One of a series of events The lecture is part of Sustees, a series of events running at the University from Monday 26 January to Thursday 29 January.
Paul Denison, Principal lecturer in design said: 鈥楾he whole week will be about raising the profile of the sustainability agenda and we鈥檙e delighted to welcome someone with Rob鈥檚 expertise. This agenda cuts across many walks of life and these events are simply a taste of how much work is being done in this field.
鈥楾he University is launching two degree courses which show we are stepping up to this emerging market. Employers are increasingly asking for skills in these areas and students don鈥檛 yet recognise these are career paths that are worth looking at.鈥�
Factfile
Rob Holdway is co-founder and Director of environmental management consultants Giraffe, who work with companies on carbon management and foot printing, sustainable design and EU environmental legislation. Rob was described by 鈥楾he Manufacturer鈥� magazine as 鈥楤ritain鈥檚 leading eco-design consultant鈥�. Giraffe was listed by The Guardian as one of the ten brightest independent UK green businesses.
Through Giraffe, Rob has worked with over 400 companies on eco-design, in the EU, China and U.S identifying potential savings to clients of over 拢75m. Clients include: Dell, Canon, De La Rue, Virgin Group, PC World, Belkin, The Royal Society of Arts (RSA), Early Learning Centre, J. Sainsbury Plc, Toyota, Morphy Richards, British Airways and L鈥橭real.
Rob is also a judge on last year鈥檚 The Observer Ethical Awards and the face and expert for At Home Magazine. Rob is one of eight advisors on the UK Government Envirowise programme, an advisor on Sustainable Products and Materials Programme for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and he is also a technical advisor on the Government WRAP (Material Change for a Better Environment) programme.
Rob was director of the RSA WEEE Man project, a large sculpture made of electronic waste permanently on display at The Eden Project. He has written widely on sustainable design and innovation and has appeared on BBC Radio 4 (Costing the Earth, Shop Talk, You & Yours) and several television news channels across Europe including BBC 10 O鈥機lock news, BBC News 24, and Channel One, Russia.