By SUE WHITE
Wayne Wescott has been working in the environmental movement well before formal training in sustainability was the norm.
"In my mid 20s I worked for Friends of the Earth, and also volunteered. I learned many of my skills by talking to various political parties about recycling, in the days it was seen as weird," he says.
Today, overseeing a staff of 11 at the not-for-profit carbon offsetter, he still involved in education, engaging 38,000 supporters and 320 plus corporates about Greenfleet's work while continually innovating.
"People think innovation [mostly] happens in the private sector, but in fact, a lot of those companies play it safe. In the not-for-profit sector there are tight resources and smart people involved - the best not-for-profits are very innovative," he says.
To get there, Wescott focuses on hiring fast learners.
"I don't care how many degrees they have, but I'm interested in people's capacity to learn quickly. We can fail once - that probably means we're trying something new, which is important. But failing twice means we haven't learned," he says.
Although he doesn't have a share price to drive Greenfleet's mission, the values at stake are often very useful as a boss.
"A lot of us want to feel we're part of something bigger: if we can feel that, it's a powerful way of motivating people. It's my job to provide that inspiration," he says.