Hello, I’m Dave, the Founder of Act Sustainably.  No longer a tree-hugging nutter, now sustainability has gone mainstream!

I believe that businesses should be run for the greater good, and that is also good business. 

If you want to stay in your comfort zone, we are probably not the best people to work with.

If you want to push yourself and your organisation to become sustainability leaders, we should definitely talk.

Growing up in a smallholding, my love of nature was given. Firsthand insights into the behaviour of jackdaws, badgers, herons, hares, shrews, foxes and our farm dogs captivated me. I was hooked on seeking to understand the ways of the animal world (including people) and still am.  These days, this love lies with our rescue dogs, Bronwyn (a retired therapy labrador), Mwgsi (used as target practice by Romanian hunters), Myffa (a Caucasian Shepherd Dog discarded from a puppy farm), Mali (found freezing and starving in Ukraine), and Moli (rescued from the roadside as a newborn by a mountain guide in Macedonia). 

This fascination with nature has led me on a meandering journey through a Zoology degree, an MSc in Environmental Protection and a Warwick Business School MBA.

Along the way, I’ve been privileged to learn from some outstanding business leaders and have been involved in a portfolio of businesses owned by my family in waste management, plant hire, technical consultancy, materials recycling, industrial services and hospitality.

I am now incredibly grateful that my business, Act Sustainably, allows me to work with forward-thinking organisations such as J Murphy & Sons, Ecotricity, the Houses of Parliament, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Wales & West Utilities, Wates Group, Persimmon Group, Fluor, Vistry Group, UKRI/NERC, Exeter University, and the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

I am also an IEMA registered environmental trainer, ESOS lead assessor, environmental auditor, and qualified lead auditor for ISO 9001 (quality management systems), ISO 14001 (environmental management systems), and ISO 50001 (energy management systems). As I am interested in procurement and supply, I am an Affiliate member of CIPS.

In 2019, I was invited to join the Flow Research Collective, founded by best-selling author and peak performance researcher Steven Kotler. At the Flow Research Collective, we study the neurobiology of human peak performance. We use what we’ve learned to train a wide variety of people from all organizational contexts. 

I was thrilled to be granted Fellowships from the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment in 2022.

The great American psychologist, William James, once said, “The great thing then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy”.

We try to be true to this maxim by embedding our understanding of neurobiology in all our training courses and teaching our students how to apply the same findings to influence behaviour in their workplaces and lives.

My current area of research and practice is exploring how we can redesign our workplaces, leadership and personal practices to enhance productivity and reduce environmental impact per unit output.  In this context, I get to use some of my less apparent qualifications, including Diplomas in Sports Psychology and Nutritional Therapy, Certificates in Sports Nutrition and Stress Management and a Level Two Triathlon Coach award.  These qualifications and my experience in building a business with clients in 25 countries, completing seven Ironman triathlons and training for Ironman Wales 2024 were valuable in researching and developing our new ACT Now Academy Programme, which will help clients achieve a 5x increase in Productivity, Creativity and Learning. 

I’d love to help you and your organisation on your path to a sustainable future.

Let’s find some time to talk soon.  You can grab some time here.

Hi I’m Pamela, a lifelong wanderer.

As a child I was always out in the fields, hanging out with my best friend Jeremy, a pony not a person!

If I wasn’t in the field, I was on the beach, immersing myself in nature, my safe place.  Well, usually safe, there was a time, I had to run for my life.  In fairness, to my cousin, I had just released a bass given to me, to take home for my dad’s supper.  It was still alive, so I ran up the beach and put it back in.  I’m not the fastest runner, but thankfully Dai, a thick set prop forward, was too slow to catch me.

Recently, I have taken up paddle boarding and love exploring the beautiful coastline around our basecamp, in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.  I especially enjoy our summer Board Meetings!

Oh, and I am the Chief Rescue Pack Walker.  I walk a lot. It’s our version of Patagonia’s “Let our people go surfing”. This may leave me a bit wet and windswept in winter, but I make up for that by chilling on the beach with the pack in summer.

I have always been passionate about protecting nature and during a 30 year career as a primary school teacher, I took every opportunity to help encourage the “little faces” to become mini eco-warriors.  I was proud to have achieved Eco-Schools Platinum status for my school.

Having recently retired from teaching, I am thoroughly enjoying my new role as Head of ESG at Act Sustainably. As well as making sure that the business remains compliant with its governance principals as it grows, my job entails deciding where to spend the 3% of revenue we donate to environmental and social causes.

As a geography graduate, I am especially interested in investing in projects that provide social and economic, as well as environmental benefits.

It’s a lovely feeling, being able to help local communities and nature through reforestation projects, developing seagrass meadows, protecting endangered species and financing entrepreneurs in developing economies.

I am very grateful, to our wonderful customers, for choosing Act Sustainably and helping us finance this very important work.

Hey, I’m Jamie.

I have over 15 years experience in sales and customer service, predominately within recruitment and the latter part business to business sales and customer management.

