--- title: Douglas McMaster: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 description: Find out why Douglas McMaster is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. canonical: https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326622/douglas-mcmaster/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-10-30T11:30:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T01:02:01.647Z article:section: Climate og:title: Douglas McMaster: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 og:description: Find out why Douglas McMaster is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. og:url: https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326622/douglas-mcmaster/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da1f51bda7202f3/6998cb00f1b082175b6f1cee/Catalyst-Douglas-McMaster.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Douglas McMaster: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Douglas McMaster: The 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025 twitter:description: Find out why Douglas McMaster is on TIME's 2025 list of the 100 most influential leaders driving business climate action. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da1f51bda7202f3/6998cb00f1b082175b6f1cee/Catalyst-Douglas-McMaster.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 30, 2025 # Douglas McMaster Director, Silo by Douglas McMaster  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Courtesy Photo) _Chef Douglas McMaster is the creative mastermind behind_ [_Silo_](https://www.silolondon.com/ "undefined")_, the world’s first zero-waste restaurant. The London-based institution, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, prides itself on not having a garbage bin: Goods are delivered in reusable or returnable containers, while food scraps are composted or fermented. Food waste is a key contributor to climate change because it gives off greenhouse gases like methane as it decomposes in landfills. The amount of food waste Silo has transformed over the last decade could fill more than_ [_3,500 double-decker buses_](https://www.foodserviceequipmentjournal.com/restaurant-without-any-bins-focused-on-more-industry-breakthroughs/ "undefined")_. In late 2024 McMaster and his team launched the “_[_Fermentation Factory_](https://www.silolondon.com/pages/fermentation-factory "undefined")_,” which supplies other chefs in the industry with the ingredients and know-how to turn food waste into new products._ **What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government, needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?** Regenerative, natural farming is where it begins. Healthy, fertile soil is the foundation—without it, neither our food nor our own health can truly thrive. **What’s one sustainability effort you personally will try to adopt in the next year?** Trying to achieve zero waste while having a newborn baby boy! **What is a climate solution that isn't getting the attention or funding it deserves?** Rewilding, agroforestry, and syntropic farming are some of the best ways we know to soak up carbon while also growing nourishing food and bringing back biodiversity. Planting trees is beautiful, but planting whole ecosystems is how we truly find our way back to nature. **What gives you hope about the future of the planet?** I believe that we are going to experience a huge environmental and economic collapse, which might seem negative, but it's going to be the lesson we need to ameliorate our relationship with the natural world. **If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next COP, what would you say?** Before any action, it’s wise to have the right worldview. Ask simply: What does nature want? When we see that we are not separate from nature, but part of it, we begin to design it back into our lives. Nature is a zero-waste system, a guiding principle. It doesn’t recognize or welcome glyphosate, so let that guide it out of our farming. Nature created the most diverse ecosystem inside our gut—nurture it with fermentation. Listen to birdsong and let it calm your nervous system. Gaze into the fractal geometry of a weeping willow. Breathe in the microbiome of an ancient forest. Refuse the single-use coffee cup. Buy nothing new for a year. See technology as a tool, not a religion. The more we dissociate from nature, the more we suffer. So let’s design it back into our lives. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326622/douglas-mcmaster/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326622/douglas-mcmaster/"},"headline":"Douglas McMaster","datePublished":"2025-10-30T11:30:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T01:02:01.647Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326622/douglas-mcmaster/","keywords":["TIME100 Climate 2025","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da1f51bda7202f3/6998cb00f1b082175b6f1cee/Catalyst-Douglas-McMaster.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5da1f51bda7202f3/6998cb00f1b082175b6f1cee/Catalyst-Douglas-McMaster.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time100-climate-2025/","name":"TIME100 Climate 2025"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time-100-climate-2025/7326622/douglas-mcmaster/","name":"Douglas McMaster"}}]}] ```