Giraffe was acknowledged by The Guardian business pages as one of the UK’s top green businesses due to its extensive experience in delivery of a wide range of sustainability driven projects to UK and global organisations. We are proud of our ability to engage clients, implement change and change their culture.
Giraffe was described by The Manufacturer Magazine as ‘Britain’s leading eco-design consultancy’. Giraffe currently works with UK Government and companies of all sizes – from small farms to corporations. Giraffe undertakes, complex Life Cycle Assessment and carbon footprinting projects for clients in Hong Kong, Sweden, France, USA, Korea and the UK. Giraffe also provides senior management support and coaching to a wide range of organisations including advice on the legal compliance obligations and business benefits of EU Environmental Legislation.
Giraffe’s world leading team has a wide range of skills covering life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental management, and enviromentally sensitive design. Giraffe currently undertakes complex LCA studies for Dell (USA), British Airways, L’Oreal, De La Rue (UK, Sweden), VTech (Hong Kong), Kyocera Mita, Fortnum & Mason and toy companies: Vivid Imaginations (UK’s largest independent toy company) and Character Options. These projects were won by Giraffe on an open competitive tender basis.
SERVICE OFFERING
- Carbon Management – Policy & Strategy
- LCA with a focus on GHG emissions including carbon footprinting – Companies, Products, Services, Individuals
- Carbon Offsetting
- Environmental Management Standards – EMS
- Water Management & Efficiency
- Energy Management
- Waste Management
- Sustainable Design – Strategy and practical implementation
- Environmental Legislation
- Innovation Management Sessions – DART Technique “the worst thing you can be doing is to do well the things you shouldn’t be doing in the first place” & Eco-Dice – eco creating technique
- Environmental Competitive Benchmarking
- Third Party (CSR) reporting evaluation
- Research
- Broadcasting – BBC TV, BBC Radio, Channel 4, Channel 5
- SME & Corporate training seminars
Giraffe’s approach to projects combines analytical thinking and science with the creative ability to synthesise between different industries, techniques and cultures. The majority of our work through the consultancy Giraffe involves establishing a baseline understanding of the environmental impact of an organisation, or specifically a product or packaging, and identifying opportunities for reduction. We have identified over $150m and 50,000tCO2e saving for our clients. We describe this as Carbon led – redesign.
We work with small and large companies and UK Government. Most of our time involves helping companies avoid doing the ‘wrong thing well’.
Giraffe has recently established a Carbon Offsetting Company called One Planet Economy (OPE). Our position is simple. Companies must do everything possible to reduce their emissions. Where this cannot be done, offsetting is a credible option. For more information on OPE please contact Rob Holdway
Giraffe was formed in 2001 by David Walker and Robert Holdway. Our extended team is drawn from specialists and experts in the field of innovation management, environmental science and design. This includes 5 Phds, in related subjects and a combined experience of over 120 years in industry.
Rob Holdway B.A (Hons), M.A FRSA: Director, Giraffe Innovation Limited
Rob Holdway is co-founder and Director of environmental management consultants Giraffe, working with companies on carbon management and footprinting, sustainable design, innovation management and EU environmental legislation. Rob was described by ‘The Manufacturer’ magazine as ‘Britain’s leading eco-design consultant’. Giraffe was listed by The Guardian as one of the 10 brightest independent UK green businesses http://business.guardian.co.uk/windofchange/story/0,,2217319,00.html.
Rob was presenter and on-screen expert for Channel 4’s DUMPED programme screened last year. Check out Rob’s Channel 4 Blog.Rob is a judge on this years The Observer Ethical Awards and is one of London’s Sustainable Development Commission’s London Leaders for 2009 http://www.londonsdc.org/londonleaders.
Rob is also the face and on-screen expert for At Home Magazine – ‘At Home with Rob Holdway – All you need to know about living in an eco environment’ published October 2008 (EMP plc). Rob has written an article – ‘Design for a One Planet Economy’ for The Innovation Handbook published by Kogan Page in September 2008. Rob is one of 8 advisors on the UK Government Envirowise programme, an advisor on Sustainable Products and Materials Programme for Defra, and he is also an technical advisor on the Government WRAP programme.
Rob has been a fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) for 15 years and was director of the RSA WEEE Man project. A large sculpture made of electronic waste permanently on display at The Eden Project. He is also Director of the RSA’s ‘Changing Habbits’ project.
Rob has a B.A. (Hons) Industrial Design, M.A. from Brunel University and spent 4 years as a Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art/Imperial College working on the Good Design Practice Programme with the University of Cambridge. Through Giraffe, Rob has worked with over 400 companies on eco-desing, in the EU, China, Hong Kong and US, identifying potential savings of over £75million. Clients include: De La Rue, Virgin Group, PC World, Belkin, RSA, Early Learning Centre, J. Sainsbury Plc, Toyota, Morphy Richards, British Airways, Canon, Dell and L’Oreal.
