Richard's life in pictures

Born in to a family of five brothers in 1946, Richard soon learnt the tactic of self-deprecation as a way of attracting attention and charming others.

He cemented his love for nature during his schooling at Dauntsey’s in Wiltshire, where students took part in everything from bee keeping to potato digging.

His brother Martin’s early memory of him is with a butterfly net: ‘Every time we went anywhere for a picnic he would climb into a stream and start looking for caddisfly larvae.’

Find out about the school's Richard Sandbrook Award

While studying Biology at the University of East Anglia, Richard became the first President of the students' union, demonstrating his promise as a champion of causes. It was also here that he met his future wife, Mary Wray.

His time as President (1967-8) coincided with student unrest across Europe and he had to manage difficult situations, including a royal visit to the university when a blazing Union Jack was thrown at Princess Margaret.

After university Richard trained as an accountant at Arthur Andersen – an experience that would later help him engage confidently with big businesses in a professional arena, in a way that few environmentalists could.

As part of a three-man outfit in a small London office, Richard helped orchestrate numerous campaigns that challenged the complacency of the establishment and reaped a successful haul of column inches for the young organisation throughout the 1970s.

One early coup saw a lorry load of bottles dumped on the doorstep of Schweppes, which was neglecting to recycle. Taking off the company’s slogan, Friends of the Earth created posters showing mountains of broken bottles next to the words ‘Don’t Schhh** on Britain’.

See how Friends of the Earth has developed

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) was to become Richard’s campaigning home for the next few decades, where he eventually became Executive Director.

IIED not only pioneered a joined-up approach to environmental and development issues, but took the position that engaging with industry was paramount to progress.

Richard’s strong views on this saw the first in-depth study of the environmental and social impact of the paper industry published in 1996, Towards a Sustainable Paper Cycle.

See what IIED has achieved

At IIED Richard contributed to the publication which first brought the term ‘sustainable development’ into the public sphere. The 1980 World Conservation Strategy report, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was one of the earliest global blueprints for the conservation of Earth’s living resources.

The concept of sustainable development would go on to enter the global discourse in 1987, when the famous Brundtland Report came out – which Richard also helped to draft.

Check out the World Conservation Strategy

For many years Richard advised the Prince of Wales, who enjoyed his ability to puncture people’s pomposity and marshal ideas into a strong case for action.

An advisor for several governments, the UN and the World Bank, he also provided independent advice to a large range of companies in the extractive sector, including Shell, BP, Dow Chemicals and Rio Tinto.

In a more rock ‘n’ roll position, he also helped Bob Geldof plan how best to spend the Band Aid money.

In 1990 Richard was awarded an OBE for services to the environment.

Richard reminded NGOs not to take their eye off the ball, even when high-profile negotiations such as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit promised so much.

After all, Rio took place 20 years after the 1972 Earth Summit with no real let up in the rate of environmental degradation, and slow progress on human development. What was going to be different this time, he asked.

Writing in the Guardian several months after the event, Richard said: ‘the priority now is to construct positive incentives for industry, households, communities, local governments and so on, enabling them to do a better job’.

Find out about the 1992 UN Earth Summit

Richard took on several roles at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global environmental network that now incorporates over 1,000 government and NGO member organisations across more than 160 countries.

There, he made substantial contributions to the organisation’s good governance and played a pivotal role in the redesign of the IUCN's overall plan of action to address global issues and incorporate national level priorities.

Read more about IUCN

At the Rio Earth Summit Richard met the CEO of a global paper company who was genuinely concerned about his industry’s impact on the environment. This affirmed Richard’s belief that business could be mobilised and that NGOs had to rethink their strategies in order to be influential.

He set about talking to people within the movement who could make this happen. Consequently, two new organisations were born: Real World and Forum for the Future, the latter of which continues to work on solutions to ‘unsustainability’, in partnership with government, business and the public sector, today.

See how Forum for the Future has developed

Plantlife International, the UK-based NGO with a mission to conserve wild plants, appealed to Richard’s love of wild flowers and the English countryside. He had 40 varieties of wild geranium alone in his garden (pictured).

Serving on the board for just under a decade, Richard was instrumental in Plantlife’s strategic development and international expansion. For the staff, Richard’s gift was an absolute belief in their work combined with his constant challenge to them to place it within the wider environmental context.

See how Plantlife has grown

As a non-executive director of Cornwall’s Eden Project, Richard did much to shape its development during its construction and early years.

Tim Smit, co-founder of the Eden Project, describes him as hugely influential in building the character of Eden: 'Richard was very good at helping us to define the governance of Eden and create strong working teams based on what we were for, what we were against and what we didn’t actually have a view on at all!'

See how Eden has grown up during its first decade

Richard took the helm of an IIED project on mining, minerals and sustainable development. The role involved getting mining company leaders to engage in dialogue with their traditional critics on how the industry could improve its sustainability performance.

While some of his friends saw this as consorting with the enemy, Richard believed it would be more productive than adversarial campaigning. Former CEO of Rio Tinto Sir Robert Wilson says Richard was central in achieving ‘a step-change in the understanding and awareness of environmental and community issues in most major mining companies'.

Find out about the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development project

Richard’s understanding of the importance in connecting sectors extended beyond finding common ground between environmental organisations and industry.

In 2000 Richard co-founded Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, an initiative that helped tackle environmental and social issues through new business initiatives. The project brought clean water and proper sanitation to 10 million people over five years. WSUP Chair Will Day says: ‘The penny started to drop that the distinctions between ‘social’ and ‘environmental’ movements were not useful. And Richard got there before a lot of people.’

Find out about WSUP

Richard had a profound understanding of the interconnectedness of sustainable development, and the need for collaboration to make it a reality. His philosophical side knew that this ‘project’ would take decades not days; the activist in him knew that delay would make it more difficult.

Death would not be the end of his efforts: with his eyes twinkling, he charged his colleagues to carry on, and not to forget to help the next generation of campaigners to see the world as he did. As he said, ‘There is only so much energy in one lifetime; you have to use it to best effect.’

Read Richard’s obituaries

The Richard Sandbrook Trust was founded in 2009 to enable others to stand on the shoulders of Richard’s inspiration and experience.

Richard’s initial optimism in the international process had faded after the 1992 Earth Summit: ‘Was there really an honest attempt to face up to the realities surrounding the environment and development issues?’ he asked in 1997.

Yet he was greatly cheered by the new generation of campaigners. Regretful that his generation had left them much to do, he was also filled with confidence by their impatience at the slowness of change, and by their passion.

Meet the students following in Richard’s footsteps