Speakers

WE ARE ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED to once again be joined by Astrid as the host of our Keynote Speaker Theatre.
Suffice to say, with her extensive knowledge and capabilities you are in excellent hands.

Astrid Davies Consulting is a collective of like-minded professionals, working with organisations to make their workplace happier, more productive and more sustainable. Astrid Davies is their lead consultant, bringing their different experts together, to match their skills with your unique requirements. Astrid has been an advocate of sustainability both in her professional and personal life and was part of the local authority team that worked on greening the Isle of Wight. She is also part of initiatives that support the reduction of the environmental impact or our organisations which is why she is passionate about taking part in the Expo again this year.

https://www.astriddaviesconsulting.co.uk/

JOB TITLE
Group Technical & Innovation Director

ORGANISATION
Barrett Developments PLC

Topic:
Pioneering Sustainability and Innovation in the Housing Sector

At this year’s Sustainability Expo, Barratt Homes’ Technical and Innovation Director, Oliver Novakovic will be talking through some of ways in which the leading UK housebuilder is creating a brighter, greener future. Setting new standards in energy efficiency Oliver will be talking about Barratt Homes' Energy House and Zed house projects, which both represent the housebuilder’s commitment to energy efficiency – as well as proving that sustainable living can be comfortable and cost-effective. Designed to minimise energy consumption while making the most of renewable energy sources, Energy House uses efficient appliances, advanced insulation and smart technologies to examine the
possibilities surrounding lower energy bills for homeowners, all while minimising the carbon footprint of each property. Similarly to Energy House, Zed House focuses on minimising energy consumption through innovative design and latest technologies, but it goes one step further. All energy needed for keeping the house warm or heating up water, is done through renewable sources, like solar panels and geothermal heating.

Highly energy efficient homes
These projects are two major milestones in Barratt’s commitment to a low caron future, but Oliver will also talk through some of the regulations set out in the Future Homes Standard – and how Barratt are meeting these and even exceeding them. The Future Homes Standard is set by the UK government and ensures all new homes are highly energy-efficient and have low carbon emissions. Oliver will cover how Barratt's proactive approach means that their homes are well ahead of the curve, providing buyers with properties that are not only future-proofed but also environmentally responsible. Where possible Barratt will implement cutting-edge materials and systems that ensure their homes are exceptionally energy-efficient. That includes looking at ways their homes conserve and reduce fuel and power consumption. Part L of the Building regulations simply focuses on ways buildings can use less energy, but Barratt exceeds their Part L requirements, bringing them significantly closer to reducing the environmental impact of their developments.

A vision for a greener future
By prioritising eco-friendly building materials, renewable energy sources, and innovative construction techniques, Barratts commitment to sustainability not only reduces the environmental impact of their homes but also sets a high bar for the entire industry. Beyond energy efficiency, Barratt recognises the importance of preserving and enhancing
biodiversity in the areas where they build. Their commitment to biodiversity net gain means that they not only minimise disruption to local ecosystems during construction but actively work to create and maintain habitats that benefit wildlife. Barratt Homes is leading the charge in sustainable housing, setting high standards for energy
efficiency, carbon neutrality, and environmental responsibility. As we move toward a more sustainable future, Barratt Homes is truly committed to producing eco-friendly housing, leaving a lasting positive impact on both homeowners and the environment.
EXPO SPONSOR and 4 Times Sustainability Housebuilder of the Year

ABOUT OLIVER:
Oliver has worked on innovation in the construction sector with clients such as Audi, M&S, Sainsbury, British Gas and BASF for over 20 years. He has covered product development, application through to cultural change management. With Barratt his current role is to assess and roll out innovation across the business under their leading construction principle, this includes integrating offsite methods of construction and Zero Carbon. In his current role he has led a team that have assessed many of the different zero carbon systems and introduced a New Production Introduction process to Barratt. Oliver has been advising Central Government and HBF on how to develop a successful roadmap to deliver zero carbon solutions

JOB TITLE
Sustainability Manager

ORGANISATION
Royal National Lifeboat Institution - RNLI

About Anna Frizzell

Anna is named in ENDS Report Power List 2023: 10 unsung heroes making a difference. Find out more HERE

Anna joined the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in April 2013 as Sustainability Manager and has over 23 years’ experience in sustainability and environmental management. Anna has a BSc Hons Degree in Environmental Protection and a Diploma in Sustainable Business Practice from the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA.) Before joining the RNLI, Anna was a sustainability advisor working with many different types of small and medium sized businesses across Dorset, Hampshire, and the IOW. Anna is part of the Business Performance Team within Engineering & Supply at the RNLI. Her role is
to support the RNLI to develop, deliver and embed a robust sustainability approach within all RNLI strategies, plans and subsequent actions. The overarching aim is to ensure the RNLI’s on-going ability to sustain the prevention of loss of life from drowning and the pursuit of the RNLI vision “to save every one”.In her spare time Anna likes organic gardening, cooking and eating out with friends and supporting the local Hedgehog and wild bird populations.

