George has taken an unexpected route from studying Chinese at the University of Edinburgh to fighting for a fairer and greener future. Drawing on the skills and experiences he gained during his degree, he now helps drive campaigns and strategies that push companies towards genuine environmental responsibility.

Name: George Harding-Rolls

Degree course: MA Chinese Studies

Year of graduation: 2015

At the moment

What is your current role, and how did you get there?

I work as Head of Campaigns at Action Speaks Louder, an Australian renewable energy campaign group which works to hold companies accountable for the climate change promises. I also advise Impatience Earth – a climate philanthropy advisory – on strategic communications and advocacy as an associate.

Over the past 12 years, my career has woven through the non-profit and purpose-driven business sectors – running campaigns, investigations, and movement-building across plastics, fashion, renewable energy, greenwashing, and food. A turning point came in 2019 during the Extinction Rebellion movement and growing awareness of the climate crisis. I had spent several years in sustainability, mostly helping purpose-driven businesses make incremental improvements at international non-profit, Forum for the Future, in London and philanthropy advisory, Charitarian, in Beijing. In 2019 the urgency of that moment pushed me toward a braver, more confrontational approach. That shift led me to join the Changing Markets Foundation, a Dutch campaigns and investigations non-governmental organisation (NGO). Since then, my work has focused on corporate accountability, working with several campaigning organisations to spark greater climate ambition and real change from major companies.

What inspired your interest in this field?

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges human civilisation has ever faced, and we are only just beginning to see the complex and interconnected crises it poses. From a young age I had a passion for the natural world and the protection of the systems which provide for us and help us to thrive. My time at the University of Edinburgh convinced me that there could be no greater contribution I could make to society than to work, even in the smallest of ways, to tackle some of the greatest problems we face in climate change. We have a long way to go, pushing against powerful vested interests and political forces, but every fraction of a degree of warming matters.

Career journey

What were some key milestones in your career journey?

• Working for Jellyfish (leading digital marketing agency) pre-university as their youngest employee.
• Joining FreshSight (student-led pro-bono consultancy) in my 2nd year.
• Getting a British Council and Yenching Scholarship to Peking University, this allowed me to intern with an international development lawyer from DLA Piper, a global law firm in Beijing.
• Running the TEDxUniversityofEdinburgh 2015 conference and inaugural Student Speaker Choice Awards.
• Participating at Forum for the Future working with clients such as the UN, Unilever, the Crown Estate and M&S.
• Joining the Changing Markets Foundation in 2019, getting the chance to lead campaigns on plastics, fashion and greenwashing, including dressing up as a washing-machine to try and gate-crash London Fashion Week.
• Appearing on the BBC One Show on fashion greenwashing, giving keynote speeches, lectures and being on panels discussing climate and sustainability across Europe, Asia and the US, addressing MEPs at the European Parliament on sustainable product legislation, and speaking on panels at COP27 and COP29.
• The various investigations into corporate sustainability which have featured prominently in the media and helped to strengthen corporate commitments to tackling climate change, most recently uncovering hidden emitters in the chemicals sector, and unpicking the murky world of the second-hand clothing trade.

How did your time at the University shape your professional path?

Beijing in 2013 and 2014 felt like a fulcrum moment in China’s transition towards becoming the renewable energy leader and modern state we see today. Living there learning Chinese at Peking University as part of my year abroad I felt close to both the stark reality of what is at stake from climate change, and the huge potential to address those challenges and build a better world.

From this moment I knew that working to navigate, mitigate and adapt to climate change would need to define my career one way or another. Luckily, the University of Edinburgh allowed me to both pursue an area of study which fascinated me, and engage in activities outside of the course. Working for pro-bono student-led consultancy, FreshSight, in its early years was very formative for my ideas around social purpose and change. I was also part of the team behind TEDxUniversityofEdinburgh – and it was here I met clean energy entrepreneur Assaad Razzouk who we invited to give a talk about climate change. He was my first true point of contact with the climate world and the initial stepping stone to eventually getting a foothold in the movement. Thanks to the extra-curricular activities and achievements I could take on at Edinburgh, including getting the Edinburgh Award for Social Innovation and the Sustainability Awards’ Outreach Award, I was able to convince Forum for the Future to take me on in 2015.

