04 Track 4

[00:04.98] Can you tell me about your job, and what do you do, and

[00:08.59] what it involves?

[00:09.98] HB: I'm an environmental consultant, but more specifically

[00:12.78] environmental impact assessment. It's to do mostly

[00:16.62] with planning for construction of new buildings, that's

[00:19.90] where the majority of our work is, and it's if you build

[00:23.71] something, you can't just build whatever you like, in

[00:27.04] the way that you seek planning permission, part of it is

[00:29.47] environmental permission. And so we do the evaluation

[00:33.13] of the impact the development would have if it were built

[00:36.26] on the environment as it stands now, and we do it from

[00:40.41] ecological point of view, air quality ...

[00:42.93] I: So, when a new client comes to you, er, what, what is

[00:49.07] their objective?

[00:50.21] HB: It depends. Um, some businesses are obliged to report

[00:54.48] their emissions and waste and all of that sort of thing;

[00:59.18] so they may ask for help with how they should do their

[01:03.68] report. And some people just want to for the sake of their

[01:08.43] reputation, and energy saving, money saving, all sorts of

[01:13.21] different reasons. Um, but generally it works well if it's

[01:17.94] not just that they're reporting it - if they're monitoring it,

[01:22.46] then once they have the data and the figures, it's, like, the

[01:26.62] best time for them to then start managing what they're

[01:29.11] doing. And so, if it's a combined system of reporting,

[01:32.99] monitoring and managing all together, they can, they

[01:35.47] have the most sort of efficient impact, and that's what we

[01:39.41] would usually try and encourage people to do.

[01:41.88] J: And in general, what can any company do to become

[01:46.68] greener?

[01:48.06] HB: Um, I think thinking about it is the first step, and identifying

[01:52.48] your, your main areas of environmental impact. So even

[01:56.39] if you're just a one-person office, it's probably going to

[01:59.76] be waste, because you're throwing out paper and that

[02:02.54] sort of thing. So if you, if you just as one person thought

[02:05.62] about that, you could probably halve it by just not printing

[02:07.89] everything, or reusing paper, that sort of thing. And so

[02:11.82] then it's just on a larger scale, with a larger company.So

[02:15.46] it's also telling your staff that you want to reduce your

[02:19.70] environmental impact so that you can get everyone

[02:22.80] involved with it, but if you're, if you have a policy and no

[02:25.57] one knows about it, then it's completely pointless.

[02:27.81] I: And what attracted you to this career?

[02:29.78] HB: Well, I did a science degree for my first degree, and

[02:33.66] then I didn't really want to work just in a research lab;

[02:36.76] although I enjoyed it, I didn't find, like, the diversity that interesting, and it was very focused on one project in one

[02:44.10] lab. And t4en I wanted to do something similar that used

[02:48.81] science skills, but not solely science, so I decided to do a

[02:52.71] Master's in environmental science.

[02:54.73] I: What do you think about new technology? I mean, the

[02:59.45] business world's gone through a huge process of change.

[03:01.97] What changes do you see might, um, present, themselves

[03:07.62] in the future?

[03:08.20] HB: I think there's, um, quite a big move towards people

[03:14.36] working remotely from home- or whatever location

[03:16.61] they want- and having, not having so many fixed desks

[03:21.37] in an office, because that's where they're paying their

[03:23.04] overheads. And, the majority of people, if they're on the

[03:26.12] Internet, and all of the files are accessible to everyone,

[03:30.06] they don't need to be physically sitting in an office. And I

[03:32.84] think that's where a lot of companies in London expend

[03:35.89] a lot of money, because rents are so high, and service

[03:38.66] charges, and everything like that. If they can reduce the

[03:41.76] office space they need, and maybe focus on just meetings,

[03:46.41] as and when, with their project teams, I think that's

[03:50.08] probably what people would want to do.

[03:52.34] I: And can you prepare yourself for that change?

[03:55.73] HB: Yeah, I mean, I, I think you do lose something in not

[03:57.68] sitting next to the people you work with, and it also

[04:00.43] means that you can't ask a quick question. So I think

[04:04.33] when you're new, it's really valuable to have people

[04:07.95] around you, and perhaps it will just be that more senior

[04:11.46] people do that, or people who know that they've got

[04:16.00] enough work to cover them for the next couple of weeks

[04:18.46] will only come in when they need to see someone. But,

[04:20.98] yeah, I do think it's a shame that you lose the social

[04:24.05] element of the office, and that is something that's really

[04:27.72] nice about working in big teams, and that sort of thing.