Pooran Desai is a co-founder of the BioRegional Development Group, an entrepreneurial, environmental organisation. He has worked on projects in sustainable farming, forestry, recycling and eco-housing, initiating the construction of BedZED, the UK’s largest eco-village. He has been a consultant to central government, local authorities and developers, advising on zero-carbon and zero-waste developments for the Thames Gateway and in Portugal. In 2004, Pooran was awarded an OBE for services to sustainable development and he is, of course, a director of One Planet Living.
Paul King is the Director of Campaigns for the conservation organisation WWF. He joined in 1994, after a stint in publishing, and led development on business-related issues before being seconded to WWF Bhutan to revitalise its operations. Paul returned to the UK to work on business and consumption issues and then took on the role of Campaign Director for WWF’s One Million Sustainable Homes campaign, the aim of which is to move sustainability from the fringes to the mainstream of the UK housing sector - and he is also a director of One Planet Living.
Quintain Estates and Development plc, a leading UK property developer, has taken the One Planet Living idea sufficiently seriously to build a company on it, teaming up with BioRegional to design and build communities across the UK incorporating all ten One Planet Living principles - as well as kindly sponsoring this book. Look out for their forthcoming developments in Brighton, Middlesbrough and the flagship ‘Z-squared’ in London Thames Gateway.
