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Life long environmentalist, Peter Harper, was the driving force behind the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) – Britain’s leading centre for eco-education, eco-research and eco-communication

Peter read biology at university, but he always felt that he wanted to do something more than simply ‘study’ nature.  His eureka moment came during the energy crisis of the 1970s, when miners' disputes led to three-day week and a coal shortage that sent the price of oil sky high. Peter came to believe that we should explore how we could live on energy that we could generate ourselves, without resorting to fossil fuels that were (and are) expensive to the environment and to individuals. 

It was with these sentiments that the Centre of Alternative Technology began life in 1974. The centre started out as a loosely associated group of like-minded individuals who wanted to bring about environmental change. The centre’s mainstay activity was, and still is, to research key environmental technologies. In fact, the term, alternative technology, was coined by Peter.

Since the 1970s CAT has become a leading Green think tank for the UK.  It is an active focus for anyone with environmental concerns and queries, has a busy visitors centre and runs all manner of courses, from practical weekend woodwork all the way up to a masters level degree in environmental design.

www.cat.org.uk

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