Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Paul Bright - Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust


How old are you?
57

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
I am an Environmental Scientist, with a building background, I manage both Cornwall Sustainable Building Trust and Sustain Cornwall Ltd.

How long have been doing this?
5 years.

What’s the best bit about your job?
Making a difference and effecting people to Change.

What’s the worst thing?
Dealing with blinkered people occasionally.

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Too busy. I need help.

What were you doing before?
I was in Community Involvement with English Nature.

What was your very first full-time job?
A demolition worker.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
I am working with colleagues on a Zero Carbon kit house for Cornwall- but I didn’t say that ….right?

What do you do to relax?
Play with my grand children and make cider.

Who do you live with?
My wife.

Whereabouts do you live?
On a smallholding in Cornwall.

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you do?
Resign.

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
My secret is not to have secrets, what you see is what you get!

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Had kids and been there for them.

What are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Human greed.

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
The Dalai Lama. I like his smile.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
It’s a growth area, know your stuff and you should find a satisfying job and make a difference.

What’s your website address?
www.csbt.org.uk

What are your three favourite other websites?
I honestly don’t have 3 favourites.

David Ferguson - EDF Energy


How old are you?
31

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
I am Head of Corporate Responsibility Strategy at EDF Energy, one of the biggest energy companies in the UK.

How long have been doing this?
About three years

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
I am responsible for developing the sustainability strategy for the company. This means persuading the business to make ethical, long-term decisions that are in-line with the future needs of people and the planet. EDF Energy has a carbon footprint roughly equal to that of Tunisia, so there is a scope to make a huge difference.

What’s the best bit about your job?
Successes. We’ve had a few.

What’s the worst thing?
Meeting people who don’t see the need to change

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Eye opening. Being an optimist I’d like to think that we’ve seen a step-change in efforts to combat climate change, suddenly it’s front page news. Al Gore and Nicholas Stern have made a huge contribution. This has made my job of persuading the business to change a lot easier. In fact, in June 2007 we launched something we called ‘Our Climate Commitments’. It’s a bit like a political manifesto in that it sets out how we will massively reduce our climate change impact between now and 2020. The headline target is a 60% reduction in the carbon intensity of our electricity generation.

What were you doing before this?
I was a consultant for a couple of years, working with companies that were just starting to think about corporate responsibility. Before that I did a Masters course at Imperial College, and before that I was a travelling, climbing bum.

What was your very first full-time job?
Apart from working in supermarkets, factories and climbing shops my first ‘grown up’ job was as a consultant.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Easy: be passionate but rational. The need for change is immense and immediate but I am always required to provide a business case to justify why reducing our carbon footprint is a sensible thing to do.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
As an energy company we’ve focussed mainly on climate change as our key challenge. But it’s not our only challenge and we’re looking at the wider social impacts of our business. We will soon launch a set of ambitious commitments along the same lines as Our Climate Commitments but focussing on our social impacts and responsibilities.

What do you do to relax?
I am a keen rock climber and love travelling, although I’ve been cutting back on flying in the last couple of years which has meant that I spend more time climbing and travelling in the UK.

Who do you live with?
My girlfriend

Whereabouts do you live?
North London

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
I’d impose exorbitant tax on personalised number plates. Honestly, more than a billion people in the world live on less than $1 a day so if you have money to waste on a personalised number plate then there are more useful things you could do with it. On a slightly more serious note I think the first big challenge would be to make carbon part of the way we price things, perhaps through a personal carbon allowance.

As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Electric cars. But we need to get a move on. There’s lots of expensive oil still waiting to be extracted.

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
I drive a campervan. It’s not very efficient, so I don’t drive it much. And I got it to help wean me off long-distance flights.

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Getting a distinction in my Masters degree. I’m not very academic and I worked very hard.

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Our obsession with buying stuff. And religion.

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
Richard Dawkins for his championing of sensible, rational thought.

What’s your website address?
www.edfenergy.com

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.guardian.co.uk
www.facebook.com (not at work, of course)
www.ukclimbing.com

Steve Moore - Relationship Manager, Triodos Bank


How old are you?
Still in my 30s

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Relationship Manager for Triodos Bank, lending to renewable energy projects across the UK.

How long have been doing this?
Five years

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
Working for a bank where the credibility of the people and organisations you’re lending to is more important than growth targets alone is a privilege. Not all renewable energy projects are a good thing; particularly those reliant on intensive farming techniques. I’m encouraged to explore the issues that concern me. Fortunately, there’s also plenty of commercial opportunities in wind and hydro as these industries continue to flourish.

What’s the best bit about your job?
Working in a specialist, and relatively complex, area that’s in demand and experiencing dramatic growth - even if the talk about renewable energy industry is often disproportionate to the action on the ground.

What’s the worst thing?
It’s predominantly desk based, and the sector is shifting more into the corporate environment.

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Busy. There’s been a lot of lending to a whole range of interesting projects from small to larger scale developments.

What were you doing before this?
I was a disillusioned high street banker.

What was your very first full-time job?
Wide-eyed, naïve high street banker.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Get a wide breadth of experience in areas that interest you and then ask yourself again what you really want to do. It may be this, or it may not. There could be some interesting distractions en route - often the richer your experience, the more rewarding your employment when you settle on a particular line of work.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
There are a number of interesting projects that should come together in 2008, but they’re confidential so I can’t share them.

What do you do to relax?
Read, run, cycle and enjoy the children.

Who do you live with?
My wife and two children

Whereabouts do you live?
In easy reach of the centre of Bristol and open countryside.

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Make local figure, George Ferguson, mayor of Bristol.

As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
The car. You didn’t ask what would be fuelling it!

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
Yes. We’re all paradoxical – especially those who say they are not.

What have you done that you were most proud of?
I once played in the world unicycle hockey championships.

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
There isn’t any one individual, but for the purposes of this interview Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for his uncompromising commitment to seasonal, ethically produced food.

What’s your website address?
www.triodos.co.uk

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.cyclingnews.com
www.howies.co.uk
www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/sw/bristol_forecast_weather.html

Alex Smith - Managing Director of Alara


How old are you?
54

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
MD of Alara and working for our stakeholders

How long have been doing this?
32 years

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
The opportunity to develop a company with sustainability at its heart.

What’s the best bit about your job?
Working in the Permaculture Forest Garden around the back of the factory

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Very exciting

What were you doing before this?
Living totally, without using money

What was your very first full-time job?
Picking Strawberries

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
If possible learn from other peoples mistakes.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
Spend more time on company development

What do you do to relax?
Pay attention to the moment.

Who do you live with?
My wife Katrina and 4 year old daughter, Daria.

Whereabouts do you live?
Islington, London

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Implement “Contract and Converge “ for the UK

As cheap and easily available oil is expected to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Peak oil will happen before 2027 and bicycle will be the predominant form of transport

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
Cheese

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Bringing up such a beautiful daughter and starting Alara with no money at all.

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
1) Peak Oil 2) Climate Change

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
Peter Melchett, Policy Director at the Soil Association, who I respect for being a consummate political activist.
What’s your website address?
www.alara.co.uk

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.peakoil.com
www.soilassociation.org
www.wikipedia.org