Rachel Cooper is a Senior Climate Change Policy Advisor for The Ministry for the Environment as well as a self-employed Business Sustainability Advisor. With a background in climate change science and circular economics, Rachel supports people and organisations in measuring and understanding the environmental impact of their activities. Thereby she enables her clients to take steps towards their sustainability goals. Previously, Rachel worked as a Climate Change Policy Advisor at The Ministry for Primary Industries developing national emissions reduction policies. She established and led an ‘Innovation and Practice Change’ work programme to reduce agricultural emissions.
Rachel is an alumnus of the Homeward Bound Leadership Programme for women in science which involved a year of study and one month of intensive training in Antarctica. Rachel is also an alumni of the Ellen McArthur Foundation’s ‘From Linear to Circular’ programme which teaches professionals how to apply circular economic theory to change business practices.Rachel is a qualified ski instructor based in Wānaka and is passionate about protecting the natural environments from the effects of climate change.