Amanda Carpenter

CEO

Amanda has had a lifelong passion for the planet having been an active member of conservation groups at school and University, she spent time as a volunteer at Friends of the Earth before moving into wider conservation fields and then back into sustainability with her consultancy Achill Management. For the last 25 years she has worked with organisations of all shapes and sizes across all sectors trying to help them be more sustainable operationally, financially, strategically and environmentally. Her commitment to her local community and the causes she cares about are evidenced by her non executive roles which include School Governor, Non-Exec on her local PCT, and trustee roles, the most recent as Chair of Board for Applause Rural Touring Kent. She is also active in women’s politics and an adviser to 50:50 the campaign for equal representation in Parliament.

She believes that a sustainable future will only be possible it we take a pragmatic approach to things and get everyone to take steps however small, everyday forever. While time is running out together we can make great changes happen: it is never too late. Amanda is married to Peter, who is a teacher and poet, and has two grown up daughters on whom she is relying to save the planet for the next generation.

Jim Haywood

Director

Jim is an ex-Royal Navy nuclear submarine engineer with engineering and technology in his veins (as well as a touch of salt!). He also has many years’ experience in the private, public and charitable sectors leading environmental and sustainability programmes. His career has included blue chip multinational corporates, the Environment Agency and Business in the Community (leading that charity’s environmental campaign on behalf of HRH The Prince of Wales). Jim is now an independent sustainability consultant and works alongside Amanda as part of Achill Management. In other roles he chairs the certification Impartiality Committee for the Carbon Trust and sits on the sustainability audit committee for the Royal Warrants Association

As a keen bird watcher and artist, Jim is constantly bowled over by the beauty (and fragility) of the natural world and believes passionately that – appropriately applied – technology can play a significant role in protecting it for future generations.

Andrew Paterson

Associate

Andrew has for the past thirty years worked in management and consultancy in health and social care. He has a particular interest in primary, community and mental health services. From 2016 to 2018, he developed a performance improvement programme for mental health and addiction hospitals across Saudi Arabia. Since resuming work in the UK, Andrew has become particularly interested in the potential that communities have for making services sustainable.

As a consultant, first in a small firm and then a large corporation, Andrew has been involved in strategic health planning at local and national level, has taken numerous NHS and other providers through service reviews, business cases and procurement exercises.

In the past, he has served on the board of a housing association for people with Learning Disabilities and on various school governing bodies and was a visiting lecturer at City University. As a rather unsuccessful allotment tenant, he has grown to respect the power of nature that threatens to overrun him at times.

Stephen Farrant

Associate

Stephen has extensive leadership experience across the private sector, civil society and the public sector. Passionate about the environment, he has a proven ability to combine an ambitious change agenda with practical solutions to global sustainability challenges. As a linguist by training, he has a strong interest in relationship-building, shared understanding and coalition-building.

Previously he was Director of Sustainability and Innovation at Business in The Community (the Prince’s Responsible Business Network). In this role he successfully led ground-breaking programmes including the Waste to Wealth campaign, the Circular Economy Taskforce, the innovation, digital and Purpose agendas for the Global Goals, and the Responsible Business Tracker. Steve started his career in marketing, operations and strategy roles at British Airways, followed by a decade with VisitBritain. Increasingly motivated from the early 2000’s onwards by the unfolding climate and ecological emergency, Steve then worked at the RSA before serving for 6 years as Director of the International Tourism Partnership, where he played a leading role in shaping the sustainability agenda across the global hotel industry.

Steve is as an Adviser to the Board of ITP and a qualified Executive Coach. He volunteers with Thames 21 and the Hardknott Forest Restoration project. He recently became a French citizen to keep up with his bilingual wife and two kids. In his spare time he enjoys singing with a west London choir, climbing mountains and exploring nature on two wheels

Beth Salt

Researcher, Content Development and Social Media Manager

Starting out as a runner in documentary producer 3bm TV Beth spent nearly a decade working on an array of documentaries for 3bm and Brook Lapping Productions, working her way up to Producer/Director. She spent two years as an Assistant Producer at BBC World News, Executive Producing series and commissioning and running the short format content for the channel. Following a career break to start a family, Beth looks after two young boys and works as a freelance social media producer and researcher. She provides programme research and social media support to Planet Pod  and tries to spend as much time outside and live as sustainably as she possibly can.

Kim Hay

Communications and Social Media Manager

Kim has grown up in countries where environment and the human community had a visibly detrimental and meaningful impact on one another, be it inland or by the ocean. Later, making the alps her home she watched the seasons change dramatically and the scramble for businesses to reinvent themselves and be more creative with their seasonal tourism (recreational) activities. Businesses are at the forefront of needing to future-proof their existence because of climate change. Her role with Achill communicates how the global business community needs to step-up & work alongside the environment.

A history in magazine and book publishing (sales) – The Ecologist and Phaidon Press – developed into marketing and then social media marketing in the military, mental health sector. Mental health and family welfare in the military is important and something she is passionate about and this also comes down to one’s environment. She continues to travel and work to communicate global goals around mental and environmental impact.  Her fear of flying has also turned out to be environmentally beneficial after all!