Richard Clarke is a British-born zoologist and conservationist with a passion for nature, biodiversity, the environment and mitigating the effects of Climate Change.

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Highland Carbon was launched in 2017 as an ethical business to pioneer the supply of conservation-grade UK carbon units.

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Richard was inspired to bring a landscape conservation framework to the UK carbon market.  How do we achieve this aim?  We carefully select where our projects are located - in spectacular, wild locations that are important to rare and endangered species.

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In practice we work in order to:

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• Enhance and expand existing quality habitats

• Create corridors to join-up separate natural areas

• Establish conservation buffers to critically important nature reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest or other important wildlife areas

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Our forest projects comprise a diverse array of species.  We actively reintroduce rare and lost tree species, such as aspen, to inspirational landscapes.  We also restore other important habitats, such as peat bogs, salt marshes, dry meadows, wet meadows, heathland, river banks, wetland scrapes and more.

Highland Carbon also curates impactful international projects with recognised verification and validation providers, such as the Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard and United Nations - Clean Development Mechanism.

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Highland Carbon has won the award for the 'Best UK Carbon Credit Supplier' in 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 – each year we have applied. We also won the 2025 award for 'Inspirational Green Impacts' and 2024 award for 'Natural Landscape Restoration Expertise'.

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We were lauded by the British Chambers of Commerce for our 'inspirational approach to innovative green solutions' during the lead up to the 2023 COP.

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We won the 'Green Business Award with Doncaster Chamber in 2023.  We were shortlisted for the '2025 & 2024 Environmental Impact Award' with Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, and were finalists for the '2025 Green Business Award' with the Doncaster Chamber of Commerce in 2022, 2024 and 2025..

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In the context of Highland Carbon, Richard has been interviewed by various media outlets such as The BBC, Sky News, The Scotsman newspaper, Carbon Pulse magazine and Business Network magazine. He has delivered podcasts to the Global List in New York City, NQA Global Certification Body in Scotland, the De-Carbonisation Training Centre, Wester Ross Biosphere and the Aberdeen Science Museum.

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Richard has given talks to various organisations and forums such as the UK Sustainability Summit, the UK Association of Sustainability Professionals, Hull Eco Fest, Yorkshire Sustainability Festival, Scottish Land & Estates - Annual Conference and a virtual seminar allied to the United Nations COP26 in Glasgow.

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Richard was educated at Michigan State University in the United States graduating with Masters of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees.  He also attended sustainability training offered by Cambridge University via the Association of Sustainability Professionals.

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As an undergraduate, he read Zoology with emphasis upon forestry, ecology, conservation, wildlife management, marine biology, fisheries management and animal behavior.   Richard's post graduate degree continued in Zoology whilst researching the physiological effects of agricultural chemicals upon mammals.