Pete Capener
Pete has worked in the sustainable energy field for over 35 years. He led the early growth of the Centre for Sustainable Energy in Bristol where he was Chief Executive. Since resigning from CSE in 2002 due to family illness, Pete worked as an independent advisor on a range of energy efficiency, renewable energy and fuel poverty projects with a strong focus on community action at both local and national level. He is Deputy Chair of Community Energy England, a non exec director of RenewEV and a trustee of Centre for Sustainable Energy.
David Daniels
David Daniels lives and works in Bath and is the managing director of the MannionDaniels Group working on international health, social development and fund management. This includes managing global challenges funds on behalf of the UK and other European governments and Foundations, providing grants to civil society organisations working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
David has worked for more than 30 years on international development and humanitarian assistance in Africa and Asia and is a great believer in locally led solutions to community development. With colleagues from around the world he recently co-founded AmplifyChange a challenge fund for advocacy on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Leigh Fairbrother
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 Forsyth
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 Gundry
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
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 Singleton
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.