TOPIC

RNLI Climate Transition – Adapting and mitigating to deliver a more sustainable, future-fit lifesaving service

In 2024 the RNLI will be celebrating saving more than 144,000 lives at sea over last 200 years. Whilst still needed, we want to continue to be here in the UK and Republic of Ireland, saving lives 24 hours a day 365 days a year. It is unlikely that in 1824 when our founder Sir William Hillary made an address to the nation to form the RNLI, he could ever have imagined what the RNLI, and the world of today would be like. Nevertheless some of his 1824 words in the address for the RNLI are somewhat prophetic about climate change too - “Shall we hear unmoved of this widely-spread destruction, and not each contribute to those exertions, to which the common charities of human nature, and the certainty of the direful evils we might avert, and the sufferings we might assuage, ought to incite us to lend our utmost aid?” The RNLI of today strives to play its part as a “Good Citizen” and where we can as part of the way we deliver our core purpose of saving lives at sea, to support and aid “averting direful evils and assuaging suffering” due to climate change.

In this Session we will share some of the climate change adaptation and mitigation challenges and opportunities the RNLI faces today.

-How do we understand what the impacts and associated risks of climate change will be for the RNLI, both to the type of
services we provide and our ongoing ability to safely provide those services?
-How will we prioritise action and inform decision making about these risks? What are we already experiencing?
-What will we use to power our Lifeboats in the future? What is the bigger picture we are part of?
-How do we engage all of our people in the journey, 95% of whom are volunteers across the UK and Republic of Ireland?
-What do our people and supporters think?
-Sustainability Apprenticeships and how they can help an organisation grow the knowledge and skills they need to adapt and
mitigate.

JOB TITLE
Managing Director

ORGANISATION
Hadland Care Group: Tops Day Nursery. Aspire Training.

ABOUT Cheryl

Cheryl Hadland, MA(Ed), is the founder and CEO of Hadland Care Group; founder and Chair of Tops Day Nurseries, Aspire Training Team and GECCO (Green Early Years Champions for Change), a charity that shares good practice in sustainability within the early years sector. Tops and Aspire employ approximately 850 staff, educate and care for 4500 children per year and 400 learners, and combined turnover is approximately £20m. Tops became B.Corp in 2021, was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (Sustainable Development) in 2022 for thought leadership and innovation in early years education. Tops were the first large group of nurseries where all settings had achieved Eco Schools Green Flags, SAS Plastic Free Champions, and the group operates at NetZero CO2e emissions overall. After studying sustainability with Cambridge University post-grad, she will defend her doctoral thesis on sustainability in the early years in 2024.

TOPIC

Embedding sustainability at Tops Day Nurseries.

Sustainability is one of the key issues of our times, a “worthy” (Tracy & Hinrichs, 2017) topic of research and of action. The impacts of climate change are being felt all around us already, with floods, high winds and fires taking place in close proximity to some of our early years settings. The children in our settings have the most to lose in terms of their future
prosperity, yet potentially have the least influence on behaviours now. As a mum and “nanna” of 3 wonderful grandchildren, I feel morally bound to do what I can to protect their futures. I have no say in how the huge petrochemical companies function, and very little influence on how governments behave, but I’m a fan of Greta Thunberg (Thunberg, 2021) , and believe that if we do our bit as individuals we can make a difference. And actually, as the founder of a group of 33 nurseries across the south coast of the UK with around 4000 families attending and a staff of 850, plus my attempts at advocacy for them, just maybe we can make a little headway. When Tops won the Queens Award for Enterprise (Sustainable Development) for thought leading in the sector, it gave us more opportunities to explain what we are doing and why.

JOB TITLE
Head of Sustainability

ORGANISATION
Marwell Zoo

ABOUT Duncan East
Dr. Duncan East, CEnv, FIEMA, is Head of Sustainability for Marwell Wildlife, a conservation charity dedicated to restoring nature, promoting sustainable living and catalysing change. Marwell has active conservation programmes in Tunisia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, China and Polynesia and as well as operating Marwell Zoo in Hampshire, UK which welcomes over 500,000 visitors each year. Duncan has 25 years experience in environmental management and consultancy including ISO14001, low carbon technologies and renewable energy projects, water saving, sustainable and ethical purchasing and delivering training and seminars. Duncan is chair of the Winchester Sustainable Business Network, chair of the BIAZA Environmental Impact and Sustainability working group, and chair of the Solent IEMA / Southampton Green Drinks network. Duncan's PhD research explored methods of measuring and quantifying behaviour change and its potential contribution to achieving a net positive impact.

