Ed Gillespie is a British environmental entrepreneur, speaker, futurist, and author. His focus is on

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

and innovation.

Early life and education

He grew up in Norfolk, attending Norwich School. Afterwards he was a volunteer for

Project Trust Project Trust, based on the Scottish Inner Hebridean Isle of Coll, is an international volunteering charity for young people. Work of the charity Established as an education charity since 1967, Project Trust offers young people across the UK, I ...

as a teacher in Above Rocks,

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. He completed an BSc in

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and ...

at the

University of Wales The University of Wales () is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by royal charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first universit ...

and continued in this discipline by undertaking a MSc in Marine Resource Development and Protection at

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

. After this his focus shifted to business as he enrolled in a Professional Masters in Leadership for Sustainable Development at

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...

, a course run by sustainable development charity Forum for the Future. While there he met Townsend, with whom he co-founded Futerra.

Career

Gillespie started his professional career as an Environmental Development Manager at London Transport. Before this he had worked for the Survival

Natural History Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Film Unit and as a

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology clas ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

and

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

. In 2001, he co-founded Futerra Sustainability Communications with Solitaire Townsend. He left the business in January 2019 to pursue other opportunities in public speaking through the London Speaker Bureau, with the Forward Institute - where he works as a facilitator on responsible leadership development and with start-up businesses. In 2007/8, he traveled around the world without flying, during which he wrote a regular popular column for the ''Guardian/Observer'' called "The Slow Traveller". His passion for slow travel led him to invest in, and become chairman of European Rail Business

Loco2 Raileurope.co.uk (formerly Loco2) is an online Computer reservations system, booking service for train travel in the United Kingdom and Europe. It sells tickets through its website and via its smartphone app which is available on iOS and Android ( ...

. This business was sold to SNCF in 2017. Gillespie has held a number of senior advisory positions and directorships. These include as a non-executive Director for Zero Carbon Food, he was a London Sustainable Development Commissioner for several years, was a director of carbon emissions campaigning organisation

Sandbag A sandbag or dirtbag is a bag or sack made of Hessian (cloth), hessian (burlap), polypropylene or other sturdy materials that is filled with sand or soil and used for such purposes as flood control, military fortification in trenches and bunke ...

and an investor in Foodtrade. He is currently a Director at Greenpeace UK, a Trustee at Energy Revolution and an investor in a wide range of entrepreneurial businesses including Panda Packaging, Piclo, Raw Bottles, Bennaman, Engaged Tracking, Common Objective and Small Robot Company. Along with fellow futurist

Mark Stevenson Mark Stevenson (born 1971) is a London-based British writer, businessman, public speaker and 'reluctant' futurologist, as well as a semi-professional musician and former comedian. Stevenson's first book, '' An Optimist's Tour of the Future'', w ...

he is half of the Futurenauts at the Atlas of the Future, and has both spoken at and co-hosted their annual Fixing the Future event in Barcelona.

Publications and public speaking

Gillespie co-presents ''The Great Humbling'' podcast with Dark Mountain co-founder Dougald Hine. Gillespie also co-presents ''Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts - How to survive the Apocalypse'' with his fellow futurist

and 'Britain's 3rd most loved comedian'

Jon Richardson Jon Joel Richardson (born 26 September 1982) is an English comedian and radio presenter. He is known for his appearances on '' 8 Out of 10 Cats'' and '' 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' and his work as co-host with Russell Howard on BBC Rad ...

. Gillespie is a regular contributor to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', which began back in 2007 with his Slow Traveller blog. This developed into commentary on topics around sustainable business, climate change and environmental communications. He still writes on sustainable travel for Conde Nast Traveller. In June 2014, Wild Things Publishing published Ed's first book, '' Only Planet''. The book is based on his 2007/8 trip and the Independent described it as allowing "the world's flaws and beauty to seep into your soul". Gillespie is regularly invited to lecture around the world to audiences, including the UN, national governments,

multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...

s and citizen organizations. He has given two

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

talks, the first in 2010 about the importance of embedding sustainability into business strategy in a talk titled 'Sustainability, the reinvention of progress' and the second in Hackney in 2015 on the future of food in 'We literally are what we eat'. Gillespie is interested in the power of creative writing to inspire change, writes poetry and publishes other articles on his Medium page.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Ed 1972 births Living people British environmentalists English male writers British non-fiction environmental writers British sustainability advocates Alumni of the University of Wales Alumni of Heriot-Watt University People from Norfolk