Introduction by Hilly Janes, Editor of Body&Soul

On the face of it, what could the scientist Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, our biggest health research charity, and the childcare guru Gina Ford possibly have in common? And what has Sarah Doukas, of model agency Storm, got to do with Liam Donaldson, the Government's Chief Medical Officer? The answer is that they are all one of our Bodyshapers - leading decision makers and opinion formers on everything from the healthcare we get and the food we eat, to the way we look and feel about ourselves. Not only that, but these four are theonly survivors from when we performed the same exercise in our first issue. To mark our fifth birthday, we are taking a look at who is out, who's still in, and identifying the new wardens of wellbeing.

The posts that have survived include the chief executive of the Medical Research Council, which distributes hundreds of millions from the public purse, and the chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which decides which treatments are licensed. Also still with us is the chair of the government watchdog, the Food Standards Agency. The bottoms sitting on them may have changed, but these seats are still very hot indeed. We've also changed some of the categories they fall into to reflect new obsessions: our ageing population, the environment, mental health and parenting.

These figures may be heroes like Daniel Craig, whose James Bond body packed the killer punch to metrosexual males; or villains such as the self-appointed chief of the cellulite police, Mark Frith, former editor of celebrity magazine Heat. But they are, without a doubt, “Bodyshapers”.

POLICY

SIR LIAM DONALDSON

Chief Medical Officer

He's the Government's man when new medical scandals or ethical dilemmas arise. Drink-driving laws, MMR vaccine uptake and doctors' annual reviews are exercising his mind.

Claim to fame He made your local pub smoke-free last year. Since the ban (from July 1, 2007), more than 200,000 smokers have kicked the habit.

Lasting legacy Smoking-related illnesses kill more than 90,000 people a year and cost the NHS £1.5billion. Donaldson has [helped to cut the toll.

SIR MICHAEL RAWLINS

Chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)

As head of the body that decides who gets what drugs on the NHS, Rawlins has been at the centre of every postcode lottery story, from kidney cancer drugs to Aricept for Alzheimer's.

Claim to fame Refreshingly outspoken on how difficult his job is, he has fuelled a growing realisation that it is impossible for the NHS to fund everything in the face of an ageing population and hugely expensive new drugs.

Lasting legacy What Rawlins decides could affect whether you live or die.

LORD DARZI

Surgeon and Minister for Health

In a cunning plan, Gordon Brown brought the affable and heavyweight medic Ara Darzi into the Department of Health to ease through radical NHS changes, such as the introduction of super-surgeries, which were bound to get doctors' backs up.

Claim to fame Still practising as a surgeon two days a week, Darzi won hero status last November by helping to save the life of Lord Brennan when he collapsed in Parliament. He completed a 60th anniversary review of the NHS in June to coincide with the service's 60th birthday, with good ideas on how to improve NHS care quality. But they may require giving more rein to the private sector.

Lasting legacy Depends on whether he can win over NHS traditionalists.

WILLIAM BURNS

CEO of Roche

He's head of the giant Swiss pharmaceutical companythat manufactures the controversial breast cancer drug Herceptin.

Claim to fame During a much-publicised row between patients and the Government over Herceptin's availability, Burns came under fire when it emerged that Roche had employed a publicity agency to help breast cancer sufferers to gain access to the drug. The NHS now provides the £22,000-a-year drug to any patient who is prescribed it.

Lasting legacy As increasingly expensive drugs come on to the market, Burns will be remembered for sparking a debate over drug availability that is likely to run long into the future.

PROFESSOR MIKE RICHARDS

Cancer czar

Appointed as the first national cancer director at the Department of Health in 1999, he leads the country's fight against the disease.

Claim to fame His National Cancer Plan boosted NHS cancer expenditure by £400 million by 2010, and services are becoming less fragmented. In fact, the well-liked Richards has been so successful in making cancer services a priority for improvement that other NHS areas, such as stroke and respiratory care, have been getting fed up.

Lasting legacy Richards is determined to see UK cancer survival rates catch up with the US and many of our European neighbours. Within the next decade or so, we may see him succeed.

IMAGE

DANIEL CRAIG

21st-century Bond

We live in edgy times and need an edgier Bond. Muscle-clad Craig is the man for the job, bringing grit to the 007 role.

Claim to fame The image of Craig in Casino Royale emerging from the sea in pale blue La Perla trunks will be forever burnt on our memories.

