May 30, 2016

Rachel Smith is remarkable, well in my book incredibly remarkable because is 2014 she chose not to buy anything other than basic necessities. Inspired by her efforts I tried to do this too and I failed after 3 months. She is also according to News Limited one of Australia’s brightest thinkers on the perpetual challenge of urban planning. She is a passionate sustainable advocate and a massive cycling fanatic. She has spoken at more than 200 global conferences, given two TEDx Talks was hand-picked to be part of the international mobile think tank the BMW Guggenheim Lab and developed the world’s first crowd solving bicycle map. Rachel was retained by the UK Government for 6 years as a specialist advisor working with businesses, schools and tourist destinations.

Here awards listed include:
Winning the CIHT BP Road Safety Award
Awarded the AITPM Janet Brash Memorial Scholarship
Nominated for 2015 Queensland Premier’s Award for leadership in sustainability.

And then there is the challenge of breaking the consumer trend when she didn’t buy anything new or 2nd hand during 2014 and saved 38% of her take-home salary.

Rachel is the author of Underspent – How I broke my shopping addiction & buying habit without dramatically changing my life.