Our Steering Group
The most recent steering group member, Cameron Adams retired from the Environment Agency (EA) in December 2023 where he was an Account Manager working in the EA's Anglian Area. In this strategic role he promoted a wide range of sustainability-related issues (e.g. climate change mitigation and adaptation, water, biodiversity, natural capital and ecosystem services, energy and resource efficiency) by engaging with local authorities, water companies, developers, and various strategic partnerships (Natural Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire Local Nature Partnerships, Water Resource East) and environmental NGOs. During this time at the EA, Cameron undertook secondments with (the then) Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's Climate Adaptation Team which produced the department's first National Adaptation Plan and, more recently, at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority where he sat on the Mayoral Climate Group.
Previously, Cameron was Principal Sustainability Officer at South Cambridgeshire District Council where he prepared the council's Climate Plan as part of an EU Funded Climate Menu Programme working with other European local authorities; he also worked in academia and for various environmental NGOs. He is a member of the U3AC’s Environment Group.
Founder-member Tony Booth is an educationalist and environmental activist. He taught and researched in Universities for more than forty years. His approach to school development led by inclusive values has been translated into more than fifty languages. He has developed a curriculum for schools based around shared human needs and activity and harmony with the natural world. He has been a trustee of the Green Light Trust and the Children’s Legal Centre. He is currently supporting a Council of Europe project to reduce discrimination in education against Roma in Eastern European countries.
Founder-member Susan Buckingham is an environmental writer, researcher and consultant specialising in the social - particularly gendered - impacts of environmental problems. Susan worked in universities for over 30 years and has advised UN and EU bodies on the relevance of gender to environmental policy and planning. She was a trustee and later Chair of the Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) from 2000 to 2012. She continues to work with the EU on waste elimination projects. Her most recent book (open access) – Feminist Climate Policy in Industrialised States. A Gender-Just Climate Response explores how a radically different form of climate policy making is needed, and is possible. Susan's book Ecofeminism. The Basics will be published in December 2026.
Founder-member Wendy Blythe first became involved in Cambridge civic issues after she was told that there wasn’t the mentality for landscaping a local cycleway project, nor any interest in funding it. She is now chair of the Federation of Cambridge Residents' Associations. She has worked in publishing in the UK, East Africa and the Caribbean as an educational and children’s book publisher. Some of her books were nominated for the Kate Greenaway award and her authors included Michael Rosen. She is a member of CPRE and passionate about small worlds: landscape and community, the subject of her MA research, which explored the nature of belonging and loss via the work of the landscape architect and town planner, Clough Williams-Ellis. Her own itinerant childhood was split between North Wales and West Africa. If ever she were to write something about that belonging and loss, she would call it “Swimming Home”.
Founder-member Jean Glasberg is chair of her local residents' association and on the committee of FeCRA (Federation of Cambridge Residents' Associations). She is a Green Party City Councillor for Newnham Ward. As a Labour Councillor years ago, Jean was involved in introducing air-pollution monitoring to the city as Chair of the Environmental Health Committee. A member of CPRE and a strong supporter of other local environmental groups, she says, ‘The river is the heart of our city, and we need to protect it from the damage caused by pollution and unsustainable growth.'
Alan James is the current Chairman of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). Alan, who is a Chartered Environmentalist, has a professional background which includes supplying Environmental Management Software to industry. He has lived in Cambridgeshire for over forty years. Since moving to the Fens nearly seventeen years ago, he has become involved in several campaigns to preserve the special landscape and natural heritage of the area.
Founder-member Ian Ralls has been an environmental activist for over 30 years and a member of Cambridge Friends of the Earth since 1997. He represents Friends of the Earth on several national and international bodies, discussing energy issues (principally nuclear power and renewable energy) with government agencies and has participated in research into the pollution of aquatic and terrestrial environments by heavy metals.Ian has lived in Cambridgeshire for over 40 years and notes, with concern, some of the less than positive changes that the region has undergone in order to satisfy the fantasy of perpetual economic growth.