Fast-growing Bristol-based international environmental consultancy Eunomia Research & Consulting has appointed David Baxter as its head of natural economy and recruited five new consultants to meet growing demand for its services.
David, pictured, previously led the environmental practice within London-based consultancy Indepen, following 10 years in high-profile roles at the Environment Agency, including as executive lead on the water framework directive. 
He has more than 20 years’ experience of integrated water management and environmental regulation, including policy development at UK and European levels.
David joins Eunomia’s policy team, which applies expertise in policy design and research for governments, NGOs and private companies around the world.
He will contribute to a portfolio of work already underway at Eunomia, including the Natural Capital Trust project in collaboration with the West of England Nature Partnership (WENP) and a new project that will offer the first insight into what role the water industry might play in post-Brexit agriculture policies.
Sponsored by Southwest Water, Wessex Water and Anglian Water, this project, delivered in partnership with the WWF (the World-Wide Fund for Nature), reviews the impacts of future agriculture policy scenarios on water industry catchment management schemes.
David said: “Eunomia is not your standard environmental consultancy. I came to work for an organisation that tackles wicked problems and shows that innovative environmental thinking is at the heart of smart business. I have not been disappointed.”
Eunomia has also appointed trainee consultant Alice Thomson to work alongside its head of natural economy. Alice, who holds a first-class degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, joins from the University of Edinburgh’s rum red deer project, and prior to that, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Eunomia founder and chairman Dominic Hogg said: “The argument – that we have degraded the natural environment to a degree that makes no sense – has largely been won. The challenge is how we formulate institutions and policies to deliver the outcomes that we’re seeking.
“There’s a great opportunity to re-think our approach as we consider how the UK should look post-Brexit, but we shouldn’t be waiting until then to set in chain changes that we can make today, for example, in the planning process.
“Eunomia is known for thinking creatively about policies and incentives, and these recruitments will help us to advance ideas we’re already developing to enhance the natural environment.”
The consultancy’s waste operations team, which handles projects for British local authorities and European municipalities, has appointed Jade Kelly, Emma Fletcher and Dominique Sandy as junior consultants and Tanguey Tomes as a trainee modeller.
Eunomia employs more than 70 people in six offices around the world – the latest in New York opened last month – working in areas such as waste management, environmental economics and policy, marine planning and natural capital and ecosystem services.
