He also chairs the sustainability consultancy Sancroft International, recycler Valpak,[4] and PIMFA (Personal Investment & Financial Advice Association).

The BBC Wildlife magazine described Gummer as the "Environment Secretary against which all others are judged",[11] placing him as one of its top ten environmental heroes.

At the height of the crisis in May 1990, he attempted to refute the growing evidence for BSE/Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease by offering his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a burger in front of press cameras, which she declined but he consumed during a constituency event.

During this time he pursued environmental causes, introducing an Early Day Motion on global warming to Parliament along with Michael Meacher and Norman Baker.

Because of his environmental credentials, in 2005 David Cameron asked Gummer to chair the Quality of Life Policy Group with Zac Goldsmith as his deputy.

He repaid £11,538 for gardening and household bills and donated £11,500 to charity, saying that he was paying above the minimum required in order to demonstrate "corporate social responsibility" for the expenses system.

[citation needed] Subsequently, the Legg Report showed that 343 MPs had been asked to repay some money with Gummer paying the seventh highest figure.

The committee advises the UK Government on setting and meeting carbon budgets and on preparing for the impacts of climate change.

[26] Lord Deben has been married to Penelope Gardner since 1977, and lives at Winston Grange, a Grade II listed property in Suffolk.