Author

Rachel Brown, ONZM is Founder & CEO, Sustainable Business Network Inc 2002 (SBN). Rachel has played a critical role in advancing sustainability for more than 20 years. The network includes approximately 600 members and represents a range of organisation sizes and sectors. SBN runs the largest national sustainable business awards programme and a successful series of business events across the country. Rachel’s work has seen the introduction to SBN of critical transformation areas in which New Zealand can lead the world. She has overseen the creation of systemic collaboration projects including: Million Metres Streams (a crowd funding platform linking donors to community waterway restoration projects); The Circular Economy Accelerator; and the Now Crowd. With her team they focus on capability building in the areas of sustainable business leadership; procurement; smart transport; restorative food; tourism; and the circular economy. Rachel sits on government panels to inform on policy leavers, or signals, which support the transition to low carbon economy. She currently sits on the Board of the Small Business Council; WWF New Zealand, on the Reference panel for the Green Investment Fund and is on the business advisory panel for All of Government Procurement. In 2009 Rachel was personally trained by Al Gore to present The Inconvenient Truth (part of the global climate change education programme). In 2012 she was invited by Al Gore to join an elite group of international presenters to be part of the Climate Reality Project broadcast. The broadcast reached over 3 million people across the globe. As a regular presenter, collaborator, investor and driver of action within NZ communities, Rachel is committed to the role business plays in supercharging and transforming NZ’s economy into one that is smarter and more sustainable. In 2018 Rachel was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for years of service to sustainable business.