Lasting legacy His bulked-up physique has become the aspirational figure for thirty-to-forty- something men. He has made the alpha male sexy again, after all that caring, sharing, 1990s metrosexual stuff and nonsense.

SARAH DOUKAS

Founder of the Storm model agency

From the glamazons of the Eighties to the super-waifs of the 90s, Sarah Doukas has created the key looks of the past two decades. She spotted 14-year-old Kate Moss at JFK airport and a star was born.

Claim to fame Doukas prides herself on choosing fresh faces rather than poaching models from other agencies. She has represented Cindy Crawford, Lily Cole and Carla Bruni.

Lasting legacy She has caused a stir again with her discovery of the black model Jourdan Dunn, 19, shopping in Primark. Dunn is labelled a future megastar.

DR NICK LOWE

Dermatologist

Lowe has injected a big dose of science into the world of beauty, particularly his speciality, non-surgical skin treatments. Until recently he treated NHS patients with skin problems at the same time as peeling, pampering and pricking his celebrity clients. Now he works purely on non-invasive beauty procedures.

Claim to fame His clients include the resculpted TV presenter Anne Robinson, who says that Dr Lowe took years off her face.

Lasting legacy Dr Lowe has recently made his expertise available to everyone, with a range of potions at Boots.

BETH DITTO

Supersized, supersexy singer

Pipped to the post by Kate Moss as NME's sexiest woman 2007, musician Beth Ditto, 27, weighs 15st and has posed naked on the cover of the music mag.

Claim to fame Ditto attacked Topshop last year for making clothes for only tiny women. She has been hired to design a range of plus-sized clothes for Evans.

Lasting legacy With her sassy attitude and sexy demeanour, Ditto has challenged the assumption that small is beautiful and has made being big sexy.

SARA BLAKELY

Creator of Spanx, the control pants

Named Entrepreneur of the Year in the Women of the Year Awards this week, Blakely came up with the idea to cut the feet off her control top tights seven years ago and control pants were born.

Claim to fame With global sales of $250 million last year and sales in the UK doubling year on year, Spanx is the brand leader. It is endorsed by everyone from Oprah to Gwynnie.

Lasting legacy As we get wobblier, the market for “fat pants” can only expand.

KNOWLEDGE

PROFESSOR MIKE STRATTON

Geneticist

Based in Cambridge, Stratton heads a new project, the International Cancer Genome Consortium, which delves into the genetics of 50 types of cancers, to unlock their secrets and to develop new drugs.

Claim to fame Led the team of researchers who first identified the gene that confers susceptibility to a type of breast cancer.

Lasting legacy The project could open a new era in personalised cancer medicine, with doctors pinpointing the precise genetic factors responsible for the cancer.

SIR LESZEK BORYSIEWICZ

Chief executive of the Medical Research Council

Born in Wales to Polish parents, Borysiewicz is head of the MRC, a government-funded agency that backs medical research with £500million to spend each year.

Claim to fame He started his four-year tenure with a bang when he announced a new cutting-edge research facility in Central London.

Lasting legacy The UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation will focus on stem cells and treatments for flu and cancer. With 1,500 scientists, they're bound to come up with something.

JOHN HARRIS

Professor of Bioethics

A proponent of synthetic biology, the University of Manchester professor believes that if we can make better creatures than ourselves “longer-lived, more resistant to disease... and better adapted to a changing environment, we should surely do so”.

Claim to fame His book Enhancing Evolution is hugely influential.

Lasting legacy By embracing a world where people live into their hundreds and humans have “nanobot” brains that harness the memory and power of computers, Harris is making us contemplate a science-fiction future.

MARK WALPORT

Wellcome Trust director

As director of Britain's largest charity for medical research, Walport oversees where the money goes and decides how best to communicate science to the general public.

Claim to fame With an endowment of £15 billion and a budget of £500million to spend on bioscience research each year, Walport is one of the most influential figures in British science.

Lasting legacy With research on how best to tackle future health epidemics, the obesity epidemic and Alzheimer's on the agenda, his decisions shape our future.

DR STEPHEN MINGER

Director of Stem Cell Biology

Along with a small band of researchers, Minger has transformed UK stem cell research.

Claim to fame A native of New Orleans, his team at King's College London was one of the first in Europe to make human embryonic stem cells in a laboratory.

Lasting legacy His successful campaigning for government approval for the formation of chimera embryos, which involves placing human DNA in an animal egg, may prove vital in finding treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's.

