Green House Core Group
Profiles of members of Green House Think Tank's Core group
For media interviews please contact us at info@greenhousethinktank.org
Zaid Alasad is a former banker, author, and passionate advocate for monetary reform and progressive fiscal policy. His book, Eco-Money, his research and continuing contributions to the development of policy in the Green Party of England and Wales reflect a deep commitment to promote social justice as a fundamental pillar in the fight against climate change. In his writings, Zaid challenges conventional economic paradigms, advocating for economic systems that prioritise the well-being of our planet and its inhabitants, systems that are better designed for a sustainable future. His vision is one of a thriving, equitable society, designed with sustainability in mind.
Christina Coleman is a sustainability advisor and environmental campaigner, advocating political and behavioral change to tackle the biodiversity and climate crisis. She has a Master’s Degree in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex. She contributes to academic research and literature, speaks publicly and works with education providers to advocate the solutions that the planet’s ecosystems urgently need. Christina is also a District Councillor and was Chair of Wealden District Council. In the recent general election, she was selected as the Green Party MP candidate, for East Grinstead and Uckfield. The campaign saw the Green Party vote share more than double, from 5% in 2019 to 10.5% in 2024.
Ray Cunningham is a freelance writer, speaker, translator and consultant on British-German knowledge exchange, mainly in the area of sustainability. He previously worked for the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society as Projects Director, Deputy Director (in Berlin) and Director. Before that he taught in the university system in both Britain and Germany and worked in academic publishing. He is joint Founder and Convenor of the British-German Environment Forum. Ray is a director of Green House Think Tank Ltd
Jonathan Essex is a chartered engineer and environmentalist. He has worked for engineering consultants and contractors in the UK, Bangladesh and Vietnam. This work has included developing strategies for a social enterprise ecopark, Pushing Reuse, and for decarbonising the UK construction and housing industries. His current work focuses on improving the sustainability and resilience of livelihoods and infrastructure investments worldwide.
Emma Dawnay, a Cambridge science graduate, has a passion for economics, having experienced first-hand the dot-com boom/bust whilst being taught traditional economics. In 2005, while at the New Economics Foundation, she co-authored an influential report on Behavioural Economics. She has lived in Switzerland where she became a member of the board of Monetäre Modernisierung, the NGO which instigated a national referendum on how money should come into circulation. Emma is a keen environmentalist and believes we will only be able to tackle our environmental crises if we correctly understand the economic drivers.
John Foster is a freelance writer and philosophy teacher, and an honorary teaching fellow in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, UK. He has worked as a schoolteacher and an NHS administrator, and has been an environmentalist for nearly forty years. His relevant publications include Valuing Nature? (ed.) (Routledge, 1997), The Sustainability Mirage (Earthscan, 2008), After Sustainability: Denial, Hope, Retrieval ( Earthscan/Routledge, 2015), and Post-Sustainability: Tragedy and Transformation (ed.) (Routledge 2017). His latest book is Realism and the Climate Crisis: Hope for Life (Bristol, 2022).
Andrew Mearman is an Associate Professor of Economics at Leeds University Business School. He is a former Co-ordinator of the Association for Heterodox Economics. He has written extensively on economic methodology, teaching economics and heterodox economics, including a number of contributions linking to ecological concerns. Outside of academic life, Andrew has worked in various social projects, including helping to establish a local transition town group and a community radio station.
Ann Pfeiffer is Grants Programme Officer at Quakers in Britain. She has worked in a variety of finance and grants management roles in the not-for profit sector including Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, Advocates for International Development, and the TUC. She has also acted as a consultant for several small charities and not-for profit organisations. Ann is a director of Green House Think Tank Ltd.
Peter Sims is an electronic engineer who specialises in systems engineering. He particularly focuses on the overlap and interfaces between human and non-human systems – for example, the relationship between energy or transport systems and human behaviour in the context of climate change. His work with Green House started with his involvement in the Climate Jobs Modelling project and more recently he’s been coordinating the Climate Emergency Economy Project. He’s been a member of the Core Group since Autumn 2018 and Chair of Green House Think Tank since Summer 2022.
Nadine Storey Nadine Storey is a PhD candidate at Nottingham Trent University, researching the food industry response to the Grand Societal Challenges of climate change, biodiversity and food security. Nadine has a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University and an MA in Regenerative Economics from Schumacher College. For her PhD, she is combining an understanding of ecological economics with insights drawn from a career in sales and marketing, predominantly in the food and drink sector. Her particular interest is in exploring narratives that support or inhibit sufficient action in response to the overlapping crises of our time.
Prashant Vaze was born in India and moved to the UK as an infant. He studied biology at Oxford University, and Agricultural economics at Reading then worked as a government economist and policy maker chiefly on environmental, statistical and regulatory matters. He now works on climate finance issues for an international not-for-profit organisation. He also writes young adult science-fiction with an environmental theme and popular science / economics books which explore climate change, technological change and the nature of economic progress.
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