Awarded OBE: A Moment of Quiet Recognition

When Alan Cooper opened a letter from the Cabinet Office, he expected routine correspondence. Instead, he found himself reading the words that would change the course of his week, and perhaps the way he thought about the last two decades. He had been awarded an OBE for services to charity and sustainability.

“It was a surprise, a thrill, and a moment to reflect,” Alan says. For someone who rarely pauses to celebrate personal achievement, the honour prompted a quiet reckoning with a journey that began over twenty years ago with a simple principle: Challenging the perception of waste.

Where It All Began

At the turn of the century, offices across the UK were in flux. Companies were relocating, consolidating, expanding, refurbishing, and in the process shedding vast quantities of perfectly functional equipment. Desks, chairs, filing cabinets, IT equipment, and storage systems were routinely discarded. Almost all of it was landfilled, despite being in excellent condition.

Alan wondered what might happen if this redundant office furniture could be redirected rather than destroyed. What if furniture discarded in London could become classroom infrastructure in Accra, Lusaka or Banjul? What if “waste” was just an administrative label rather than a final verdict?

A Working Mantra

“Challenging the perception of waste” was never marketed as a slogan. It emerged as a working practice, the idea that surplus could be transformed, that environmental outcomes could intersect with social ones, and that sustainability could be human rather than abstract.

More than twenty years on, that concept remains at the core of Waste to Wonder Worldwide.

From Modest Operation to Global Impact

What began as a modest idea has grown into one of the world’s largest ethical reuse programmes. Today, Waste to Wonder Worldwide has:

• Donated over £49 million (Fair Market Value) of furniture and equipment

• Equipped more than 1,500 schools in 50 countries, including here in the UK

• Diverted thousands of tonnes of assets from landfill

• Supported education, vocational training, rehabilitation, and healthcare infrastructure

• Enabled communities to benefit from resources they could not otherwise access

These outcomes illustrate something valuable: surplus has power. When redistributed ethically, it becomes a form of social infrastructure.

Understanding the Honour: The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

To understand the significance of Alan’s recognition, it is worth briefly examining the institution behind it, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, one of the most well-known elements of the modern British honours system.

Origins in Wartime

The Order was created by King George V in 1917 during the First World War to recognise acts of meritorious service by civilians and the military as part of the national war effort. Unlike traditional chivalric orders which focused on battlefield heroics or aristocratic patronage, this order extended honours to public service, volunteerism, civil service, innovation, overseas assistance, and community leadership.

The context matters: at the time, the British Government needed to acknowledge not only military victories, but also the thousands of people who kept the nation functioning beyond the battlefield. From factories to hospitals, schools, logistics, and war work, these contributions were essential to sustaining the Empire and its Commonwealth Realms during the conflict.

Five Classes, Five Grades, and National Service

The Order consists of five classes (sometimes called five grades) of honour in both military and civil divisions:

Knights Grand Cross / Dame Grand Cross (GBE) — the highest class

Knights Commander / Dame Commander (KBE/DBE)

Commander (CBE)

Officer (OBE)

Member (MBE)

Recipients of the top two classes may adopt the title Sir or Dame, while all honours convey post nominal letters such as OBE, MBE or CBE, visibly recognising an individual’s service at a national level.

The Order is part of a broader system that includes the Royal Victorian Order, the Knight Bachelor, and other honours awarded by the Royal Family, often on recommendation from the Prime Minister, with the Grand Master presiding over certain ceremonial functions.

From St Paul’s Cathedral to Modern Recognition

Historically, major investitures and thanksgiving services took place at St Paul’s Cathedral and other national locations. The symbolism was deliberate: to frame these awards not as private applause but as public acknowledgment on behalf of the UK and its people.

The Order has evolved significantly since George V first established it. Once focused on wartime and industrial contributions, it now recognises exceptional service in fields such as sustainability, community development, education, international cooperation, and environmental innovation.

Sustainability as Modern Public Service

Alan’s OBE sits within this shift. Ethical reuse, carbon reduction, social impact procurement and circularity form part of a new era of public service grounded in environmental and social responsibility. What was once “waste” has become strategic, a way to reduce environmental impact while improving lives across the world.

Ethical Reuse as Social Infrastructure

For Alan, the honour is not about prestige or pageantry. It represents something that has shaped Waste to Wonder Worldwide from the beginning: the belief that the sustainability movement is not just about carbon or recycling, but about community.

Furniture that once sat in glass towers and corporate offices has now found its way to schools and vocational centres in Accra, Lusaka, Kyiv, Banjul and Bucharest. It has supported rehabilitation projects in Ukraine, vocational training hubs in overseas regions, hospitals in North Macedonia, and education programmes across the UK.

Reuse does not merely reduce waste, it redistributes opportunity.

The FM Sector as a Catalyst

One of the most meaningful developments in the organisation’s journey has been the role of the facilities management sector. FM professionals manage moves, refurbishments, procurement, and office assets, making them uniquely positioned to champion sustainability.

Alan says one of the most rewarding aspects of the work has been watching FM and workplace transformation firms embrace ethical asset management, realising that sustainability and public service can coexist.

Environmental Impact Meets Social Value

By extending the useful life of assets, organisations can avoid emissions associated with replacement, disposal and manufacturing. Simultaneously, they can support women, students, vulnerable groups and educators who rely on basic infrastructure to function.

This dual outcome reflects a broader truth: sustainability’s greatest successes are those that are dedicated to people as well as the planet.

A Collective Achievement, Not an Individual One

Despite his name appearing on the award, Alan is insistent that the recognition belongs to many more:

“This OBE is as much for our team, partners and supporters as it is for me. Impact is never created alone.”

Waste to Wonder Worldwide operates through a global network of clients, members, logistics partners, charity organisations, schools, and community leaders. Without collaboration, the model would not scale; with it, surplus becomes service.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Alan’s reflections turn to the future:

“In 2026, I hope that organisations and their employees will sit down and consider how their decisions, whether during a clearance, a relocation or a refurbishment, can benefit people they may never meet, in communities they may never visit.”

This is sustainability reframed not as compliance, branding, or reporting, but as stewardship — the idea that every company, no matter how commercial, can act as a catalyst for global improvement.

Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum

If there is a personal philosophy underpinning Alan’s journey, it is captured in a Latin phrase he has carried for years:

Nil magnum nisi bonum – nothing is great except good.

It is not a motto of grandeur, but of grounding. It asserts that all greatness, whether measured in accolades, medals, sector transformation, or international awards, must ultimately be rooted in good.

Legacy, Leadership, and the Next Chapter

As Waste to Wonder Worldwide enters its third decade, the backdrop is changing. ESG has moved from ambition to accountability. Corporate sustainability has shifted from aspiration to requirement. Sustainability has become a form of modern public service. Ethical reuse has become a method of national and global impact.

Alan’s OBE sits within this evolution. It acknowledges not only the organisation’s innovative contribution, but the belief that the world is improved not solely by policy or activism, but through practical, operational decisions made every day in offices across the country.

Closing Thoughts

The OBE is a milestone. But for Alan, and for Waste to Wonder Worldwide, it is not an endpoint. It is a reminder that the sustainability movement is strongest where it intersects with humanity; that environmental outcomes are magnified when paired with community outcomes, and that the perception of waste must continue to be challenged — one clearance, one shipment, one school at a time.

Nil magnum nisi bonum — nothing is great except good.