Spotlight: John

John joined us a year ago and has quickly become a valued part of the team. We spoke to him about his role, what inspired his career in sustainability, key lessons learned, and his goals for the year ahead.

Can you tell us a bit about your role and what you enjoy most about it?

I am a sustainability consultant and joined the company as a graduate one year ago. Since then, I have contributed to numerous services Carbon.Climate.Certified offer, and have learned a lot along the way. I mainly focus on certification within the company but also help on ESG strategy and CRREM reporting. I think what I enjoy most about the job, and what initially attracted me to a career in consultancy, was working with people and building relationships. That is both true when working with clients, but also internally when working collaboratively as a team. 

I also value the forward-thinking nature of the company, and particularly the fast-paced environment. There is definitely an eagerness across the team to make a difference, and that easily rubs off on myself when wanting to make an impact both for the team and the broader altruistic goal of creating a more sustainable future for all.  

What first got you interested in sustainability, and what made you decide to work in this field?

Having touched on it above, my initial driver into the sustainability sector was striving to make a more sustainable future.

Growing up in rural North Yorkshire definitely played a part too. Being surrounded by countryside gave me a lot of admiration for nature, and I have always felt a sense of pride and respect in wanting to look after not just our local environment, but the planet as a whole.

During my Chemistry undergraduate degree, I had a very inspiring Sustainability lecturer. He gave me a great background on climate change, carbon emissions and green chemistry, which gave great application to the granular subject. From there, I was drawn to combining this scientific background in a broader Sustainability degree, which gave me the foundation to find my first role in sustainability.

Looking ahead, what do you think are the biggest opportunities and challenges for sustainability over the next ten years?

Looking within our sector specifically, the opportunity to reduce embodied carbon reduction and prioritise the adaptive re-use of buildings will only grow. From both our own projects and my insights from CRREM reporting, it’s clear there is increasing emphasis on aligning the current and future building stock with net zero standards and decarbonisation targets. This could take form through green building certifications, building retrofits, applying circular economy principles that all not only drive building sustainability but also adhere to market expectations and financial pressures. 

I think looking broadly at the industry, we can expect this financial pressure and regulation to increase. A key challenge will be aligning different legislation and reporting frameworks to create standardisation and consistency. I believe that, in general, the goals of sustainability are best achieved when there are transparency and coordination. I think for the real estate and construction sector, the task ahead is to find this alignment to produce tangible and measurable outcomes. 

Outside of work, what do you like to get up to?

I play rugby for Morley but enjoy all sports and especially following my football team, Middlesbrough, for good and mainly bad. I often spend time outside, walking in the Dales or Lakes with friends.  

Have you set any professional goals for the year, or is there anything exciting coming up you’d like to share?

Professionally, I would like to gain my ISEP (formerly IEMA) Practitioner membership, after having been a graduate member during my master’s degree. I believe this will help my own development, especially keeping up to date in the ever-evolving sphere we work in.