TOPIC

Net Positive Impact

At Marwell Duncan and his team are working out how to measure their total impact on nature and society. With the huge focus on carbon emissions currently it’s easy for a business to overlook its impact on other aspects of environmental and social risk but these are also deserving of our attention. Globally biodiversity is struggling, freshwater is increasingly scarce or contaminated, soils are degraded, plastic fills our oceans and the gap between rich and poor is increasing. Marwell need to manage their impact in all these areas but, as the saying goes, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. We’re now moving beyond carbon footprint calculations to find out how we can measure all our disparate impacts to ensure our overall impact is a positive one.

JOB TITLE
Managing Director & Impact Consultant

SESSION TOPIC

People, Planet, Profit - your risks and your opportunities

ORGANISATION
Profit Impact (A B-Corp Company)

ABOUT SARAH
Sarah Whale is passionate about creating long-term value through sustainability. Sarah is the founder of Profit Impact which guides businesses to measure and grow long-term positive social, environmental and financial impacts. Sarah is also an experienced senior finance professional, a B Corp-trained B Leader and CISL qualified.

JOB TITLE
Deputy Chief Executive

ORGANISATION
Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment - IEMA

Session Topic:
Environment and Climate Policy Update
This session will provide an update on key climate and environmental policy issues. It will highlight the potential implications for organisations, together with insights into how they can best be addressed in sustainability strategies.

About Martin Baxter:

Martin is IEMA’s Deputy CEO and works in the UK and internationally to support the transition to a low carbon, resource efficient and sustainable economy. A strategic thinker with the capability to lead and influence others, he has national and international experience in developing and negotiating global and European standards and developing capacity for effective and widespread implementation. Martin has experience of networking and communicating at all levels – including with senior parliamentarians, Government officials, business leaders and academia. He is an acknowledged expert on environmental management and a regular spokesperson on corporate sustainability.vMartin is also a Board member of IEMA, the Broadway Initiative and the Society for the Environment (SocEnv).

JOB TITLE
Managing Director

ORGANISATION
Global City Futures

ABOUT Roli Martin
Roli Martin's speciality areas combine both Public and Private sector accounting and budgeting advice, leading the team at Global City Futures who partner with Government departments, agencies, and institutional leaders to co-create lasting solutions to establish sustainable city communities. Roli works with city authorities, NHS Trusts and local government, with recent projects in keyworker housing, energy market analysis and specialism in district heating. Managing projects in change management, data analytics, innovation, finance, and professional services, the Global City Futures deliver public and privately funded business models.

SESSION OUTLINE
TOPIC - Successful financing and delivery models for city-wide decarbonised heat networks: Exeter City

Solutions to attracting public and private finance to local authority sustainability programmes, illustrated with a case study on the city of Exeter’s heat network. Story of the Exeter city decarbonised heat journey so far in domestic and non domestic markets. Walk through of successful approaches to funding and delivering decarbonised heat in the domestic and non-domestic user groups. Discussion of cross public sector collaboration for delivery: benefits and risks. Understanding the funding and contractor/ESCo market: matching grants with private investment and solutions without government assistance. Discussion of the role of local councils and other public sector organisations in decarbonised heat networks, from facilitators and policy holder/lever, to procurement strategy direction, through to financially embedded ESCo incorporation. Understanding capital constraints and solutions to the balance sheet problem. Tried and tested process in action for delivery of successful decarbonised heat networks. Understanding the key workstreams: Technical options appraisal for decarbonised heat solutions
Business Case and financial Modelling Governance and approvals gateways Procurement and commercialisation

JOB TITLE
Head of Product

ORGANISATION
LoweConex

ABOUT Jessica Caldwell
With over 5 years’ experience incubating high growth start-ups within the global tech market and an academic background in law and business sustainability management, Jessica is passionate about helping businesses drive sustainable change by embracing innovative technologies. Actively involved in public policy forums in Northern Ireland and an advocate of evidence-based policy design, Jessica has curated a unique blend of industry knowledge supported by a strategic understanding of sustainability at both an enterprise and governmental level.

TOPIC

Under the MicroScope: Informing Store Sustainability Strategies for a Global Fashion Retailer.
A net zero economy demands net zero commitments but are businesses running blind by setting benchmarks based on aspirations instead of actual data? For one global fashion retailer, the current state of the corporate commitment maze was reflected within their own store portfolio – void of data and completely disconnected. Faced with the harsh realities of Scope 2 and Scope 3 requirements but committed to their vision to be completely sustainable by 2030, they turned to LoweConex to understand how to close the gap between understanding their starting point and achieving their sustainability vision.

SESSION OUTLINE
Climate targets – ambitious or achievable? The deciding role of visibility.
The true value of green data – enabling optimisation under pressure.
From aspirations to transformative action – how Net Zero technologies are overcoming challenges to sustainable change and informing accessible next steps.
Going beyond better stores – key learnings for tomorrow’s estates, today.