FOOD

GILLIAN McKEITH

TV nutritionist

McKeith, the presenter of You Are What You Eat and million-selling author of food and nutrition books, brought colonic irrigation into the mainstream, thanks to her penchant for analysing the nation's poo.

Claim to fame Formerly known as “Dr Gillian McKeith”, she dropped the title from her company's advertisements after it was found that it was obtained from a non-accredited course in America.

Lasting legacy McKeith has shown how a brass neck, can overcome the small matter of appropriate qualifications. Hopefully, her success in raising nutritional health to a lifestyle aspiration will have a knock-on effect on Britain's plates (or loo pans).

DAME DEIRDRE HUTTON CBE

Chair of the Food Standards Agency

At the helm of the Government's food advisory body, Hutton has been the focal point for government work on how to get us all to eat less fat, less sugar and less salt.

Claim to fame To the public eye, she's helping us to make better-informed decisions about what we eat - mainly by encouraging the food industry to use traffic-light labelling on the front of packs. Behind the scenes, though, she has played a careful game buffering the demands of the food campaigners and the food industry.

Lasting legacy If there's someone to thank for the number of new “healthy” processed foods, it's her.

RICHARD BRASHER

Commercial and Trading Director of Tesco

Brasher is in overall charge of the buying budget at the biggest retailer in the country. His purchasing power decides not only what millions of us eat but also what we cook with, wear, smell like, watch, drive. Heck he even chooses our engagement rings (Tesco sells them now, too).

Claim to fame With nearly 2,000 stores in Britain, there's a Tesco on virtually every high street. Sales last year reached £51.8 billion and £1 in every £8 spent on the high street is spent at Tesco.

Lasting legacy He brings fresh food to the masses and revitalises tired shopping parades, or swamps us with cheap food from exploited producers while killing the high street, depending on your view.

TIM LANG

Academic and campaigner

Tim Lang, the Professor of Food Policy at City University in London and a government consultant on sustainability, is a vociferous campaigner for food safety and the environment

Claim to fame He's the man who coined the term “food miles” and has popularised awareness of the impact of our consumption on the environment. Now he has turned his attention to the question of how depleting oil supplies will affect how we shop for food.

Lasting legacy He's boosted seasonal and local food by publicising our unsustainable habits. Now many of us question if we really need to eat asparagus all year round.

RICHARD REED Mr Smoothie

When Reed and two friends gave up their day jobs to start the Innocent smoothie company, little did they know how quickly their plan to use fresh fruit rather than concentrates would take off.

Claim to fame With a 73per cent market share, more than two million bottles selling each week in 11,000 outlets, you are never far from an Innocent smoothie containing at least one portion of fruit and veg.

Lasting legacy We are a little bit healthier and he is a lot wealthier. His stake in the company is valued at £41 million.

FERTILITY

ZITA WEST Fertility guru

After 20 years as an NHS midwife, Zita West set herself up in 2002 in a Harley Street clinic, offering nutritional advice and acupuncture to women trying to get pregnant.

Claim to fame Cate Blanchett, Davina McCall, Ulrika Jonsson and Kate Winslet are all fans.

Lasting legacy Now brand Zita West has expanded to include relaxation CDs, jasmine-scented candles, vitamin supplements and perineum moisturising oil.

DAGAN WELLS

IVF scientist

As many as two-thirds of IVF embryos fail because they have the wrong number of chromosomes. Wells, an Oxford University scientist, is developing a pre-implantation genetic screening test to count embryo chromosomes.

Claim to fame Of 14 women treated, all of whom had a poor prognosis, 11 are pregnant and one has given birth.

Lasting legacy Dr Wells' work could double IVF success rates.

LISA JARDINE

Chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

Jardine, the historian, author, and radio presenter, was made chairwoman of the HFEA this year and is getting her teeth into the ethical dilemmas that it faces.

Claim to fame Hybrid embryos for medical research and “saviour siblings” have been approved.

Lasting legacy She has the personality and intellect to allow science to move on while not alienating public opinion.

PSYCHOLOGY

MARK FRITH

Former editor of Heat

Frith spent ten years moulding the cellulite- prodding, mean-girl mindset of his Zeitgeist-shaping magazine. If a minor celeb put on weight or lost it, she was bound to find her beach body exposed on the cover.

Claim to fame The creation of this hyper-critical mentality and a dedication to celebrity sweat patches has built up a publication that sells more than half a million copies a week. Its irreverent treatment of the rich and shameless has paved the way for countless imitations.

