Who We Are
Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) is a public sector body, independent of Scottish Government, and accountable to the Scottish Parliament.
We are a non-ministerial office, governed by a Chair and Board. We have a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and internally we are organised into three teams: Strategy and Analysis; Investigations, Standards and Compliance; and Corporate Services and Communications.
Our Board Members have significant experience in leading independent scrutiny organisations and particular expertise in European environmental law. The Board has also established an Audit and Risk Committee as a standing Committee of the Board, to support its responsibilities for issues of: risk; control; governance; and associated assurance; through a process of constructive challenge.
More information concerning our governance:
Meet our Chair
Richard is a freelance writer and researcher on the environment, including a weekly column in the Scotsman newspaper and recent work for Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, the European Climate Foundation and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. He has a strong background in policy and leadership roles in environmental non-government organisations in Scotland – having worked for and led both Friends of the Earth Scotland and WWF Scotland in the last thirty years.
Richard has served as a board member of SEPA for eight years and was also a member of the Scottish Government’s Air Quality Review Strategy and the Roundtable on Environment and Climate Change. He has a background in environmental and physical sciences, holding degrees from Glasgow Caledonian University and the Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Napier University in 2019.
Richard has a deep understanding of environmental policy in Scotland and how different interest groups can work constructively together to further the ambition for Scotland’s environment.