How old are you?
34
What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
I set up and run ECOutlet so I work for myself.
How long have been doing this?
About 18 months now
What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
We source and sell eco-friendly products designed to help people lead a more environmentally responsible lifestyle.
What’s the best bit about your job?
Being the boss, hearing back from happy customers and taking part in eco fairs and exhibitions. It’s nice to break free from the computer every now and again.
What’s the worst thing?
Too much to do and not enough time to do it. Products which don’t live up to expectations, it’s disappointing for us and the customers and tarnishes the whole eco friendly concept.
What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Challenging, exciting, busy and very rewarding.
What were you doing before this?
My last full time job prior to forming the company was as an Environmental assistant in the Department of Health.
What was your very first full-time job?
Barman in a nightclub in Belfast
What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
It’s quiet scary giving up a regular salary to embark on your own business so the best advice I could give anyone thinking about setting up on their own is to research as much as possible and gain as much experience as possible in their chosen field prior to taking the plunge.
Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
We have quiet a few ideas for next year but nothing as yet is set in stone so I can’t share I’m afraid.
What do you do to relax?
Red wine, movies, weekends on my bike going around London, walking, good food at home and eating out, listening to my itunes.
Who do you live with?
My partner
Whereabouts do you live?
Archway, North London
If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Form a task force to implement large scale renewable energies sufficient in size to meet the UK’s future power supplies. I’d probably have a cabinet re-shuffle too and install lots more women into cabinet positions.
As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Sadly I think it will still probably be cars but more fuel efficient ones. I’d love to think it might be bicycles. I cycle everywhere and love it. We really need something like the Velib system in Paris introduced into UK cities soon. If our cities and towns were more bike-friendly and bicycles were more freely available a lot more people would feel confident commuting on two wheels. Going back to the earlier question if I was Prime Minister I’d make Fridays car-free days so everyone would have to walk or cycle everywhere.
Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
If I had to pick on one carbon misdemeanour I’d say the main one is actually flying home to Ireland 2 or 3 times a year to visit family for the weekend. The train/boat option from London to Dublin takes so long in comparison and because I’m needed here 5 days a week it’s just not a viable option for me at the moment as it takes a whole day to get there overland. I have cut down considerably on all other flights though and not taken any for two years now.
What have you done that you were most proud of?
Taking ECOutlet from an idea in my head to where it’s at now is pretty high up there but I’m just happy and proud to be doing something I enjoy and feel is worthwhile.
What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Probably overpopulation. I find it difficult to fathom how the planet and it’s resources will be able to cope with an increased population of another 2 billion in the next 25 years and then however many after that. We’re already over-exploiting all the natural resources we have available to us, rainforests, fish stocks, oil reserves….. almost everything on the planet apart from the human race seems to be in decline. The human population is expected to increase by 80 million a year from here on in, so how the planet can possibly sustain those figures is the scariest and most neglected issue facing the world at large in my opinion.
Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
No one particular person stands out for me but I admire people involved in conservation, particularly wildlife conservation. It’s a challenging job and often not particularly well paid but obviously very important.
What’s your website address?
www.ecoutlet.co.uk
What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.planetark.org
www.treehugger.com
www.smartplanet.com
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