Lasting legacy Now concentrating on his novel, Frith leaves behind a generation of women hung up on famous flabby bits and insecure about their own.

ROBERT CIALDINI

American psychologist

With more than 30 years of research on the subject of persuasion, compliance and influence, Dr Cialdini is the most cited psychologist in this area. His book Influence: Science and Practice has sold more than a million copies worldwide. You may not have heard of him, but that could all change.

Claim to fame Dr Cialdini's research into how governments can persuade people to eat well, drink less, recycle and generally be nice is influencing David Cameron. He believes clunky regulation doesn't work and that governments should influence people's decisions using peer pressure.

Lasting legacy A world where we recycle more, drink less and vote Tory?

STEPHEN FRY

Champion mind

The comedian, actor and author with a super-sharp wit has famously struggled his way through a suicide attempt and lifelong battle with bipolar disorder. Now he campaigns to end the fear and stigma surrounding mental illness, which a quarter of us will experience at some point in our lives.

Claim to fame In 2006 he made The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, a documentary examining the impact of the disease, for which he won BT Mind Champion of the year.

Lasting Legacy One of a clutch of celebrities who have spoken up about their experiences of mental illness creating more openness towards a topic often treated as taboo.

JENNIFER ANISTON

Permanently single Friend

Everyone has one, or perhaps you are one - the attractive down-to-earth friend who never seems to have a partner. Since being publicly dumped by her former husband Brad Pitt for Angelina Jolie in 2005, Aniston has been linked with several Hollywood stars, but in the public consciousness she's an eternal star-crossed single.

Claim to fame She is not alone. According to the Office for National Statistics, 38 per cent of UK women aged 18-49 are single.

Lasting legacy Aniston, 40, has just been dumped by another boyfriend, the musician John Mayer. This one could run and run.

LORD LAYARD

Economist

As the founder of the London School of Economics (LSE) Centre for Economic Performance, Lord Layard highlighted that depression costs us £17 billion a year.

Claim to fame In his publication The Depression Report he claims that 50 per cent of the one million people who are unable to work because of clinical depression and anxiety would be able to return if they had access to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), at a cost of £750 for a course.

Lasting legacy In response the Government has rolled out a nationwide project making CBT available to everyone regardless of postcode, and giving doctors an alternative to prescribing medication for depression.

PARENTING

JAMIE OLIVER

School-dinner reformer

The naked chef made the Government face up to the rubbish that schools have been feeding our children with his TV series Jamie's School Dinners.

Claim to fame He singlehandedly destroyed the reputation of the Turkey Twizzler and in 2006 succeeded in persuading the Government to phase out junk food from school canteen menus. But many children staunchly refuse to stomach anything other than chips and pizza, so although the number of primary school children eating school dinners has risen by 2.3 per cent since last year, more secondary school kids are bringing in junk-filled lunchboxes. The numbers going to the canteen for lunch has dropped by 0.5 per cent.

Lasting legacy Can caterers keep to healthy guidelines in the face of rising prices? And as the credit crunch hits, will parents continue to pay up?

MICHAEL AND XOCHI BIRCH

Founders of Bebo

In 2005 this married couple founded the social networking website Bebo. A year later, 25 million people, most still at school, had logged on.

Claim to fame Although the site has a minimum age of 13, almost a quarter of children aged between 8 and 12 say that they use one of the social networking sites, including Bebo.

Lasting legacy Bebo has provided a forum for youngsters to share their views and interests with millions of enthusiastic teens, but with all the media scares about happy-slapping videos and online bullying, the jury is out on whether social networking sites are a force for good.

GINA FORD

Childcare guru

Love her or loathe her, Ford's Contented Baby books have been at the top of the bestseller lists since they were first published in 1999, and her range of 13 books makes up a quarter of sales in the childcare market. The Queen of Routine's strict edicts are vilified and worshipped in equal measures by new parents.

Claim to fame The vilification reached a head when mums on Mumsnet, a parenting website, said her methods included “strapping babies to rockets and firing them to South Lebanon”. She received legal costs and an apology.

Lasting legacy A generation of children who go to bed on time?

JUSTINE ROBERTS AND CARRIE LONGTON

Founders of Mumsnet

Since its birth in 2000, Mumsnet has become a huge hit, with a million parents logging on every month to swap advice on everything from dirty nappies to post-baby sex. Roberts and Longton first met at antenatal classes where they learnt that the best support came from other mums.

