SIR GHILLIAN PRANCE FRS VMH
Sir Ghillean Prance was for eleven years Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, until his retirement in 1999. He trained as a plant taxonomist and is an expert on the flora of the Amazon rain forests, having led annual expeditions there over a period of 25 years and collected more than 450 Amazonian plants new to science. He has devoted much attention to the relationship between plants and humans. To that end, he lived with at least sixteen Indian tribes in the Amazon. A book on his life, entitled A Passion for Plants: From the Rainforests of Brazil to Kew Gardens, was published in 1995. He is currently Scientific Director of the Eden Project in Cornwall, Visiting Professor at Reading University and was McBryde Professor at the US National Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii from 2000 to 2002.
DR. JOHN BLEWITT
John Blewitt is Director of Lifelong Learning at Aston University (United Kingdom). He is responsible for leading the Lifelong Learning Network Consortium in Sustainable Communities, Urban Regeneration and Environmental Technologies and is co-leader of the MSc Social Responsibility and Sustainability. He is a member of the IUCN Commission on Communication and Education.
Recent books include:
Understanding Sustainable Development (Earthscan, 2008), and Media, Ecology and Conservation (Green Books, 2010). John Blewitt blogs at http://posterous.com/people/4wzxOH0N5blT
JULIA HAILES MBE
Julia is a leading opinion former, freelance consultant and speaker on social, environmental and ethical issues. Current or recent clients include Procter & Gamble, British Gas, Marks & Spencer, Ecotricity, C-Mobile and Organix Baby Foods. She is author or co-author of nine books, including The Green Consumer Guide, which sold over 1 million copies worldwide and more recently The New Green Consumer Guide, which was published in 2007. In 1987 she co-founded, SustainAbility Ltd, a leading edge consultancy and think tank, with an international profile. She is a Trustee of Waste Watch and sits on the Food Ethics Council. In 1989 Julia was elected to the UN `Global 500 Roll of Honour' for her 'outstanding environmental achievements' and in 1999 she was awarded an MBE in the New Years Honours List.
Website: www.juliahailes.com
MIGUEL MENDONCA
Miguel Mendonça is an independent sustainability writer and advocate. His background is in natural and social sciences, and he has focused mainly on social and political aspects of renewable energy policy. As Research Manager of the World Future Council, he contributed to many campaigns around the world for better renewable energy policies. In addition to writing papers, articles, commentaries and reviews, he is author of three influential books on energy and sustainability. Miguel is also an advisor to a number of organisations concerned with sustainability.
BEN HREN
Ben joined Waste Watch as Head of Education in 2010. He recently held a similar position at WWF-UK. While there, he was seconded to the UK Sustainable Development Commission and placed within DCSF (now DfE), where he was a part of the team that developed and launched the Government's Sustainable School Strategy. He developed the Department's Sustainable School Self-Evaluation tool (s3), as well as guidance materials for school governors and a whole school approach. In his most recent role as a secondary science teacher in the London area, he taught the new trans-disciplinary International Baccalaureate course, 'Environmental Systems and Societies.' His knowledge of education and learning, combined with his experience of putting sustainability theory into practice and managing effective project teams has contributed to a range of community- and school-based projects in the United States and England.
