Sustainability

David, above left, at the Hay Literature Festival with Jane Davidson, Saci Lloyd and George Marshall.

David is a valued author, journalist, consultant, workshop leader and inspirational speaker in the fields of ‘one planet’ living, zero/low carbon energy, energy efficiency and sustainable architecture. He is a strategic thinker who uses his detailed knowledge of environmental technologies, science and initiatives at all levels, from individuals to farming and cities, in order to show organisations and businesses how they can benefit from positive change.

David is Founder/Director of The Centre for One Planet Living, a Lecturer in One Planet Living at the University of Wales Trinity St Davids and a Patron of the One Planet Council. He was for two years a Special Consultant on Sustainable Cities Collective (see below) and, prior to that, was for 13 years news editor of Defra’s Energy and Environmental Management magazine and Publications Manager at the Centre for Alternative Technology. He is the author of several books and thousands of articles on these subjects.

He has excellent written and verbal communication skills and a flair for interpreting complex information so that lay readers can understand it. He is adept at many skills relevant to publishing and editorial production, social media marketing, presentations, training, graphic design, web development and video production. He has designed and supervised the building of his own passive solar, zero-carbon studio.

Every day for years he has researched and written articles about sustainability, keeping up to date with world-wide developments and legislation. (Recent articles from The Fifth Estate news website can be found here.)

He believes passionately that the world already has the means and technology to move to sustainability. The best examples need more emulation, legal support, educating about them and an upskilling of the labour force to provide the skills required.

He accepts commissions for articles and books, and is available as a consultant, as a conference speaker and as a workshop leader, on the following topics:

• one planet living and sustainable communities;
• environmental building and refurbishment;
• sustainable development and sustainable business opportunities;
• climate change and meeting its challenges;
• renewable energy/low carbon technologies such as solar, wind, hydro, biofuels, etc.;
• eco-minimalism – making more from less – and improving quality of life.

He works from this eco-garden studio, which he designed based upon research for his books, where he is currently working on new editions of the Solar Energy and the Passive Solar Architecture Pocket Reference books for the International Solar Energy Society, and a new novel.

A talk on how to make cities more sustainable by David Thorpe in Cardiff:

This interview by Hannah Murray of Talk Radio Europe with David gives a good summary! He talks about working for Marvel Comics, Hybrids, Stormteller, and caring for the environment:

>>   More on the Books

Other credits

​Besides the books listed on the above link, he has also written or edited:

• How The World Works (Two-Can, 1992)
• ​The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union Trading Cards (Eclipse Books, 1990, 1995)
• Publisher at the Centre for Altenative Technology (1992-1999) of titles such as It’s a Breeze!: a guide to choosing windpower (CAT Publications, 1995) (co-writer, editor)
• Fertile Waste (CAT Publications, 1994) (co-writer, editor)
• Safe to Drink? (CAT Publications, 1996) (co-writer, editor)
• The Whole House Book (CAT Publications, 1998,2008) (designer, editor)
• Plus about 80 other publications on sustainable technologies (CAT Publications) (editor)
• A history of greenspace – web-based educational resource commissioned by the Sensory Trust (2003)
• Energy and Environmental Management magazine, (Defra 2000-date) and Real Power the magazine of the British Wind Energy Association (Features writer and News Editor)
• Guardian’s Commment Is Free, (Guardian Newspaper 2007-date) (Columnist)
• Wales for Africa – Stories of Success, (Welsh Assembly Government/Sustain Wales)