Herbert Girardet, who has lived near Bristol for 30 years, is an author, film-maker and consultant focusing on 'sustainable and liveable cities'.  

He is chairman of the Schumacher Society UK, a patron of the Soil Association and a Visiting Professor at UWE. He is a UN Global 500 Award recipient, and an honorary fellow of RIBA. He has (co-)authored nine books and 50 documentaries on environmental themes. 

He was a founder of the Sustainable London Trust for which he wrote the report Creating a Sustainable London whose findings heavily influenced the environmental policies of the GLA. He has written two other reports on London, for London First, the GLA and LDA. UK. He has lectured worldwide.

As a member of the Vienna International Futures Conference, which ran from 1994 to 1997, He worked with the City of Vienna to develop sustainability strategies. A wide range of measures on energy efficiency, recycling and public transport have since been implemented. 

In 2003 Herbert was 'Thinker in Residence' in Adelaide for ten weeks, developing sustainability strategies for Adelaide and South Australia on behalf of premier Mike Rann. In dozens of seminars and lectures he developed a report, Creating a Sustainable Adelaide, which is now being implemented by the SA government.

Working with Arup Associates, Herbert is a consultant to the world-leading Dongtan Eco-City project on Chongming Island, Shanghai, which will start construction at the end of 2006. He has also edited a book on the project.

Most recently, Herbert was awarded a fellowship on ‘the sustainability of cities’ by the Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851 for 2006 and 2007. He will use it to write another book, with the opportunities for sustainable development of the Bristol city region as one of its major case studies.

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