 Douthwaite studied engineering at the University of Leeds but failed to complete a degree, and later economics at the University of Essex.He was a masters student at the University of the West Indies, building two homes, and then built concrete boats at a cooperative in Port Antonio, Jamaica in the early 1970s.He spent two years as government statistician in the British Caribbean colony of Montserrat before moving to Ireland (near Westport) to write and campaign about climate and energy issues and local economic development.