Steve Brooks

Steve Brooks

I’ve always been fascinated by how people shape their environment and how their environment shapes them. I was born and raised on one of England’s most deprived estates and experienced first-hand the impacts of poor housing, poor transport and a poor urban realm. For me, environmental sustainability and social justice are two sides of the same coin. Over the last 20 years, I worked with several organisations focused on making Wales a more sustainable nation. From the Sustainable Development Commission (the predecessor body of the Office for Future Generations) to the green transport charity Sustrans, my work has focused on supporting and challenging policy makers and those charged with delivering a better future for Wales. And that’s my simple mission as a commissioner. Two decades on from the dawn of devolution, Wales remains a profoundly unequal society. We face a number of long term threats, not least the climate and nature emergencies, as well as profound structural changes in the global economy. Our infrastructure has a vital role in making Wales future ready. Outside work, you can usually find me exploring cities on foot or on a bike, obsessing about all things Nordic, and spending time with friends and family.