Claim to fame Last year Mumsnet got Madeleine McCann adverts pulled from cinemas after users complained they were upsetting children.

Lasting legacy Mumsnet's huge database is being mooted as a model for a government online forum, dedicated to finding out exactly what parents want.

BARONESS GREENFIELD

Small screen police

As a neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield is concerned that new technologies are making kids too passive, turning their brains into “reactive sponges” capable only of yuk-wow responses.

Claim to fame The 58-year- old Greenfield, formidable with her short skirts and headmistressy manner, has lobbied Parliament to draw up parental guidelines on how much time children should spend in front of flickering screens.

Lasting legacy Ideally a nation of active, responsive children. But even with government guidelines, it's debatable whether children are going to take any notice - Facebook vs a book.

SPIRITUAL GURUS

POPE BENEDICT XVI

Catholic Church leader

While the Anglican Church is tearing itself apart over homosexuality and women bishops, the Roman Catholic Church is quietly benefiting.

Claim to fame With more than 4.5 million Catholics now, compared with 4.1 million in 2006, the numbers in the UK have been bolstered by the influx of Eastern European migrants.

Lasting legacy As immigrants keep coming, whether they are Polish, Portugese or Latino, the numbers of Catholics are expected to rise. But what effect will growing numbers of Catholics have on debates about contraception and IVF?

EUGENIE HARVEY

Co-founder of We Are What We Do movement

Harvey promotes a simple philosophy: to inspire people to use their everyday actions to encourage social change.

Claim to fame You may not recognise the name, but it produced the million-selling book Change the World For a Fiver and teamed up with Anya Hindmarch to produce the I'm Not a Plastic Bag tote for Sainsbury's that caused stampedes across Britain.

Lasting legacy Harvey has helped to instill the idea that we can all do our bit to change the world, whether it's smiling at a stranger or learning first aid.

TARIQ RAMADAN

Muslim theologian

This Oxford scholar is a poster boy for moderate Muslims. Tariq, 46, argues that Muslims in the West should see themselves as equal members of Western society, with rights and responsibilities.

Claim to fame He has written 20 books on the subject and was included in Time magazine's list of top 100 thinkers and innovators.

Lasting legacy The need for a reassuring public Muslim voice has given him a wide audience, but his failure to

condemn outright the stoning of adulterous women for fear of getting Muslim backs up has made some uneasy.

REV PETER OWEN JONES

Extreme pilgrim

The Sussex parish priest who said he felt “like more of a civil servant than God's suffering servant” and went on a televised spiritual quest.

Claim to fame His search for a more physical and mystical path to enlightenment was compulsive viewing.

Lasting legacy He has inspired a secular audience to take another look at faith.

ALTERNATIVES

KATHY SYKES

Media scientist

As Professor for Public Engagement in Science and Engineering at the University of Bristol, Sykes has shaped science festivals and exhibitions around the country, and has become the alluring face of scientific inquiry on television.

Claim to fame Despite an initial scepticism, she coolly investigated the benefits of complementary therapies in two BBC series - and surprisingly became convinced of some of their benefits.

Lasting legacy She has demonstrated the televisual benefits of scientific open-mindedness.

SIMON SINGH

Popular scientist

Made his name with a bestselling book about Fermat's Last Theorem, which managed to make maths sexy, and has become TV and radio's hip voice of scientific wonder and reason.

Claim to fame With fellow sceptic Professor Edzard Ernst, he recently tore into the heart of complementary medicine in a new book, and accused chiropractors and homoeopaths of promoting worthless treatments.

Lasting legacy With the British Chiropractic Association suing Singh for libel, we may shortly witness a test case on the value of complementary medicine.

DR GEORGE LEWITH

Medic and complementary practitioner

As head of Complementary Research at the University of Southampton, Lewith has been one of the most potent forces to get alternative therapies fairly, and authoritatively, researched.

Claim to fame He has backed scientific papers on complementary approaches, which have appeared in bastions of traditional medicine such as the British Medical Journal.

Lasting legacy Arguably doing more than anyone to get the potential of complementary therapies recognised by doctors and policymakers.

MICHAEL BAUM

Anti-alternative

The emeritus professor of surgery at University College London wants alternative medicine banned in the NHS.

Claim to fame He described homoeopathy as a “cruel deception” in an open letter to health authority bosses.

Lasting legacy Has given a spur to the NHS to be more consistent in what it provides free and what it doesn't.

