In November, our Managing Consultant Adrian (Ade) Gibbs celebrated his 20th year as a Eunomian – a huge congratulations from us all, Ade.

Ade joined us back in November 2004 as a fresh-faced PhD graduate and, after being welcomed into the fold, he has never looked back.

We’ve not only had the privilege of watching him grow within his role. We’ve also seen him deliver some influential client projects, including: two terms as municipal waste lead in the validation of EU Member State data for Eurostat; a large body of work that sat behind the EU Circular Economy Package; and – most recently – a couple of highly interesting and potentially very impactful EPR and DRS projects in Vietnam and Singapore.   

On entering his third decade at Eunomia, Ade commented:

Nothing prompts feelings of impending mid-life crisis more than large milestones, hey?! Fortunately, I’d seen this one coming, and I had processed most of this during my sabbatical last year. That time allowed me to take stock and realise what an amazing, inspiring, supportive, challenging (in all the right kind of ways), and special company Eunomia is. 

There’s a real sense of community at Eunomia that comes from being part of a team with shared values – everyone around you is driven by their desire to get us onto a path toward global sustainability. There is a thirst for knowledge which my colleagues use to help in addressing the enormous environmental problems we face.

My personal life has changed a lot over my career, and Eunomia has supported me through all the ups and downs – whether that’s moving house, recovering from injury and illness, or dealing with other difficult times.

There is a group of us at Eunomia who have been working in this specialist area for so long that together we really are ‘the’ experts in waste and the circular economy. We have built relationships which will last a lifetime, and we currently have the pleasure of combining our insights with the skills and innovative ideas of the next generation of Eunomians. I genuinely believe that, through our care and respect for each other and for the work we do, in our lifetimes we can achieve many highly positive impacts that are so desperately needed in this world.

There really are so many things I am very proud of over the past two decades, and Eunomia has been absolutely central to these.

We all have a lot of Ade memories – whether from a work social or in the midst of delivering a client project. As our Chairperson, Joe Papineschi, said:

Two decades (a generation?) later, I’m sure Ade has worked on more projects – in more diverse areas of Eunomia’s activities and with more Eunomians – than anyone else, ever.

Ade is incredibly committed, to the cause but also to his colleagues and friends at Eunomia and is dependable in every situation – including the ones where someone needs to push back and not just go along with things.

It’s safe to say that Ade has shaped Eunomia as it stands today and has certainly become something of a role model to many members of our team.

We celebrated Ade’s 20th anniversary at our winter party in December. 

Here’s to the next 20 years… right, Ade?