Can you share a standout achievement or moment you’re proud of?

Between 2021-2023 I was running two campaigns for the Changing Markets Foundation on greenwashing, exposing the flimsy and unsubstantiated green claims which had started to flood the market, and on fashion, highlighting how plastic had infiltrated fast fashion. The campaigns struck a chord and resulted in a whirlwind a few years of constant media appearances, coverage, podcasts and speaking events. The pinch-me moments were being on the BBC One Show, Swedish and Turkish TV, speaking in front of hundreds of people at Copenhagen Royal Opera House, and being in panels at COP27 and COP29. Our campaigns were very successful at shifting policymakers’ stances during the Green Claims Directive debates in the EU, and in moving the debate around synthetic fibres from the footnotes to the headlines for every fashion brand. We even secured time-bound commitments from several brands to phase down their usage of plastic in clothes.

Industry insights

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities in your field right now?

For decades society’s approach to sustainability has broadly been voluntary in nature, which is to say that whether a company acts to reduce its environmental and social impact has been down to choice rather than necessity. Through time, awareness and pressure from concerned scientists and citizens, the pendulum swung towards enshrining climate action into law. However, the continuous campaign of delay, distract, derail by vested interests such as the fossil fuel industry has fought to push the pendulum back the other way again, successfully gutting or watering down much of the policy progress that had been made.

Until it is mandatory to disclose and reduce emissions, and lessen impact in other ways be it plastic and chemical pollution or supply chain human rights, action will be subject to the discretion and inevitable backsliding of shareholder-driven corporate interests. Strong political will on climate is both what is sorely needed, and what has become sorely lacking in recent years.

What trends or innovations are shaping the future of your industry?

The rise and rise of renewable energy continues to defy even the most optimistic of predictions. What remains concerning is how entrenched fossil fuel reliance continues to be, with most assessments suggesting that renewables are mostly providing additional energy for growing demand, rather than replacing fossil fuels. Until we can fully realise the potential of energy storage so that renewable energy can be available around the clock, the intermittency of renewables will be a weakness. Luckily, huge progress is being made on this front.

Another area of growing interest, from a technological and political standpoint, is electrification. The abundance of renewable energy is only useful for reducing emissions if the infrastructure of industry, transport and heating is electrified. While most are familiar with electric vehicles, and maybe even domestic heat pumps, we need to see much more uptake of technologies like industrial heat pumps and electric boilers across sectors.

Alumni wisdom

What do you wish you had known at the start of your career?

I was itching to get working after graduating, and had worked both before and during my time as a student. I wish I’d known it’s not a race or a competition, even though it may seem that way at the time. Careers are squiggly, non-linear adventures that should last decades and span a variety of disciplines and experiences. Taking a sideways step to skill-up in a different area, or try something new, should always feel like an option on the table.

What advice would you give to students or alumni looking to enter your field?

• Don’t wait until you’ve graduated to get started, seek out any opportunity outside of your studies to expand your experience and network.
• You’re unlikely to see NGOs at career fairs doing the milk-round, but a career in the non-profit sector is incredibly rewarding and purposeful. Reputable and well-funded NGOs pay good salaries and have lots of opportunities for travel and skills growth.
• What the movement needs most is those who understand power structures and communication – sharpen these skills to stand out.

Are there any books, podcasts, or resources that have influenced you?

• This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein. I remember having an epiphany on a train reading this during the Paris Agreement at COP15 – I knew I had to work in this field.
• Growth: A reckoning by Daniel Susskind. Our relentless pursuit of growth is blamed on overconsumption and overproduction. This book takes an evenhanded approach to both sides of the argument, and reimagines what we can ask of the economy. Less is More by Jason Hickel and Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth are also foundational resources for this.
• No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age by Jane McAlevey, which is useful for understanding power dynamics and influence in campaigning. Likewise Blueprint for a Revolution by Srđa Popović to get the tactical creative juices flowing.
• The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson for a glimpse into the future of climate action. My time at Forum for the Future was very instructive on the importance of “futures” for creating a collective vision and ambition.
• Podcasts to understand the net-zero transition: Catalyst and Zero by Bloomberg Green as well as Planet Pod.

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