Professional History

Associate Director, Digital Innovation | Keystone Environmental Ltd (Origin Enterprises Environment Group), 2025 – Present

Executive lead for digital innovation across Keystone Environmental and the wider Origin Enterprises environment group

• Lead digital transformation strategy across a multi-company environmental group
• Embed GIS systems, workflow automation and data-driven reporting infrastructure
• Develop technology-enabled arboriculture and ecology service lines
• Improve operational efficiency, quality control and client delivery capability
• Influence senior leadership on innovation investment and change adoption

Scope includes organisational change, technology adoption, cross-team capability development and strategic alignment of innovation with commercial performance.

Founder & Director | Digital Ecology Ltd, 2021 – 2025

Founder of a specialist consultancy supporting environmental organisations to embed digital systems and innovation capability.

• Advising consultancies, NGOs and habitat banks on digital strategy and transformation
• Delivering leadership-level advisory on biodiversity net gain implementation
• Developing reporting systems, data standards and automation tools
• Providing executive training in R, QGIS, and data-led decision-making
• Supporting organisations in scaling impact through digital infrastructure

Digital Ecology represents entrepreneurial leadership, strategic advisory capability and cross-sector influence.

Chief Ecologist | Map Impact Ltd, 2024 – 2025

Appointed following the merger with Digital Ecology to lead biodiversity product strategy and ecological integrity across a technology-led environmental business.

• Led the biodiversity product pillar within SaaS and earth observation platform
• Directed product development, commercial positioning and business development
• Oversaw biodiversity net gain (BNG) monitoring, natural capital reporting and asset performance services
• Bridged technical ecology, digital product development and commercial growth

This role combined executive leadership, product strategy, and innovation in environmental data services.

Associate Director (Strategy & Policy) | Ethos Environmental Planning Ltd, 2020 – 2022

Company lead on biodiversity net gain strategy during a major policy transition period.

• Strategic interpretation of emerging environmental policy
• BNG assessments and offset strategy development
• Advisory to LPAs on biodiversity and green infrastructure strategy
• Building internal team capability and standards

Provided senior oversight across BNG delivery for developers, landowners and Local Planning Authorities, while strengthening internal capability through training and quality assurance.

Education

PhD Soil Science, University of Reading / Natural History Museum, London, October 2004 – December 2008,

Thesis title: The role of earthworms in the chemical and physical weathering of soil minerals.

I established the first evidence that earthworms accelerate soil mineral weathering in a series of laboratory experiments, combing X-ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to demonstrate this.

BSc (Hons.) Wildlife Conservation, University of East London, awarded 2.1 September 2000 – June 2004,

Professional Qualifications

Chartered Environmentalist, awarded by the Society for Biology, March 2019

Publications

Wolseley P, Sanderson N, Thüs H, Carpenter D, Eggleton P. 2017. Patterns and drivers of lichen species composition in a NW-European lowland deciduous woodland complex. Biodiversity and Conservation 26 (2), 401-419

Hodson ME, Black S, Brinza L, Carpenter D, Lambkin DC, Mosselmans JFW, Palumbo-Roe B, Schofield PF, Sizmur T, Versteegh EAA. 2014. Biology as an agent of chemical and mineralogical change in soil. Procedia Earth and Planetary Science 10, 114-117

Carpenter D, Sherlock E, Sandhu R, Eggleton P. 2013. Differences in nest structure influence the importance of Formica rufa group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) wood ant nests as refugia for earthworms. Journal of Natural History 47 (35-36), 2305-2309

Carpenter D, Hammond PM, Sherlock E, Lidgett A, Leigh K, Eggleton P. 2012. Biodiversity of soil macrofauna in the New Forest: a benchmark study across a national park landscape. Biodiversity and Conservation 21 (13), 3385-3410

Carpenter D, Sherlock E, Jones DT, Chiminoides J, Writer T, Neilson R, Boag B, Keith AM, Eggleton P. 2012. Mapping of earthworm distribution for the British Isles and Eire highlights the under-recording of an ecologically important group. Biodiversity and Conservation 21, 475 - 485

Sherlock E. & Carpenter D. 2009. An updated earthworm list for the UK and two new ‘exotic’ species new to Britain from Kew Gardens. European Journal of Soil Biology 45 (5-6), 431-435.

Carpenter D, Hodson ME, Eggleton P & Kirk C. 2008. The role of earthworm communities in soil mineral weathering: a field experiment. Mineralogical Magazine 72(1), 33-36

Carpenter D, Hodson ME, Eggleton P & Kirk C. 2007. Earthworm induced mineral weathering: Preliminary results. European Journal of Soil Biology 43, S176-183