Alex has a decade of operations experience, and has managed complex projects for charitable and commercial organisations. Her background is in education, and she has worked in partnership with universities, embassies and cultural organisations to deliver academic courses in Latin America which explore the social impact of the conflict in Colombia and the recent peace process there. As well as a first class history degree from University of Bristol, Alex has also trained in data law, policy and regulation at LSE.

She currently serves as Non-Executive Director at One Housing Group, a G15 Housing Association with a strong social purpose and over 35,000 residents, and as a Trustee at Children Change Colombia, a charity that defends the rights of children through community-led programmes.

Jane has over 35 years’ experience in the environmental sustainability, climate and energy arena.  After 17 years leading environmental campaigns at national and international level with Greenpeace, including the first campaign to promote solar power in the UK, she switched to local government, setting up the environmental sustainability functions first at Islington Council in London and then, from 2005, at Bath & North East Somerset Council, from which she has recently retired.

She led the Council’s strategic work, including running the area-wide Environmental Sustainability Partnership, developing the first Climate Change Strategy, the Community Energy Strategy and the response to the Climate Emergency, whilst facilitating action by the community, for the community.  She enabled Bath & West Community Energy to get off the ground and is a passionate advocate for a truly sustainable local energy system, with community energy at its heart.

She is also a Trustee of the West of England Rural Network.

Leigh has spent the past 8 years developing and delivering renewable energy projects with measurable environmental, social and economic benefits. Having worked with, or for energy suppliers, price comparison websites, charities, Local Authorities, and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) he has been able to increase energy switching rates and reduce fuel poverty.

In 2013, after becoming aware of the inequalities in the domestic energy market, he co-founded Community Switch, a price comparison service specifically designed to increase consumer engagement with RSL tenants. His work has helped over 50,000 households reduce their domestic energy bills and save several million pounds. Leigh has worked on projects for DECC and the NEA and is a mentor with ‘The Future Leaders – Utilities Mentoring network’, a volunteer for Raleigh International and is passionate about the transition to a smarter, greener, more sustainable energy future.

Simon stumbled into environmental management in 1989 by offering to look after a paper- recycling bin. After that, things rather ran away with themselves. He helped set up Green Teams at Hewlett Packard in Bristol, ran them for five years, then became HP Ltd’s full-time environmental specialist. He left in 2000 to run a small consultancy, went on to run the Econet in-work training project, helped deliver the southwest-wide Envision programme, established a number of small business Resource Efficiency Clubs, trained a lot of Trading Estates, and now focuses on business linkages between cost-intensity, carbon-intensity, and profitability. To condense all this into something usable, he produces simplifying software, the dataCollator

Sheila has been living in Bath and working for South West environmental organisations for 20 years. As one of the management team at Bath Environment Centre / Envolve, she worked on strategic & financial planning, and schools & youth work programmes. Subsequently, at the ethical consultancy Resource Futures, she managed a range of environmental education contracts, including the schools’ energy efficiency contract for B&NES Council and for Devon County Council.

She is a Fellow of the National Association for Environmental Education, a Director of the South West Learning for Sustainability Coalition and a core group member for Bath Orchardshare. Sheila has been a committed member of BWCE since its early days.

Sophie Hooper Lea has worked for over twenty years as an independent consultant, adviser and writer on corporate responsibility and sustainability issues. Current work includes being Consultant Publishing Editor to the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE).

Recent experience includes strategic consultancy, advisory and sustainability reporting work for housebuilder Taylor Wimpey plc. This included working at senior management and Board level for over 10 years on strategy and policy development and implementation as well as sustainability reporting and benchmarking. Key areas of focus are strategy and policy development, project management, research, reporting and business writing.

Alastair grew up in rural Scotland and has been passionate about the environment for as long as he can remember.  He has a driving interest in renewable energy, and is a member of a several renewable energy cooperatives, including BWCE and Keynsham Community Energy.

In his early career he worked as a diplomat in the Middle East, and there followed a business career in consultancy, recruiting at senior level and building management boards for commercial and non-profit organisations. His trustee experience includes Keep Britain Tidy, VSO and CleanupUK, and he has been active in a number of local social and environmental groups. He served as a Magistrate in Bath for fifteen years.

Alastair is a former Member Advocate for Renewable Energy at B&NES Council.