James Wright

James specializes in people and planet-centred design, having spent the last 9 years designing new products, systems, and services within the climate tech sector across start-up, venture builder, and consultancy roles. During this time, he has supported over 110 organisations.

Since 2021, he has led Sustainable Ventures Design, a design consultancy creating impact-led brands, products, and experiences exclusively for climate-tech businesses. As well as consultancy design support, he helps companies under business support programmes and grant funding.

He spent 4 years building and growing AirEx (a Sustainable Ventures spin-out), which focused on retrofit smart ventilation control that helps householders reduce heating energy bills/carbon impact all while improving comfort at home. He oversaw concurrent hardware development across multiple projects and grants through to successful certification by OFGEM. AirEx won Building Technology of the Year 2018 and Cleantech Startup of the Year 2017 at the Business Green Awards.

Between 2015-18, he tutored on the Innovation Design Engineering programme at the Royal College of Art. He supported delivery of all 1st year modules and provided regular tutoring to over 150 students.

Previously, James worked in-house at Joseph Joseph and large design consultancies. He holds an MA/MSc in Innovation Design Engineering from The Royal College of Art and a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London.