He has written widely on sustainable design and has appeared on BBC 1 One Show, BBC 10 O’Clock news, Richard & Judy, Radio 4 (Costing the Earth, Shop Talk, You and Yours) and several television news channels across Europe. Rob has been quoted in The Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, The Telegraph (Business) and TIME Magazine (European edition). He has also published 10 academic papers on design, innovation and the environment. Rob has also been quoted in The Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Observer, The Evening Standard, The Telegraph (Business) and TIME Magazine (Europena edition).
Professor David Walker
David Walker is an architect, designer, and specialist in innovation and new product development. Most of his professional work has been in the realm of building bridges between two tribes – managers and designers. While a fair proportion of his work has been as a professional consultant and writer on design and innovation, he is convinced of the prime importance of visual thinking and visual communication. Verbal analysis of design can only set up frameworks; real quality and know how is embedded in visually led processes.
David has a first career as an architect in the UK (mainly in social housing) He worked for private practices (Tom Hancock. Max Lock) local government (Lambeth Council) and National government (DoE).
David moved to the Open University as a member of the Faculty of Technology in 1979. There he was course team chair of a pioneering course Design; Processes and Products and a lead author on both Design and Innovation, and the Technology Foundation course.
Within the Open Business School he was chairman of Managing Design and was lead author of Creative Management for the OU MBA. He is a co founder of DIG Design Innovation Group; Open University and UMIST.
Both of these courses are thought to be benchmark courses within the OU. He is the author of around 50 OU units (50 page monographs with support materials). While at the OU he constructed and delivered, the MA in Design Management at the Royal College of Art (RCA) over the period 1989 –1992.
Publications outside the OU include Managing Innovation Sage (with Jane Henry) and Creativity for Engineers Woodhead (with Barry Dagger).
David has lived and worked for extended periods abroad: in Boston as Research Fellow at the DMI, and in Toulon, Hong Kong, Sydney and Auckland. In Australasia he has co-constructed and variously contributed to post–graduate programmes in Design Management and Innovation. In the UK he was the founder and main editor of the cross disciplinary Journal co–design.
David Walker is working with alt.group NZ to support the Better by Design Campaign which is funded by NZTE the New Zealand equivalent of BERR. Also see their excellent CEO Summit on sustainability: featuring…Michale Braungart, Janine Benyus, Ray Anderson and Alex Steffen.
Check out David Walker’s piece on Sustainable Innovation here on the BBD site.
James Dorrell BSc (Hons)
James has worked for 9 years within the business environmental sector, 5 years of which he specialised in the implementation of Producer Responsibility with large organisations. He graduated with an Environmental degree from the University of Sussex in 1997.
Before joining Giraffe, James was responsible for setting up and managing Valpak’s “Data Solutions” service in 2005. Organisations, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Robert Dyas outsourced the collection, management and processing of packaging data. From set up, more than 150,000 product lines were captured (each of which contains multiple data sets). The data collected included weight and material information and was gathered directly from suppliers using pro-forma spreadsheets. Gap and comparative checks were set up to ensure a high level of data quality. The service has since expanded and includes a specific software tool, also specified by James.
Since joining Giraffe, James has worked on projects and key organisations such as Wrigley’s and Virgin Group. Along with Dr. Sibylle Frey of Giraffe, James set and developed Giraffe’s carbon footprinting tool and works closely with organisations to interpret resultant data into meaningful statistics. He also provides targeted support to many of Giraffe’s clients, setting the context for product stewardship and promoting good environmental practice. Importantly, this includes Giraffe’s key offer of using environmental data to drive eco driven re-design of products, services and packaging.
Mark Dowling BSc (Hons), AIEMA
Mark is former manager at BT Environment Unit with over 21 years relevant experience. He brings a high level of environment design expertise to the Giraffe team but he also has an excellent understanding of the legislative implications of environmental legislation. Mark has represented BT at Government and EU level on much of the producer responsibility legislation.
Mark developed BT’s Eco-design tool and practices and co-developed BT’s Rapid Life Cycle analysis tool. He formerly managed BT’s ISO 14001 Product Stewardship aspects in eco-design and environmental E-learning. Experienced in eco-design, environmental E-learning, environmental economics and cost benefit analysis. Mark was BT’s representative on the following EU Environmental directives:-
- Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment Directive (WEEE)
- Restrictions on use of hazardous substances/materials in Electrical and Electronics Equipment (ROHS)
- Marketing and Use Creosote
- Biocidal Products
- Set BT’s procedures on WEEE and RoHS directives
- EUP- Eco-Design of Energy Using Products Directive
Mark set BT’s procedures on WEEE and RoHS directives and represented BT on numerous British Standards committees including eco design, wood preservation and coating steel.
Mark is on the DEFRA panel for consumer and IT products.
