ABOUT ME - 1995-2004 - TINTINHULL YEARS

I was brought up in Somerset and moved back at the end of 1994.  My husband, Ed and I rented Tintinhull House from the National Trust until 2004.

During this time we had three children - all boys - two of whom were born in one of the upstairs bedrooms at the house.

From Tintinhull I worked independently as a sustainability consultant and author, as well as being a District Councillor in South Somerset between 1999 and 2003. 

 TINTINHULL YEARS

LEAVING SUSTAINABILITY

Leaving London meant leaving SustainAbility.  It was quite a wrench.  But I had been responsible for office management, finance and many of the administrative functions of the organization, and this couldn’t be done without being on the spot.  Between 1987 when John Elkington and I had set up SustainAbility and 1994, when I left, the organization had grown from being a two-man band in a back room of John’s home to a small business with 12-15 people in proper offices. 

We managed to find Geoff Lye, who was a founder director of Countrywide Communications, to help fill the gap.  He took up the financial administration, as well as doing consultancy too.

Apart from wanting to move to the country, my departure was precipitated by getting pregnant.   The flexibility of working from home after my first son Connor was born in January 1995, was great.  And I have continued with this, taking a portfolio approach to my working life, ever since. 

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MOVING TO TINTINHULL

My husband and I were very lucky to be selected as tenants in a National Trust House – Tintinhull.  Lots of people applied and a handful were short-listed for an interview.  Rather surprisingly we were chosen.  The house was only a few miles from where I was brought up and my parents still lived, so I was in familiar territory. 

We weren’t responsible for the spectacular gardens at Tintinhull – that was tended by the National Trust.  They also had a tea-room in the courtyard and people manning the reception.  For the six months of the year when the house was open, people did go through the house but the main attraction was the garden, so we had most of the house to ourselves.  My office was at the top, looking out through the round window.   

Our second son Rollo was born at Tintinhull at the end of 1996, followed by Monty two years later.

During my ten years at Tintinhull, the National Trust did become more environmentally aware – unfortunately, not through my endeavours.  The most notable change in their policy was to stop using peat in all their gardens – this was announced in 1991.   But they didn’t start switching to energy-efficient lighting until some time after I had left – in 2008.  And their policies on insulation, draft-proofing and other eco-improvements were hampered by the over-riding priority of maintaining the historical features of their properties. 

See my blog post on The National Trust and lightbulbs 

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CONSULTANCY AND DIRECTORSHIPS

In the early years at Tintinhull, I continued working with Procter & Gamble (P&G), particularly on issues around nappies, laundry detergents and cleaning products.  Another client I continued with, from my SustainAbility days,  was Cargill Dow, who were introducing their starch-based, bio-plastic – PLA - to the market.   I helped set up stakeholder workshops in both Europe and the US, with a central issue discussed being the inclusion of GM maize.  Whilst working on this project I went to Nebraska to talk to the maize farmers and to see the corn processing plant. 

Between 1994 and 2000 I was a non-executive director of Out of This World.  The idea was to create a chain of ethical supermarkets around the country, run as a co-operative.  Although only a few stores opened, the organization had a large membership and won recognition for its pioneering approach.  Today, only two stores remain – one in Nottingham and the other in Newcastle.  Competition from larger supermarkets picking up on ethical issues has made it difficult for the company to differentiate itself.

One area that I hadn’t been involved with much was ethical investment.  But in 2001, I was asked by Jupiter Asset Management to become a director of a new investment trust – Jupiter Global Green.  It was a great learning experience.  The aim of the trust was to invest worldwide in companies that responded positively to the challenge of environmental sustainability or were making a commitment to social well-being.  In some cases this meant investing in ‘best in class’ companies, that were doing better than others in their sector.  In other cases it meant companies working in environmental businesses such as wind power, solar or recycling.  In 2006 this fund was rolled into a new investment trust called Jupiter Green, which invests in environmental solutions, with a new board of directors.

In 2002, I was asked by Marks & Spencer to carrying out a major strategic review of their food division, identifying priority sustainability issues.  The brief was to give them some ‘blue sky thinking’ and not to be too constrained in ideas and suggestions.  The job took several months and involved numerous interviews with M&S employees, about their areas of responsibility, and other stakeholders.  At the end I produced a report that was credited with giving M&S one of the platforms on which they built their Plan A initiative. 

"[Your report] is excellent.  A superb piece of work that is really going to help us move forward.  So many thanks."

Mike Barry, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Marks & Spencer 2002

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POLITICS

I hadn’t planned to get involved in politics.  But I was asked to stand to be a District Councillor for my area, which I did between 1999 and 2003.  Most of my environmental work is for national or international organizations, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get involved at a local level.  In the process I learnt about local government, planning and waste disposal issues, which was great.  But it was also very time-consuming – most of the other councillors were retired – so I decided not to stand for a second term. 

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BOOKS

While at Tintinhull, I wrote a couple more books with John Elkington.  Manual 2000 was published in 1998.  It was written in anticipation of the Millennium, explaining the moral, social and environmental issues we faced approaching the new century. 

One of the issues that was emerging at that time was genetic modification or GM as it generally referred to.   John and I planned on writing The GM Food Guide.  As it turned out there were a number of other books rushed out in response to public alarm on this issue - their focus was primarily on how to avoid GM.   This meant that our publisher, Orion, got cold feet about the competition and persuaded us to widen our theme.  In 1999 they published our New Foods Guide, which covered GM, functional foods and organic, explaining the pros, the cons, the scares and the possibilities for future foods.

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OTHER THINGS

Other things I was involved in during this time include vice chairing a government quango on consumer products – ACCPE; initiating a study on sustainable commodity crops; advising Race to the Top, a scheme to benchmark supermarkets on their sustainability performance; and working with Historic Futures, a company with expertise in supply chain traceability.

Early in 1996 I spent six weeks in Kenya carrying out an environmental review of Bamburi Cement Factory (formerly part-owned by Blue Circle, but now owned by Lafarge), just north of Mombasa.  This was initiated by Dr. Rene Haller, who I had met a couple of years earlier.  He had developed an extraordinary eco-system approach to rehabilitating the cement quarries on the site – and thought it would be helpful to see what environmental improvements could be made by the factory.

In 2003 I met Louise Piper, who had also been inspired by Rene’s work.  We collaborated in setting up the Haller Foundation, now known as Haller, to keep his legacy going.   I made several trips to Kenya to help get this charity started.  Early projects included setting up a farming training programme and building an environmental education centre.   More recently, Haller has started developing sustainable community projects, which include dam building, biogas and schools, as well as preventative health programmes. 

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MBE

Having been awarded an MBE in the New Years Honours List in 1999, I went to collect it at Buckingham Palace, with the Queen presiding.  I was allowed to take three people with me - an exception was made for my youngest son Monty, who was still breast-feeding.  The other three were my mother, Minker Hailes (now Minker Soames), my husband Edward de Courcy Bryant (now ex-husband) and a good friend, Nilufer von Bismark.  I don’t know who put me forward for an MBE, but I can take this opportunity to thank them if they ever happen to look at my website!

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