Herbert Girardet

Herbert Girardet was born in 1943 in Essen, Germany,^[1] the son of a publishing executive. After reading history at Tübingen and Berlin universities, he moved to London in 1964 and embraced the nascent counterculture then taking hold there: the literary editor Diana Athill, who knew him during this time, described him in her memoir Make Believe as "the drop-out son of a rich German family... deep in the process of discovering his own loathing of capitalism, violence, and racism."^[2]

In 1971, as a community worker in Notting Hill Gate, Girardet befriended the US Black Power activist Hakim Jamal, a published author. They decided to join forces to set up a commune and a publishing enterprise 'The First Caribbean Publishing Company'^[3] for producing educational materials on black history and emancipation in Georgetown, Guyana. But this project quickly foundered amid the chaos caused by Jamal's mental instability.^[4][5] Arriving back in London soon afterwards, Girardet returned to academia and received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and economics from the London School of Economics in 1975.^[6]

Since then, Girardet has worked as a cultural and urban ecologist – as a writer, filmmaker, lecturer and international consultant – specialising in 'regenerative development'. He is the author and co-author of 14 books and reports, and 50 TV documentaries primarily concerned with the interaction between a global civilisation and the world’s environment. He is a recipient of a UN Global 500 award for outstanding environmental services. He has written in publications such as Resurgence, The Ecologist, Green Futures, Urban Futures, Habitat Debate, The Guardian, The Independent and The Observer.^{[citation needed]}

He is co-founder and honorary member of the World Future Council,^[7] and a full member of the Club of Rome.^[8] He has been a consultant to UN Habitat and UNEP, and to cities such as London, Vienna, Riyadh and Bristol.^[9] As inaugural 'thinker in residence', he developed a green development strategy for Adelaide which has been fully implemented.^[8] He is an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects,^[10] and a visiting professor at the University of the West of England.^[9]

He is married with two grown-up sons and lives with his wife Barbara in Tintern, Monmouthshire.

• Creating Regenerative Cities: How we can develop a regenerative relationship between our cities and planet earth; Routledge, 2015.
• A Renewable World: Alternative energy systems and how they can help us create a viable and equitable future; Green Books, 2009.
• Cities, People, Planet: Learning from urban history to enhance the relationship between urban people and our home planet; Wiley, 2004 and 2008.
• Surviving The Century: 12 authors write about how we might evade the collision course between ourselves and our own future; Routledge, 2008.
• Creating The World Future Council: The booklet which launched a new international NGO – the World Future Council; Green Books, 2005.
• Creating A Sustainable Adelaide: Report on practical policies for creating a green new deal for Adelaide and South Australia, 2003.
• The Peoples’ Planet: Based on a six-part television series produced by NHK, Tokyo, and CNN; published only in Japanese by NHK, 2000.
• 'Creating Sustainable Cities: Cities are wasteful superorganisms that need a better understanding of how to develop a circular metabolism; Green Books, 1999.
• Making Cities Work: Organisational challenges and practicalities of creating a sustainable world of cities; Earthscan 1996.
• The Gaia Atlas Of Cities: New directions for sustainable urban living, in theory and practice; Gaia Books, 1992 and 1996.
• Earthrise: How we are affecting the biosphere, and how we can try to get out of the mess we have been making; Paladin, 1992.
• Blueprint For A Green Planet: Practical day-today action to fight pollution and to live sustainably; Dorling Kindersley, 1987.
• Far From Paradise: A history of human impacts on the environment, based on a seven-part television series: BBC Publications, 1986.
• Land For The People: At a time of economic uncertainty, we need a new balance between urban and rural living; Crescent Books, 1976.

Nine of these books have been published in various foreign-language editions.