JOB TITLE
Chief Executive

ORGANISATION
NexGen Zero Carbon

Ian's Session Topic:

Are people the heart of decarbonisation?

ABOUT

My background would be described as a commercially astute leader in fast paced rapidly evolving businesses, driving Private Equity/M&A Strategies, securing funds from PE, financiers, banks, incubating early stage technology companies. More recently with the acquisition of NexGen we were specifically looking for a Green Economy investment in a highly exportable technology. Having spent the last 10 years widening my aperture on emerging nanotechnology in Europe/USA, I was so convinced Graphene is capable of revolutionising the shape of future energy delivery and major reductions in CO2 output from all forms, particularly heating buildings, a key challenge in the sustainability cause, given over 40%+ of all CO2 comes from homes and buildings. Fusing these technologies into ‘one' is a challenge NexGen has already met; its here today, proven, smart, ready, and accessible now at scale… What is NexGen - it's the Solar Impulse award winning Far Infra Red ‘electric wallpaper’ - that heats your home by combining 50% pure conductive heating on the ceiling, with 50% emittance of Far Infra Red, amazingly in the exact same wavelength as ‘sunlight’ which we use to create radiant heating - we validated it with Swansea Universities ’Specific’ academic team against the BSEN Standard for Radiant Heating in summer 2021, tested it for a full winter 21/22 in Wales against an Air Source Heat Pump, result in six months it used 30% less energy!! So we acquired the company and now with a large social impact investment we are scaling, and rolling out the technology with over 40 Social Housing Groups in Wales, England and Ireland. NexGen, as it says on the tin, delivers a next generation 'Net Zero' heating solution for housing and buildings, aiming to be globally influential, an organisation committed to a social and sustainable impact mandate, a green economy investment - we will be capitalising our unique and highly disruptive Far Infra Red graphene electric wallpaper, seamlessly integrated into any buildings type, agnostic to fabric, offering savings to landlords and householders of circa 60%+ in through life costs over air source heat pumps, providing tenants and householders absolute granular control over when and for how long they heat their homes, linking perfectly with PV Solar and Smart Batteries, we will directly attack the appalling levels of fuel poverty in the world today, while also using the technology to mitigate damp and mould. UK designs, proven academically and in field testing, highly scalable, highly exportable, we have no geographical boundaries to our future Net Zero influence.

SPEAKER:
James Slade

JOB TITLE
Commercial Manager

ORGANISATION
IMSM

SESSION TOPIC:
Valuable Growth – Benefits for your business with ISO 14001 Standard

ABOUT

IMSM Limited support organisations in gaining ISO certification and business opportunities. An ISO certification is a recognised mark of quality, improving your business by producing consistent standards of quality to meet your customer's requirements. By streamlining processes and adopting a strong customer focus, it improves competitiveness to higher profit potential.

TOPIC: Planet, People & Solutions – Driving Sustainable Procurement

Understand how Bunzl Greenham are addressing the key cornerstones of Sustainability, Planet & People, and creating a toolkit of sustainable Solutions to support customers on their carbon reduction plans and sustainable procurement.

Speaker:

Stephanie Neumann

Job Title:

Sustainability Advisor

About Bunzl Greenham

Bunzl are a focused and successful specialist international distribution and services Group. They have operations across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the United Kingdom and Ireland. Bunzl support businesses all over the world with a variety of products and solutions that are essential for customers in the successful operation of their organisations.

SESSION TOPIC
Sustainability within the Printing, Events and Biophilic Sectors

SPEAKER
Macey Mitchell

JOB TITLE
Managing Director

ABOUT BRANDED BIOPHILIA
With the success of Concept Foundry Ltd and seeing sustainability and the environment a top priority, Macey has been actively committed to putting sustainability right at the heart of his business ethos. Which led him to build a sister company Branded Biophilia Ltd to provide sustainable options in a world that needs to be more environmentally aware. Incorporating both renewable energy and Living Plant products into innovative developments, within internal and external infrastructure and across a variety of sectors from events and interior design to electric vehicle and living furniture.

Session Topic:

Solar PV – Simple, What is it and how does it work? Where is the solar market going to be in 10 years' time?

Speakers:

Richard Fuell

Job Title:
Sales Manager

About Richard Fuell:

Richard Fuell has been part of the Renewable Energy industry for more than 10 years. Began his journey as an installer back in 2010, experience with both residential and commercial applications. Became a sales manager at a leading Solar Panel manufacturer, to then join SolarEdge Technologies in 2015. SolarEdge are a smart energy manufacturer and one of the most innovative companies in the solar sector. Richard is very passionate about the renewable industry. The products, software, innovation from SolarEdge. A session to understand Solar PV not to be missed!