Key Speakers Wed 23 Sep 2020

John is a highly effective and experienced senior environmental professional, with over 20 years practise in complex estates covering a portfolio of sustainability, carbon and energy strategy, revenue and capital development projects. He is a driven professional and strategist with a proven track record of transformational leadership in sustainability and impact, achieving a ranking of #1 within the Higher Education sector. John has a strong professional network and is currently working proactively across Greater Manchester, assisting with the development of low carbon delivery plans in collaboration with The Combined Authority and District partners, to support the GM 5 year Environment Plan.

Richard holds a PhD in Building Physics and is also a chartered building surveyor. He leads a task group for the development of international standards around energy performance. He is also active the International Energy Agency studying the use of smart meter data to provide energy efficiency data for dwellings. He holds a place on the SAP Scientific Integrity Group at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) which oversees the domestic energy model used in the UK. Richard is also the technical lead for the new Energy House 2 project, a building physics test lab.

Laura Williams has 10 years’ worth of experience campaigning on climate related issues in Manchester. She is particularly interested in the social justice aspects of the climate transition, incorporating democratic and equality demands in to the campaigns and projects that she works on. At Carbon Coop she is involved with marketing strategy and developing new events, projects, and campaigns. She is currently leading our involvement in mPOWER.

Corin Bell is the Founder and Exec Director of Open Kitchen MCR, Manchester’s first waste food catering social enterprise. Corin sits on the Good Food Greater Manchester Board and is a campaigner for a sustainable food future and a plastic free Greater Manchester.

Gavin is Director and Co-Founder of award-winning environmental charity Hubbub where he leads high profile environmental behaviour change campaigns such as Leeds By Example, Neat Streets, Square Mile Challenge, Community Calling, For Fish’s Sake, Plastic Fishing and Pumpkin Rescue. Previously Gavin was Senior Client Manager and Marketing Manager at environmental charity Global Action Plan.

I’m Anita Okunde, I’m 16 years old with she/her pronouns. Over the last year I have actively become more involved in advocating for climate change and holding governments and polluters accountable for their role in it. I started off in year 10 by asking my school to change from plastic cutlery to more sustainable materials which has made are carbon footprints smaller. Over this lockdown especially I have continued to educate myself on climate change and dedicated my time to helping
other organisations such as Youth Strike Manchester and Friday for Future Digital and international in order to help them reach their goals for climate change! With climate
justice there is social justice and I believe that intersectional environmental justice is an important aspect that needs to lead the youth climate movement.

Dominic Hogg is Chairman of Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd. In his twenty-five years of consulting experience, he has always sought to push the boundaries of what is possible in respect of improving management of waste, and driving a more circular economy. At a strategic level, he led a team supporting the European Commission in the revision of the major waste Directives, another which developed the Plastics Strategy, and another which provided the impact assessment for the so-called single-use plastics directive. In the UK, his work has included supporting Defra on the design of a revised extended producer responsibility scheme for packaging, designing a deposit refund scheme for Zero Waste Scotland, and a plastics strategy for WRAP Cymru. He has long been an advocate of closer links being made between climate change and waste management. A major piece for Friends of the Earth was followed by the launch of a report for Zero Waste Europe on this topic in 2015. The earlier work is now being updated for another major NGO.

David is responsible for Sustainability and Growth at Procure Plus, a Manchester based social housing regeneration and purchasing company. He has spent over 15 years working in client facing roles across public and private sector organisations delivering programmes and bespoke projects involving business support and consultancy relating to the sustainability and procurement agendas.

He is an active member of numerous regional and national initiatives including Electricity Northwest’s Sustainability Advisory Panel, the Energy and Buildings sub groups of Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Green City Region Partnership Board, the GM Low Carbon Asset Managers’ Group, the National Housing Federation’s North West Asset Managers’ Group and he was awarded Life Fellow status of the national Centre of Refurbishment Excellence.

David is in involved in developing and project managing capital investment programmes in the social housing and wider public sector, including a ground-breaking £14m ERDF project, and in strategic delivery projects and policy development at a regional and sub regional level.

Prior to working at Procure Plus, David was Procurement and Sustainable Construction Manager at Elevate East Lancashire, the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder for Pennine Lancashire, and the manager of the Procurement Programme for the environmental business support organisation Enivirolink Northwest.

Dr Adam Read is responsible for government engagement and collaborative working with CIWM, the ESA and other trade bodies in the UK and internationally.

Adam has more than 25 years’ experience in the waste sector as an academic, researcher, local authority officer and consultant. For 15 years he has supported local authorities in reviewing their services, procuring solutions, and considering alternative partnering models, from in-sourcing and joint working, to contracting, profit share options, and true open book accounting whilst a consultant.

He is a respected ‘waste management’ academic, Adam holds visiting lectureships at a number of UK Universities, including Research Fellowships at the Universities of Brighton and Kingston. He was formerly Visiting Professor at Northampton University, an honour reflecting his innovative work on public consultation and engagement in waste management services, and sits on the Editorial Board of a number of the leading academic journals, including Resources, Conservation & Recycling and the Journal of Solid Waste Technology & Management.

He has spoken widely at practical waste management conferences in the UK and across the globe, and is extensively published in the academic and practical press. He has spoken at major international conferences and is also on the Editorial Board of Sustain, a regular contributor to the CIWM Waste Management Journal, is Editorial Advisor to Resource and has had his own monthly column on letsrecycle.com and waste & resource management websites. Adam is currently an RWM Ambassador.

Adam has been ranked in the top 20 of the Resource Hot 100 most influential waste professionals for the last 8 years, and is the youngest recipient of a CIWM fellowship.

As Chief Executive Officer of SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, John is responsible for driving forward the SUEZ group’s SUEZ 2030 vision in the UK, and for continuing to mobilise SUEZ’s newly won contracts in Greater Manchester and Somerset.

John’s industrial leadership and strategic vision has been forged over his 28-year career with SUEZ, since joining in 1991 as one of the company’s first employees in the UK. He has been an integral part of the executive committee since 2003.

John has held a variety of operational and business development roles within SUEZ, which lead to becoming Chief Operating Officer of Operations in 2015, and prior to that Chief Operating Officer of the Processing division. Before these appointments, John was Business Development Director where he was heavily involved with the first PFI contract that SUEZ won in Surrey in 1997 and became the General Manager for that contract in 2000.

Jess Mahoney has six years’ experience working in the waste and recycling sector. Jess is part of the education team. She delivers virtual education session and visits at two education centres in Wythenshawe and Bolton, and jointly develops the education resources along with delivering any training or education sessions off site for the Waste and Resources team.
Jess lives in Oldham with her husband.
Jess graduated from the MMU in 2013 with a degree in Biology. She began her career in waste and recycling as an Outreach worker on the Life plus project for the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.