Sustainability and resilience - What we can learn from Covid-19?
Marina Goodyear looks at the importance of resilience theory in helping us find a sustainable way out of the pandemic and into a better future
Marina Goodyear
Senior Technical Consultant
I work on research, monitoring and writing to help our partners understand how to make their business, new development or city the most sustainable it can be
My focus is on our sustainable places work with developers and local authorities. With property developers, this involves sustainability action planning for major new urban developments in the UK and Ireland, using extensive contextual analysis for each project. With local authorities, I help develop better planning policy to create low-resource, low- and zero-carbon districts. This ranges from reviews of existing local plans with an eye on carbon, climate and biodiversity, through to producing evidence and guidance on which entirely new policy can be designed.
Alongside this, I’ve also been part of the team co-ordinating Bioregional’s One Planet Cities project since 2018; writing guidance documents, organising international peer-networking webinars, gathering ecological footprint data for Oxfordshire and identifying indicators to track change, as well as helping design research to understand local authorities’ support needs.
I am also involved in some of our sustainable business work, including research into sustainable products and materials (and monitoring sales of these) for our retail client Kingfisher.
Before Bioregional
In 2016 I gained a distinction in MSc Environment & Sustainable Development at UCL. My thesis explored the role of urban agriculture in making cities more resource-efficient and more socially just. My department then invited me to help put together a £7m research proposal on urban inequalities which was successfully funded by the GCRF.
Before my MSc, I spent two months on an eco-agriculture farm in Belize, getting hands-on with regenerative agroforestry.
When I'm not working
I may be found buried in a book, attempting to dance at gigs, exploring local parks, or advocating furiously online for better urban cycling infrastructure.
When will Earth Overshoot Day fall this year? Let’s halt its advance
In 2017, Earth Overshoot Day occurred on 2 August, the earliest it’s ever been. Marina Goodyear looks at its steady advance into the year, and how we can apply the brakes.