About Melissa Baird

Melissa is a multi-faceted communications strategist and talented wordsmith who has been immersed in the sustainability sector for the past decade specialising in marketing and brand strategy, the editorial direction of sector specific publications and in developing educational platforms and materials to promote economic, environmental and social awareness.

She is also a lecturer and experienced facilitator of communication workshops and conference host.

In 2008 she launched South Africa’s first conscious consumer portal Life in Balance and since then has been the leading sustainability strategist with Ogilvyearth (Cape Town), been the editor of Green Home Magazine, How Now (a Sustainable Brands’ inspired publication) and The Green Economy Journal.

Based out of Cape Town, she has worked in London, Taiwan and Austria and has a deep understanding of the complex issues facing business development as a result of resource depletion and she works with utter commitment to help develop and communicate messages that are enlightening, motivational and educational. Her travel story, Last Chance Lions, was shortlisted for the British Airways Travel Writer of the Year competition in 2010.

She joins the SB Oceans conference as MC.