People

Helen Harwatt is an environmental social scientist, with a focus on food systems shifts and their contribution to climate change mitigation goals. Helen’s current projects focus on assessing the impacts of food systems shifts on a range of issues around environmental sustainability, public health, and ethics, to identify pathways toward creating food systems that minimize adverse environmental impacts, maximize public health benefits, and address ethical issues.

Prior to joining HLS, Helen spent three years developing the environmental nutrition research program at the Loma Linda University in California, and seven years at the University of Leeds’s Sustainability Research Institute in the UK, conducting research on climate change mitigation focused on consumers, businesses, and governments, and as an affiliate of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the Centre for Low Carbon Futures. Helen won an international award from the International Transport Forum for her PhD research, which focused on the potential to meet climate change mitigation targets through a personal carbon trading scheme in the UK. Helen also runs the consultancy group Planet Friendly Food.

Below you can see a selection of news related to Helen’s work with the Program, and media stories in which she has been mentioned or quoted.