Anna Nilsson BSc (Hons), AIEMA
Anna is a graduate from University of Sussex with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Medicine. Anna’s research at University of Sussex included a dissertation on the role of gene mutations in the diseased ALS.
Anna is a researcher and project manager at Giraffe. She is also responsible for Giraffe’s RoHS testing service and specialises in interpreting lab data into simplified reports for clients on the toxicity of materials and products. She is currently supporting the team’s carbon management offer and is researching the efficiency and delivery of various Carbon Offsetting programmes. Anna has succesfully completed the IEMA Associate Membership course from Bath University, with focus on Environmental Management Systems (EMS). Anna has worked internationally and has excellent language skills, being fluent in Swedish, English and German. She has a good working knowledge of Asian Producer Responsibility legislation (specifically toxicity and eco-design).
Dr. Sibylle Frey BSc (Hons), MSc, Phd
Sibylle has recently joined Giraffe as a permanent member of the team. She has 17 years experience in academic and commercial organisations, and is an expert on ecological and carbon footprinting.
Before joining Giraffe, Sibylle was a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York and involved in the development and application of methods such as material flow analysis, ecological footprint, and carbon footprint assessments for transport, housing, food, and economic sectors. This included the development of carbon emission scenarios for organisations, local authorities, and regions. Recent projects include identifying resource productivity for key economic sectors in the South West region, carbon assessments of the Yorkshire and Humber region, the Leeds City Region housing strategy, and assessing the ecological footprint of Scotland’s diet. She has been author/co-author of several reports for Government, academia and the wider public, and led the Global Footprint Project for the North East of Scotland (funded by WWF and the Scottish Executive).
Sibylle holds a PhD from Brunel University, Faculty of Technology, in the field of industrial ecology and environmental sustainability specialising in ecological footprinting and life cycle assessment (LCA). Her research involved the development of new sustainability indicators for consumer electronics (including the modelling of technological change in products over time; energy and CO2 emission analysis for products, transport and services using LCA and material flow analysis; regression analysis to approximate energy expenditures for rare commodities, and the development of a database for land use requirements). Prior to her PhD, Sibylle worked in the airline industry at senior management level, with responsibility for environmental management and the implementation of quality assurance systems.
Dr. Matthew Ireland BSc (Hons), PhD, CEnv, MIEnvSci, MIAQM
Dr Matthew Ireland is a chartered environmental scientist with over 17 years UK and international project experience. He is fully familiar with best practice environmental assessment techniques. Matthew is one of the UK’s technical leaders in air quality assessment. He has presented evidence as an expert witness to planning committees, at Public Inquiry and to House of Commons Select Committee. Matthew has recently worked on a project to produce a carbon assessment of London’s “CrossRail” project.
Matthew’s doctorate research included the development of tools to assess greenhouse gas emissions in the context of regional planning of economic, transport and housing development.
Terry Robins
Terry is a world leading Packaging Technologist. He is former head of packaging technology at Sainsbury’s – one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains. Terry specialises in packaging design advice with over 30 years experience and is also a world renowed expert on biodegradable materials. He recently chaired the committee that wrote The British Retail Consortium/Institute of Packaging (IoP) Technical Standard. He recently retired from his position of Chief Operating Officer of Stanelco plc (which followed his assistance with the invention and development of a system of welding packaging using Radio Frequency Power source).
Terry is a associate consultant with Giraffe and he is currently working with Giraffe, leading a number of projects on packaging design projects and biodegradables both in packaging and product design. Terry is a Board Director of the Institute of Packaging.
Dr Nick Jones BSc (Hons), Phd
Nick is an Industrial Designer and Development Engineer with a PhD in Active Disassembly using Smart Materials. Nick is an associate consultant with Giraffe and has worked on many Giraffe design projects. Nick formerly worked in the Dyson design team on the DC01.
Nick focuses on achieving resource efficiencies through Design for Assembly (DfA), Design for Manufacture (DfM), and Design for Disassembly (DfD) principles. Recent clients have included large international industrial process equipment manufaturers, consumer electrical product manufacturers through to toy manufacturers. Productionised solutions are delivered by close supplier relationships involving the in-house procurement and quality teams. Nick also advises on the implementation of Environment Management Systems (EMS) and is a member of the ISO 14001 Green Systems Initiative (GSI).
Claire Carter BSc (Hons) MSc
Claire is a recent graduate with an MSc in Sustainable Development from the University of Surrey. For her dissertation she applied life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to compare the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of egg packaging made from three different types of materials. The study was commissioned by a major UK egg packing company to aid their decision making as to the material type with the lowest global warming potential.
Prior to her MSc Claire has 15 years experience as a part qualified actuary in the pensions sector under various guises; consultant, software trainer, account and project manager. Her expertise in project management is recognised by her qualification as Prince2 Practitioner.
Changing Habbits Launch Event 1st Oct 2009 at City Hall
South-East Carbon Footprinting & Sustainable Design workshop
