Sustainable Innovation 04

Creating and developing sustainable and responsible new business models

Towards Sustainable Product Design

9th International Conference

25th – 26th October 2004

Farnham, Surrey

Mark Barthel, Director, Waste Minimisation, Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP), UK

Mark has had a varied career starting with over 10 year’s experience of working on foreign exchange and commodities markets, including fraud and anti-fraud work in the City of London, Wall Street and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong.

After leaving the finance sector in the 1980’s, Mark went “back to school” for four years at the University of Southampton in the UK, where he attained a 1st Class Honours Degree in Environmental Science and a Masters (with distinction) in Environmental Management. He has recently completed a part-time PhD in Tools and Systems for Sustainable Business.

Mark has held environmental management roles in the Oil and Gas, Tourism, Consultancy and Retail sectors.

Mark joined WRAP as Director of Waste Minimisation in December 2003 and is now responsible for delivering a diverse and challenging range of programmes, including:

  • the largest single home composting programme ever run in the UK – with up to 1.65 million bins being distributed to households over a three year period;
  • a real nappies programme whose aim is to promote choice to new parents and help to divert some of the 3 billion disposable nappies that go to landfill each year;
  • a Retailer Initiative whose aim is to constructively engage with retailers on waste minimisation issues; and
  • the management of a Waste Minimisation Innovation Fund worth over £7 million over the next two years, whose aim is to promote and support retailer-led innovation projects.

Mark joined WRAP from the British Standards Institution (BSI), where he was Head of Environment, Sustainability and CSR. During his time with BSI, Mark was responsible for project managing the development of ISO 14001, the international environmental management systems standard, creating BSI’s environmental training function, establishing BSI’s Greenhouse Gas Verification Service and securing over £10 million of external funding for environmental and sustainability projects.

In addition to his “day job” Mark is:

  • A Member of the UK Government’s Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment – the UK committee responsible for Integrated Product Policy.
  • A Non-Executive Director of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) - the predominant body for environmental professionals in the UK.
  • A Fellow of the University of Southampton’s Centre for Environmental Science.
  • A Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Ethics and Sustainability Steering Group.
  • A member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Sustainable Design.

He is also a former part-time Special Advisor to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In his (copious!) spare time Mark enjoys spending time with his wife Pauline and his two daughters, Rowena and Natalie in their newly built eco home.