About David

David Chenery is a designer, systems thinker and entrepreneur. For 15 years, as co-founder of Reassemble, he has pioneered an approach to sustainability and design focused on the 3 principles of a circular economy;

1. Design out waste and pollution

2. Keep resources in use for as long as possible

3. Regenerate natural systems.

And in applying them in the design world he has realised that the same principles are essential to achieve excellence in wider business.

He speaks to corporate audiences on Excellence Under Constraint: the argument that most organisations don't fail from scarcity, but from a dilution of energy, identity and coherence. The outcome is a reframing that changes how leaders and their teams think about constraints, chaos and what it actually takes to build something that lasts.

Sustainability Pioneer

Hospitality Obsessive

1. Who David is

David's authority on this subject has been built one project at a time, under real constraints, with the scars and stories that you would expect to go along with this.

As co-founder of Reassemble, a sustainable design practice based in London, he has spent 15 years answering a question most of his industry avoids: can you achieve more by using less? The answer, consistently, has been yes.

His projects include Apricity — a leading low-waste Michelin Green Star restaurant — delivered at 41% less embodied carbon than a typical fit-out. 25 projects for GAIL's Bakery, one of the UK's most loved food brands, designing consistent quality at scale without sacrificing craft. A deep retrofit of four commercial buildings at Milton Park with BREEAM Excellent certification. Sustainable design strategy for The National Trust, University of Edinburgh and St Austell Brewery.

Every one of these projects was an exercise in constraint as a design force. Not as a problem to overcome, but actually as the thing that makes the work good.

His practice, Reassemble, runs on a proprietary methodology called the Restorative Design Framework: a circular economy system built around designing for disassembly, reclaimed materials, low embodied carbon and measurable outcomes. The goal is to give more than it takes. That is also, it turns out, the goal of any excellent organisation.

David also hosts Sustain — a podcast exploring how the principle of excellence under constraint can be applied in the pursuit of sustainable hospitality and how to make this happen in the real world.

Finally, David is also the Co-Chair of the Property Action Group for the Zero Carbon Forum - working at Director level within the hospitality sector to make Net Zero happen.

2. What David speaks on

The keynote is called Excellence Under Constraint.

All organisations inevitably slide toward entropy, particularly as they grow. This can show up in many forms: lower revenue, reduced profits, increased risk or burnt-out teams. Excellence is the act of resisting that slide through the intelligent use of constraints.

Most organisations see the path to success as removing the constraints that are holding them back. But just like gut bacteria, there are good constraints and bad constraints...and when you don't know the difference, you can strip away the good ones that were keeping your system strong and healthy.

Rarely does a business, team or person falter because of resource scarcity. More likely it is from a dilution of energy, standards and coherence.

This talk reframes constraint as a feature to be embraced and understood. It argues that energy is the real currency of any organisation — financial, human, cultural, ecological — and that excellence is not about doing more. It is about removing what weakens the system so you can be a real force in the world.

This isn't a hospitality talk. The principles David draws from are universal — and the argument lands most with leaders who already sense that something in the system isn't working, but haven't yet found the language for it.

3. Who David works with

David speaks at leadership conferences, industry summits and organisational offsites for senior teams navigating growth, complexity or change.

His audiences include C-suite and director-level leaders across financial services, professional services, technology, retail, consumer brands and hospitality. The talk works wherever people are making decisions about what to scale, what to cut and what kind of organisation they want to be in five years.

Organisers often book it to give a team a shared language: a way of talking about constraint that doesn't sound like cuts.

He is available as a keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, or panel contributor.

4. What changes

Most leaders arrive with the same quiet frustration: things that used to be simple aren't anymore, and working harder isn't fixing it.

They leave with three things:

A way to navigate complexity and change. The chaos stops being opaque. Once you can see the system, you can see what's driving it.
The power of positive constraints. Doing more with less stops being a squeeze and becomes a method — knowing which limits to embrace, and which to remove.
An energised team. People who can see where the chaos is coming from and know how to minimise it — instead of burning out trying to outrun it.

The feedback David consistently receives isn't "that was inspiring." It's "I can finally see what wasn't working — and what to do about it." That's the outcome.

5. How David works

Every engagement begins with a briefing call. David wants to understand the audience, the context, the challenge they're walking in with and the outcome the event needs to create.

The talk is built around that rather than being retrofitted to it.

Available formats:

Keynote — 30, 45 or 60 minutes
Panel — as a keynote contributor or panellist
Workshop — half or full day, working with leadership teams on applying the framework to their specific context

Style: David speaks through stories, images and real projects — avoiding slides full of frameworks or theory. The talk has a clear structure, but it isn't scripted. It reads the room. Audiences have described it as "the rare talk that makes you think differently about your own organisation, not just the speaker's."

Preparation: Following a briefing call, David will provide a final talk abstract, a technical requirements sheet and a customised introduction for the event MC. For workshops, a pre-read is provided in advance.