David Elliott is Chief Executive at Trees for Cities, having previously cleared landmines around the world. Trees for Cities is the only UK charity working at a national and international scale to improve lives by planting trees in cities. David has overall leadership responsibility for the organisation. He has worked in the non-profit sector for a number of international organisations, prior to which he was a management consultant.
He is a Commissioner for the London Sustainable Development Commission, a Trustee for the African Conservation Foundation and previously for the International Tree Foundation.
He holds BSc degrees in Biological Sciences from Edinburgh University and Politics & International Relations from LSE, and an MBA from Cambridge University.

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SHOW NOTES

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• https://www.treesforcities.org/
• After uni began working for big corporations because he didn't really know which direction he wanted his career to go. He just fell into it.
• There's not always a grand career plan for people. Need to test the water a bit.
• What I really wanted to do was travel, explore, and break out of the city.
• Clearing landmines with the HALO Trust - https://www.halotrust.org/
• Moved to Cambodia
• Turned down corporate career ladder to go and clear landmines. Quite an extreme change!
• Famiy were a little concerned. Friends not so surprised. 
• Good for young people to chop and change, try things out to work what the right path was.
• I had no qualifications whatsoever to clear landmines. The main qualification was the desire.
• Straight in at the deep end, learning to clear mines.
• It was one of the most amazing, grounding experiences of my life
• Cambodia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Guinnea Bissau, Liberia
• The first time you dig up a landmine is terrifying - like anything in life the first one is hard. You come to realise that the greatest fear is fear itself
• You get a one-metre lane to clear - first mine took about 5 hours to do
• MBA at Cambridge
• Landmine clearing, management consultancy and MBA all combine to really help with the role of CEO at Trees for Cities. You draw on them all in very different ways
• Non-linear career - everything is useful. Variety is not something to be embarrassed about.
• http://www.100yearlife.com/
• Trees for Cities is a charity that originally began by hosting parties then planting trees. The founders were DJs, so they put on parties for their friends and then planted trees
• National charity with some international projects
• The least green areas often overlap with social deprivation.
• Initially people liked trees for the aesthetics, but they are vital for carbon storing, trees absorb heat, provide shade, prevent flooding, filter pollutants.
• Green space is vital to the infrastructure of cities, and integral to the design of cities
• TfC have planted a million trees
• Not so much about lots of trees, but finding the most effective place to plant trees in cities
• Tree planting is not always right - you don't want to convert peat bogs to forest, for example. 
• Even a single tree planted strategically in a city can have hundreds of years of benefits for that community, to be engaged and care for it.
• The benefits on air quality and aesthetics.
• Trees get people outdoors and experiencing the outdoors, to get them engaged, loving and cherishing the outdoors
• Nature is thought of as a rural thing, but 80% of us live in cities so we need to make this available on our doorsteps
• COVID has shown the importance of local green spaces
• Many urban green spaces are poor quality - just muddy grass. 
• Green Recovery in the UK - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-commits-350-million-to-fuel-green-recovery
• Many local authorities are really trying to make positive changes
• GB is one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet
• We need to think more radically about transforming our environment
• There are a lot of under-used green spaces. Sections of society don't use them at all. Make them safer, greener, healthier
• Green belt is mostly farmland. It can be used better for nature and for people to use. 
• We have crazy rules about wild camping in Britain - we do so much to stop people enjoying the outdoors. This might be part of the reason why there was so much camping littering after lockdown
• The Young People they work with have limited engagement with nature. At first there is repulsion with soil / worms etc. But once they plant something this really can transform their lives. 
• TfC Volunteer Planting days - volunteers do most of the planting. Helps them engage with their community. Hundreds of people from all walks of life come along and join in.
• They have great diversity in the people who join in and participate.
• A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. 
• Favourite tree = bee...