Meet the Editorial Board, our green and ethical-living advisors
SmartPlanet's prestigious Editorial Board comprises green and ethical-living experts who bring guidance, authority and experience to the site. The board gets together annually to discuss philosophical and practical issues to guide our editorial, as well as communicating by email throughout the year.
Mark Constantine
Managing Director, Lush
Mark Constantine's mantra could well be, "I Did It My Way". He has been director of Lush Ltd. since he and his team of six fronde creatives founded the company as a mail order business in 1994, opening their first Lush shop in Covent Garden early the following year. Constantine perhaps faces his biggest challenge as Lush reaches its teen years -- how to resist the temptation to conform, diluting the brand's individuality, while growing a business that now encompasses over 510 shops in 44 countries, including 88 in the UK.
Barbara Crowther
Head of Communications, Fairtrade Foundation
Barbara Crowther is Head of Communications for the Fairtrade Foundation, the independent body that awards the FAIRTRADE Mark to products as a guarantee of a better deal for disadvantaged producers around the world. 6 in 10 people in the UK now recognise the FAIRTRADE Mark. Barbara has worked in international development education and campaigning since 1989. She began her career as a global youth worker and educationalist for the aid agency CAFOD, and later worked on the national Jubilee 2000/Drop the Debt campaign. She joined the Foundation in February 2004 having spent over three years at Save the Children.
Zachary Dominitz
Head of Corporate Affairs, Cafedirect
Zachary is a strategy and communications expert with bags of experience in the environment and social enterprise. He joined Cafedirect in 2007 and has previously worked with Belu Water (of compostable water bottle fame), UnLtd (a social entrepreneur charity) and other companies including Sony, Nokia and BT. Prior to that, he served in the White House Media Affairs department during President Bill Clinton's first term and earned an MBA from London Business School.
Chris Goodall
Author of 'How to Live a Low-carbon Life'
Chris is a businessperson and environmental activist. He chairs Dynmark International, a telecommunications software firm. His book, "How to Live a Low-carbon Life", won the 2007 Clarion award for non-fiction and was described by the New Scientist as "the definitive guide to reducing your carbon footprint". His second book -- on the ten technologies that are likely to do most to help us get to grips with the climate change problem -- will be published by Profile in September 2008. His website at CarbonCommentary.com provides analysis and comment on the main issues in climate change and ethical consumerism.
Katharine Hamnett
Ethical fashion designer
Katharine Hamnett is an ethical fashion designer with a political conscience. Terminally frustrated at the fashion industry's refusal even to attempt to do things ethically and environmentally, Katharine cancelled many of her licences in 2004 and decided to go back into manufacturing herself to produce a new line, KATHARINE E HAMNETT. The 'E' is for being manufactured Ethically and as Environmentally friendly as physically possible. In 2006, she designed and sourced manufacturing for the organic cotton t-shirts for the Oxfam 'Make Poverty History' campaign and signed a contract with Tesco for ethical and environmental organic cotton collection.
Tony Juniper
Director, Friends of the Earth UK
Tony Juniper is director of Friends of the Earth and vice chair of Friends of the Earth International. His environmental work spans more than 20 years; he has been a leading figure in many of the main environmental campaigns of recent times, including the anti-road building protests of the 1990s and the mobilisation against GM crops and foods. His present focus is climate change. Tony is a naturalist, ornithologist and recognised expert on parrots. He is the author of 'How many lightbulbs does it take to change a planet? 95 ways to save planet Earth', published by Quercus in 2007.
Mark Maslin
Environment Institute Director, UCL
Professor Mark Maslin is the Director of the UCL Environment Institute. He is a leading climatologist with particular expertise in past global and regional climatic change. He has publish over 90 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and Geology, and has been awarded grants of over £5 million. He has also written five popular books, over 25 popular articles (including for New Scientist and the Guardian), has appeared on radio and television and has been consulted regularly by the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky News. His latest book, "Global Warming: A Very Short Introduction", published by Oxford University Press, has been very successful.
Jon McGowan
Head of Consumer Marketing, Energy Saving Trust
Jon McGowan has over 15 years experience of strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of consumer marketing campaigns spanning both the public and private sectors. Jon is currently Head of Consumer Marketing at the Energy Saving Trust and is responsible for managing and delivering Defra’s integrated energy efficiency consumer marketing campaigns. The latest of these was the successful Commit to save your 20% campaign. Jon specialises in marketing strategy development and currently manages a team of eight marketing professionals working to deliver major Government marketing campaigns nationally and locally including the rollout of a network of one-stop shop advice centres across the UK.
Solitaire Townsend
Director, Futerra
Solitaire is one of the liveliest commentators on climate change, sustainable development and the 'new ethical consumer'. She is co-founder and chief executive of Futerra, the UK's award-winning green communications agency. She is recognised as one of the UK's top specialists in this area and provides senior counsel to corporate and government clients, including the UK government, BSkyB, the United Nations, BT and Nike. Solitaire holds a Masters degree in Sustainable Development and is a member of the United Nations' Sustainable Lifestyles Taskforce, a board member of Tomorrow's Global Company, and has recently been chosen as one of fifteen 'London Leaders' by Mayor Ken Livingstone.
Joanna Yarrow
Director, Beyond Green
Joanna is a founding director of sustainability consultancy Beyond Green, where she runs strategic consultancy and communications projects such as greening the Premier League. She presented BBC3's Outrageous Wasters series, is GMTV's eco expert and regularly appears on programmes including This Morning, Tonight and Five News. Joanna is the author of "1001 Ways You Can Save the Planet" and "How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint", and has fronted a number of mainstream behaviour-change campaigns, including Ariel's Turn to 30 campaign, Virgin's Plane Relief initiative and the national Future Friendly Awards.