GOLDEN OLDIES

ANDREW GOODSELL

Chief executive of Saga

At 48 Goodsell is too young to be a Saga member.

Claim to fame With 2.6 million customers buying Saga holidays, health insurance and its magazine as well as joining the Sagazone (the over-50s equivalent to Facebook), business is booming. Revenue increased by 8 per cent last year and with a potential audience of more than 20 million people who own three-quarters of Britain's net wealth, looks set to rise further.

Lasting legacy Saga is becoming a force to be reckoned with. Its online petition demanding that the Government accept responsibility for restoring workers' pension rights attracted 10,000 signatures.

PROFESSOR JOHN HARDY

Alzheimer's guru

As the chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at Univeristy College London and a leading name in Alzheimer's research, Hardy is at the forefront of the search for the genes that cause the disease and make some people susceptible.

Claim to fame He has won multiple awards for his discovery of the genetic changes that accompany the disease.

Lasting legacy? As one of the first scientists to recognise what was going wrong in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient, his discovery has led to treatments being developed to target amyloid plaques, the proteins that may trigger the changes in the brain that lead to the disease.

KAMMA FOULKES

Southern Cross Healthcare

Foulkes, a registered nurse, is responsible for elderly care in the UK's largest care home group, with more than 700 homes. With pensioners outnumbering children for the first time and levels of dementia increasing, care homes are becoming an important part of many families' lives.

Claim to fame Employing 41,000, Southern Cross eclipses rivals - its 37,000 beds can sleep 16,000 more than BUPA homes.

Lasting legacy It's an expensive business. Foulkes is lobbying for an increase in fees as prices don't reflect the true cost of giving good care and providing well- trained staff, particularly in more challenging areas such as dementia.

HELEN MIRREN

Bikini queen

This Dame of the British Empire knows how to grow old gracefully: by winning a couple of Golden Globes and an Oscar at 61 for playing the Queen, and then donning a showstopping red bikini at the age of 62.

Claim to fame Despite her sex symbol status, and her reputation for getting her kit off on stage, Mirren retains a typically British form of self-deprecation, describing herself as “being famous for being cool about not being gorgeous”.

Lasting legacy Proving, with that washboard stomach, that there is no such thing as being over the hill.

GREEN

SAFIA MINNEY

Fair trade fashionista

As the founder of People Tree, the ethical fashion company that designs clothes you can feel smug in, Minney spearheaded the anti-fast-fashion movement.

Claim to fame Her company launched in 1991 when organic cotton and fair trade were more associated with hemp kaftans than high street fashion. Now you can find her T-shirts in Topshop.

Lasting legacy Eco-chic is no longer niche. The big high street chains such as Debenhams, Monsoon and Marks & Spencer stock fair trade cotton.

JONATHAN PORRITT

Green Party co-founder

Former green politician Jonathan Porritt turned to environmentalism when, as a teacher at an inner-city comp, he realised that some of his pupils had never seen a cow. Now he is principal adviser to the Government on sustainability.

Claim to fame As the brains behind M&S's new green policy he ensures that we wear planet-friendly knickers and eat carbon-labelled sandwiches.

Lasting legacy He says M&S's example “raises the bar” for all other businesses.

MICHAEL O'LEARY

Chief executive of Ryanair

The blue and yellow devil on the shoulder of anyone trying to be green, O'Leary is the man leading us to temptation and Tenerife with 1p flights.

Claim to fame He makes no apologies for his company's carbon footprint, claiming that if customers are worried they should “sell their car and walk”.

Lasting legacy The pressure group Future Forest says that to offset Ryanair's annual impact on the environment 16.5 million trees would have to be planted.

REBECCA HOSKING

The Bag Lady

Hosking, a BBC camera woman, was so horrified by the impact of plastic on wildlife while shooting a documentary that she returned to her home town of Modbury, in Devon, and set about organising a ban on plastic bags.

Claim to fame On May 1, 2007 Modbury became the first town in Britain to go plastic bag-free.

Lasting legacy Thanks to success in Modbury, more than 80 British towns have introduced schemes to cut down plastic bag usage.

PATRICK HOLDEN

Director, Soil Association

The face of the organic movement, and a voice in the argument that organic food not only tastes better but is healthier for you and the planet.

Claim to fame When Holden landed the top job in 1996 sales of organic food were £105 million. More than a decade later, they are £2 billion.

Lasting legacy As the credit crunch fears grow, it remains to be seen whether our love affair with organics will continue to blossom.