I pride myself on providing a high class service to all those who are interacted with as well as a professional and friendly approach.

The Act Sustainably team have been a fantastic choice for me to join and I am excited about watching us grow as a business.

I am totally committed to saving the planet, one client at a time. 

Hello, I’m Sharon.

I am an experienced senior corporate finance and commercial leader who became a successful sustainability consultant.

With a corporate career spanning almost two decades, I have overseen the turnaround in business units’ commercial performance and critical strategic commercial negotiations and helped secure global strategic sustainability partnerships.

My passion for sustainability ignited a transformation and a transition to a visionary sustainability consultant, thought leader, and speaker. I  facilitated this transition by completing the IEMA Certificate in Environmental Management, IEMA Pathways to Net Zero and the IEMA Sustainable Procurement courses delivered by Act Sustainably.

I love harnessing my knowledge, experience, and expertise to support your clients in delivering their sustainability strategies and succeeding as responsible businesses.

Hi, I’m Stephen

I am currently an Associate Professor of Social and Ecological Innovation in the School of Environment Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. I have developed numerous courses in areas such as sustainability, energy and civilization, local development, and ecological economics. A specialist in social-ecological systems and resilience, I have supervised doctoral projects on low-energy health systems, energy transition, rural skills, place-marketing and sustainable local development, maker culture, and pattern language approaches to organizational change.

As core faculty with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience (WISIR) and the McConnell-funded Social Innovation Generation (SiG), I have developed curricula for a pioneering diploma in ‘system entrepreneurship’ aimed at tri-sector early career professionals designed to foster social and ecological transformation. Recent projects have included the role of traditional hedge laying in the Ontario landscape and the use of pattern language analysis as a vehicle for local development and organizational change.

I have recently added to my master’s degrees in applied social science and politics and my doctorate in economic sociology and facilitated a transition to sustainability consultancy by participating in the Act Sustainably personal development program. I have completed the IEMA Certificates in Sustainable Procurement (ISO20400) and Pathways to Net Zero qualifications to supplement my Permaculture Certificate (Patrick Whitefield). My next goal is to pass the IEMA Certificate in Environmental Management course and achieve PIEMA (practitioner) status in 2024.

To relax, I love to play banjo (Clawhammer style) and the Northumbrian Pipes. I am also a budding Fettler, having recently bought an old lathe to maintain the pipes and build the reeds.

I am keen to develop ways to combine my academic knowledge, experience and resources with Act Sustainably’s commercial expertise to provide groundbreaking consultancy services to forward-thinking organisations.

Hey, I’m Gillian.

I live by the coast in Northern Ireland and feel fortunate to have such wild beauty on my doorstep, as well as being part of a wonderful community.

For the past 25 years, I’ve worked with companies on putting something positive back into the world around them. I gained my wings with Business in the Community here in Northern Ireland, marketing the benefits of responsible business practice for many years before becoming Deputy Managing Director. In that role, I led the drive to encourage, challenge and support companies to be sustainable and invest in making a positive difference.

In 2019, I left to set up GIRAFFE Associates – a consultancy working with companies to help them identify their purpose, create sustainability or ESG strategies and ultimately do good business.

I trained as a B Leader in 2021 and work to support companies that are seeking certification as a B Corporation. These companies commit to meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.

I believe strongly that we all have a duty to protect and respect the planet from the impacts of climate change and that business, as a key contributor, has a vital role to play. I play a small part by sharing my expertise and experience to help companies operate with sustainability and purpose.

This is a journey and we’ve a long way to go, but bring Act Sustainably along with you and we’ll lighten the load

Greetings! I’m Marina.

My mission is to conserve what we love today for tomorrow by telling stories that get people to care.

Growing up as part of an active, outdoorsy family in rural Upper Austria, my brother and I spent countless hours in the fields and the forests. We took collecting (and accidentally ingesting) dirt very seriously. Mum always liked to say that there was more mud on the inside of our wellies than on the outside. She, however, considered that a childhood well spent – and so do I.

I went to university to study design and then architectural conservation. Fairly quickly, my focus shifted towards understanding the complexity of individual and societal behaviour. I became endlessly fascinated with the glorious messiness of the human condition, learning why we value the things we do and how to create a sense of place and belonging.

I love nature, I love animals, but humans are my first love (even though animals are, admittedly, a lot less complicated). Today, I help purpose-led businesses and organisations to build brands the world needs more of, and to communicate why people should care. Within that, I specialise in building identity, defining value, and driving change through better communication in business, sustainable tourism, and adventure travel.

In my free time, I love to cook, read, or explore (and help to conserve) the UK’s Green Road network on my motorbike, where – it being Britain – I’m regularly re-acquainted with dirt and mud. I’m also a self-employed brand consultant, national diversity & inclusion ambassador for the Trail Riders Fellowship, marketing lecturer, and a great believer in getting out there and doing the thing – whatever your thing may be.