linked to new jobs. Policies have reversed the trend of an aging demographic by using the WellBeing of Future Generations Act to support procurement policies by publicly-funded bodies that source goods, food, renewable energy and services from their hinterlands to transform urban Wales too. Most towns and cities have transitioned to become ‘one planet’ communities as measured by the indicators for the WBFGA such as Ecological Footprint, energy use, soil quality, carbon sequestration, culture, food, transport, and biodiversity.