Rob Holdway

"No organisation, no matter how adroit can make money from a poisoned population and a dead planet."

Why is sustainable development important to you?
Sustainable development is an abstract concept that many ordinary people find hard to engage with. It is about the efficient use of our finite resources and reducing carbon emissions, within the context of economic growth. It's also about how a system of production and consumption can support basic human rights and natural justice across the whole of society.

The overarching challenge for society today is to enable everyone to live within our environmental means, ensuring that our resources and environment that we need and enjoy are available for us all, now and in the future.

Protecting and improving the environment by increasing the contribution from individual and community action is central.  We need to encourage society as a whole to adopt greener lifestyles. This is best achieved by empowering individuals, communities and business to enact knowledge about how to improve environmental performance into actions consistent with that knowledge.

The central ethos of my work is 'Design for a One Planet Economy'. This approach emphasises that 'a successful business or society is consonant with and operates within an economy that grows within the capacity of the planet's resources'.

What does being a London Leader mean to you?
London is one of the most dynamic, spirited and exciting cities in the world and is well placed to take a leadership position in the environmental arena. The biggest challenge is about engaging Londoners and businesses leaders to understand and enact behaviors that will contribute to London's ambitious climate change adaptation and reduction strategies.

Much of the debate on climate change is about the science and adaptation to a changing climate and London has some ambitious targets. However, more needs to be done encouraging a culture of pro-environmental behaviour amongst London's citizens and businesses of all sizes.  There is a fine line between encouraging and disaffecting people and business on the subject of climate change.  Climate change presents two challenges: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to those impacts that are now inevitable. The biggest challenge is encouraging a culture that isn't deterministic - i.e. that climate change is happening and there is nothing we can do about it. Empowering and giving autonomy to the people of London presents a great opportunity - what the Japanese call 'San-Ji' or 'three Selfs' - spirit - self motivation, self management and self awareness. This makes sure that London's citizens act in a manner consonant with the environmental agenda but more than that, engage and move beyond it.

Past experience
Rob, one of the UK's leading eco experts, is best known for presenting the Channel 4 reality show Dumped, when 11 unsuspecting people were dumped on to a landfill site and had to forage to survive. Rob was described by 'The Manufacturer' magazine as 'Britain's leading eco-design consultant'.

Day to day he runs his own consultancy, Giraffe Innovation, where he advises companies and Government in the UK and around the world on how to reduce the environmental impact of their business. Giraffe's work has identified savings of more than £75m and 50,000 tonnes of CO2 for clients. Giraffe was listed by The Guardian Business pages as one of the 10 brightest independent UK green businesses.

A product designer by trade, Rob was formerly a Research Fellow at the prestigious Royal College of Art and was the project director for the seven metre high WEEE man sculpture that is now on permanent display at the Eden Project in Cornwall, www.weeeman.org. Rob is the face of At Home, a green magazine, http://www.athomemagazine.co.uk, a judge on The Observer ethical Awards, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/ethicalawards/story/0,,2237990,00.html, RSA student Design Awards, Bayer Design Innovation in plastics awards and The Green Awards http://www.greenawards.co.uk/.