Founded | 1992 as 'Bioregional Development Group' |
---|---|
Founder | Sue Riddlestone, Pooran Desai |
Type | Limited company and Charitable trust |
Focus | Sustainability, Sustainable development, Environmentalism |
Location | |
Area served | World |
Method | Social enterprise, training |
Revenue | £1,380,000 Pound Sterling (2006-7) |
Website | bioregional.com |
Bioregional is a British entrepreneurial charity, which aims to invent and deliver practical solutions for sustainability. It was founded in 1992 on the belief that overconsumption of resources was the driving force behind environmental degradation, and set out to find new ways for people to meet more of their needs from local resources.
Bioregional was founded in 1994 by Sue Riddlestone OBE and Pooran Desai OBE, and began operations in the Sutton Ecology Centre. They first worked on local environmental projects, including the promotion of closed loop recycling in London and Surrey, [1] reviving lavender production in Mitcham and Carshalton, [2] setting up Croydon's TreeStation to turn waste municipal wood into biomass, [3] and establishing the Bioregional Charcoal Company Ltd who help a network of local charcoal producers sell to major retail stores. [4] These projects reflected Bioregional's aim of setting up social enterprises that could make the use of local and waste resources mainstream.
Bioregional began to expand in the late 1990s, and with the completion of BedZED they moved into their present offices in Hackbridge, London Borough of Sutton. Using the learnings from BedZED they developed the One Planet Living programme with WWF, which is the framework for all sustainable communities projects and has an equal influence over their vision as the original bioregionalism focus. Currently a One Planet Living communities is being built in Brighton. [5]
Bioregional currently[ when? ] has around 40 staff in London, as well as regional offices in China, Canada, South Africa, Kenya, Greece, Mexico, and Australia.
Founded in 2005, Bioregional North America is an affiliated Canadian non-profit organization that specializes in fostering sustainable behavior change and collaborative consumption amongst occupants in new and existing buildings across the United States and Canada. [6]
Carshalton is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated 9.5 miles (15.3 km) south-southwest of Charing Cross, in the valley of the River Wandle, one of the sources of which is Carshalton Ponds in the middle of the village. Prior to the creation of Greater London in 1965, Carshalton was in the administrative county of Surrey.
The London Borough of Sutton is an Outer London borough in London, England. It covers an area of 43 km2 (17 sq mi) and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to the east, the London Borough of Merton to the north and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to the north-west; it also borders the Surrey boroughs of Epsom and Ewell to the west and Reigate and Banstead to the south. The local authority is Sutton London Borough Council. Its principal town is Sutton.
Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is an environmentally friendly housing development in Hackbridge, London, England. It is in the London Borough of Sutton, 2 miles (3 km) north-east of the town of Sutton itself. Designed to create zero carbon emissions, it was the first large scale community to do so.
The River Wandle is a right-bank tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. With a total length of about 9 miles (14 km), the river passes through the London boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth, where it reaches the Thames. A short headwater – the Caterham Bourne – is partially in Surrey, the historic county of the river's catchment. Tributaries of the Wandle include Carshalton Ponds and Norbury Brook.
Carshalton Beeches railway station is in south Carshalton in the London Borough of Sutton in south London. The station, and all trains serving it, is operated by Southern, and is in Travelcard Zone 5. It is between Wallington and Sutton, 13 miles 72 chains down the line from London Bridge, measured via Forest Hill.
Carshalton Athletic Football Club is an English football club based in Carshalton in the London Borough of Sutton. They currently play in the Isthmian League Premier Division and are based at the War Memorial Sports Ground. The club also field a women's team playing in the London and South East Regional Women's Premier Division and have one of the biggest community clubs in England with over 40 junior teams.
Ashden is a London-based charity that works in the field of sustainable energy and development. Its work includes the annual Ashden Awards, advocacy and research in the field of sustainable energy, and mentoring and practical support for award winners.
Ann Lesley Cotton OBE is a Welsh entrepreneur and philanthropist who was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 Queen's New Year Honours List. The honour was in recognition of her services to education of young women in rural Africa as the founder of Camfed.
Hackbridge is a suburb in the London Borough of Sutton, south-west London, just over two miles north-east of the town of Sutton itself. It is 8.8 miles (15 km) south-west of Charing Cross.
The Cascadia movement is a bioregional independence movement based in the Cascadia bioregion of western North America. Potential boundaries differ, with some drawn along existing political state and provincial lines, and others drawn along larger ecological, cultural, political, and economic boundaries.
Harish Hande is an Indian social entrepreneur, who co-founded SELCO India in 1995.
The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Billionaire entrepreneur Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 1999.
The London Borough of Croydon has a wide variety of buildings mainly from post-war through to modern. Much of the modern architecture in the borough is centred on the commercial centre of the town, with much of the Victorian designs spread out on both the northern and southern corridors of the borough. Many former warehouses and factories have been converted for other uses changing the external appearance of Croydon erratically.
Ramesh Nibhoria is an Indian Punjabi engineer and entrepreneur, and creator of biomass pellet fueled cook stove.
Chris Underhill is an English social entrepreneur.
Susan Elizabeth Black is a British computer scientist, academic and social entrepreneur. She is known for saving Bletchley Park, with her Saving Bletchley Park campaign. Since 2018, she has been Professor of Computer Science and Technology Evangelist at Durham University. She was previously based at the University of Westminster and University College London.
William Robert Dunster OBE is a British architect.
E+Co is a non-governmental organization based in Bloomfield, New Jersey, United States, that from its founding in 1994 to its restructuring in 2012 made over 250 clean energy investments in developing countries. Over these 18 years, E+Co maintained field offices in San Jose, Costa Rica, Bangkok, Thailand, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Accra, Ghana. The company's name is pronounced, "E and Co".
Sally R. Osberg an American business executive who formerly served as president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, where she partnered with founder and chairman, Jeffrey Skoll. She was the founding executive director of the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.