The judges for the 2011 edie Awards for Environmental Excellence are:
Rt Hon Lord Smith of Finsbury (Chris Smith)
Chairman of the Environment Agency
Judging category: Chair
Chris was educated in Edinburgh and then Pembroke College, Cambridge, achieving a double first in English (and later a PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge) and was also a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard.
Chris has had an impressive political career. He started out as a Labour Councillor for Islington Borough, served on the Environment Select Committee until 1986 and in 1992 he joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Environmental Protection.
He was made a life peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords in July 2005. He currently sits on the crossbenches as an independent Peer.
He has chaired the Environment Agency since 2008, leading the development of its new Corporate Strategy, appointing its Chief Executive, and emphasising its commitment to partnership working in order to achieve environmental objectives.
Peter Jones OBE
Founder Director Ecolateral
Judging category: Waste and Resource Management
Peter Jones OBE has an impressive track record in the waste and energy sectors.
Currently freelance advisor in strategic matters relating to the waste, carbon and materials efficiency agenda, he runs his own company, Ecolateral.
Peter’s past posts include Director of Biffa Waste Services Limited, where he had specific responsibilities in external affairs and strategy development.
He is highly active in several organisations in the waste and energy fields. He was a board member of DEFRA New Technologies Demonstrator Programme and the Scot ZWG, which have now concluded their work.
He remains the Mayor of London’s Special Advisor on waste on the London Waste Advisory Board, as well as chairing a WRAP sponsored group examining the technological, economic and socio-political issues around Gas to Grid injection.
Dr Peter Bonfield
Chief Executive of BRE
Judging category: Sustainable Construction
Peter joined BRE in 1992 as a senior scientific officer progressing to director of the timber division and then managing director of BRE's construction division. He was appointed chief executive of BRE in 2007.
A materials engineer with a PhD in wind energy and the design of turbine blades, Peter's focus as BRE’s chief executive is to drive innovation and improve sustainability across all sectors.
Peter has led major initiatives in the areas of new build and existing housing, as well as in commercial and public sector buildings. The award winning BRE Innovation Park, designed to give a glimpse of how the future delivery of sustainable buildings and communities can be achieved, was Peter’s brainchild. It has had a significant impact on the UK and the global sustainability arena since its inception in 2005.
Since 2006 he has been on part-time secondment to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) where he has helped create the sustainable development strategy for London 2012.
Liz Parkes
Head of Waste and Resource Management, Environment Agency
Judging category: Carbon Reduction
Currently head of waste and resource management, from the 1st April 2011 Liz takes on a challenging new role at the agency as its Head of Climate Change.
The Environment Agency’s core role is regulating the growing range of businesses that manage society’s waste in order to minimise its impacts on the environment and people’s health. It also tackles those that flout the rules.
Liz and her team work with Government to set the direction for the organisation and to translate Government’s policies into actions on the ground. Increasingly the Agency is working in partnership with other delivery bodies, such as WRAP, to support businesses in managing their resources more sustainably.
Liz has been with the Agency since its formation in 1996, having previously worked with the Tidy Britain Group and local government.
Kulveer Ranger
Director of Environment and Digital London, London Mayor's office
Judging category: Public Sector Initiative
Kulveer Ranger is the Director of Environment and Digital London for the London Mayor’s Office.
His responsibilities include leading the development of the Mayor’s six statutory environmental strategies and other discretionary environmental policies to improve London’s environment.
He has also worked on transport policy and was the lead delivery manager for the Oyster card project for London.
He has advised the Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alan Duncan MP, and he was also Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for Cities.
Kulveer has replaced Isabel Dedring, who is unable to judge the awards this year due to other commitments.
Tom Stephenson
Head of Applied Sciences, Cranfield University
Judging category: Water & Wastewater
Academic and prolific author, Tom is arguably the UK's leading voice on water and waste water treatment.
Educated at Imperial College Tom joined Cranfield University in 1990 where he is now head of applied sciences. He's also a successful businessman as managing director of the university's manufacturing consultancy CIM Ltd, and founder and Chairman of a university spinout, Water Innovate Ltd.
Adrian Wilkes
Founder Chairman of the Environmental Industries Commission
Judging category: Green Corporate Initiative
Adrian Wilkes is the Founder and Chief Executive of The Environmental Industries Commission (EIC), which was launched in April 1995 to promote the international competitiveness of the British environmental technology and services industry.
Adrian was the Founder Chair of The European Committee of Environmental Technology Suppliers Associations, which represents the European industry in Brussels. He also sat on the Eminent Persons Group of the EU Clean Clever & Competitive Europe initiative.
He is author of two leading reports on the industry: "The World of Opportunities for the Environmental Industry" and "Government Policies as the Catalyst for the British Environmental Industry".
Adrian has also been Executive Secretary of the all-party Parliamentary Environment Group since leading its formation in early 1993. He was also the founding Chairman of The Aldersgate Group.
He launched the prestigious Green Ribbon Political Awards in 1992, and has been a judges' chairman for the British Environmental Media Awards.
Adrian qualified as aSolicitor of the Supreme Court, in 1984, after obtaining an Honours Degree in Law (M.A.) from Downing College, University of Cambridge. He then specialised in political consultancy, concentrating on environmental issues.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.
Joanna Yarrow
Director of Beyond Green
Judging category: Green Retail Initiative
Joanna specialises in sustainable lifestyles and communciations. She is a TV presenter, author and green consultant. She presented Outrageous Wasters, a four-part series on BBC 3, and has appeared on ITV's This Morning, GMTV and Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
Educated at Oxford University Joanna started her career with Friends of the Earth Europe before founding her own consultants Beyond Green in 2002.
She is the author of 1001 Ways You Can Save the Planet, How to Reduce your Caron Footprint and Ecological! She has fronted a number of mainstream behaviour campagins including Virgin’s Plane Releif Initiative.
Greg Archer
Director of the Low carbon Vehicle Partnership
Judging category: Sustainable Transport
Greg has wide ranging environmental experience drawn from roles managing consultancies, not for profit businesses, advice and research programs and as a Director of public and private sector organisations.
Greg has led on projects covering climate change, bioenergy, air pollution, environmental risk assessment and sustainable development with a focus in recent years on sustainable transport.
As MD of the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership since 2004 he has established energy efficiency labeling in new and used car showrooms, led work that established European requirements for sustainable biofuels, established new markets for low carbon buses delivering over 1MTCO2 savings in the transport sector at a cost of £6/T.
Ed Gillespie
Director of sustainable communication consultants Futerra
Judging category: Renewable Energy
Ed is Director of sustainable communication consultants Futerra, a business he co-founded to show, amongst other things that, environmentalism did not mean 'sandals and brown rice'.
Ed has Masters degrees in both marine conservation and sustainable development and speaks at various conferences on environmental issues, while also regularly writing for the Guardian.
He is a passionate overland and slow traveller and travelled around the world without using any aircraft for his series the Slow Traveller.
Ed was also recently appointed as a London Sustainable Development Commissioner.
