Pooran Desai

Pooran is Co-Founder of Bioregional and International Director of One Planet Communities.

He has worked on Bioregional projects and enterprises in sustainable forestry (woodland management and products), farming (reviving the lavender industry of south London), recycling (converting tree surgery waste into biomass for energy) and real estate development. 

In 1997 Pooran initiated the BedZED project, which led him to create the Z-squared (Zero Carbon Zero Waste) and One Planet Living concepts. Also, he developed an idea for a zero carbon zero waste sportscar which runs on waste cooking oil.

He has since worked to implement these concepts in projects around the world, leading teams which have written sustainability strategies for over $30 billion of real estate development.  

Desai was voted in the UK’s top five most influential people in construction for the decade in 2010, received a 2009 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and a World Economic Forum 2011 Schwab Award as European Social Entrepreneur of the Year.