Your MAC representatives

We’re pleased to announce the first ever EAUC Members appointed to the Member Advisory Council (MAC) in August 2011, following a Member vote.

We encourage you to get in contact as they exist to represent your views and your voice.

In alphabetical order:

Current MAC Representatives
Aled Jones Director of the Global Sustainability Institute, Anglia Ruskin University I am the inaugural Director of the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. Previously I was Deputy Director at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Within our institute we aim to develop research across the breadth of sustainability with core strengths in climate change policy, ecosystems, education for sustainability and consumer behaviour change. I chair a working group for Greg Barker MP, Minister for Climate Change, looking at how to scale up investments into solutions to tackle climate change and have been recognised for my work in the field of international climate finance by the State of California. I have led several teams in the field of sustainability and also acted as the facilitator for the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, the P8 Group of pension funds and the ClimateWise group of insurers and have been the director for numerous sustainability and climate change education programmes.
Andy Nolan Director of Sustainable Development, Sheffield City Council I have 7 years experience of work in the FHE sector and became a Member of the EAUC in 1999 through my work with The University of Bradford, then Leeds Metropolitan University. I was a key figure in the early stages of the development of EcoCampus and the BitC Environment Index (Universities that Count developed from this) and worked closely with the HEEPI team. I took on the role of Convenor during my 3½ years as Environment Manager at The University of Sheffield leading the EAUC through a transformational phase. I bring 6 years experience of working in a strategic role in local government, shaping local policy and working closely with civil servants in Whitehall. I have experience of working in policy development with Ministers in both DfT, DECC and Defra. I chair the Core Cities Climate Change Working Group and am a Member of The University of Sheffield’s Estate Advisory Board.
Caroline Radnor Sustainable Travel Coordinator, University of Birmingham I have worked in transport planning for 9 years with the last 6 years specialising in sustainable travel planning. Since 2008 I have been the Sustainable Travel Coordinator for the University of Birmingham and am responsible for implementing the University’s Travel Plan and a new car park management strategy. I am currently working on a strategy to introduce parking control measures at the University as a tool to increase the number of staff, students and visitors travelling by sustainable modes such as walking, cycling and public transport. Prior to joining the University of Birmingham I worked as a Senior Transport Planner for JMP Consultants, a private transport planning consultancy. I specialised in travel planning and was involved in developing a number of travel plans for organisations and developers, and auditing Area Travel Plans under the Highways Agency’s Influencing Travel Behaviour Programme. I chair the EAUC’s Transport Planning Network Group and represent them in discussions with HEFCE and the British Parking Association. I have presented at a number of conferences regarding sustainable transport, car parking and the work of the EAUC Transport Group.
Chris Long Safety and Sustainable Development Manager, Bridgend College I have significant experience in both the industrial and educational sectors where I have developed integrated management systems that encompass health, safety, wellbeing, sustainability, corporate health and safeguarding. Within the past two years I have played a significant part in helping Bridgend College achieve the Corporate Health Standard at gold level and the Green Dragon Environmental Standard at level 3. My responsibilities extend to development of college-wide strategies, including green travel, biodiversity, climate change, waste, recycling and water. I am currently drafting an ESDGC strategy proposal and am an active member of several steering groups and committees. I am a Chartered Environmentalist and Chartered Health and Safety Practitioner with full membership of both IEMA and IOSH. I am highly motivated with high personal standards and a rigorous approach to achieving tasks and objectives. I have excellent organisational skills and strategic appreciation and vision.
Claire Lea Director of Membership Services, Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) As IEMA’s Director of Membership Services, my focus is concentrated upon professional competence and standards, development and training, and the knowledge and skills required by the environmental profession to achieve change. I am a Full member of IEMA (MIEMA), a Director of the SiLC (Specialists in Land Condition) Register and IEMA’s representative on the Registration Authority of Society for the Environment – IEMA’s license to award Chartered Environmentalist. I lead IEMA’s work on environmental skills; launching the competency framework for the environmental profession in June 2011. It provides a career pathway and for employers/businesses/consultancies it provides clarity about the knowledge and skills their environmental professionals need. I have developed environmental national occupational standards and developed environmental training course syllabi. With a degree in business management and the environment and a Masters degree in integrated environmental management, I have over 10 years experience in professional standards and membership service roles.
Conrad Benefield Sustainability Programme Development Manager, Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) Over the last few years I have led LSIS’ (and previously CEL’s) strategic response to the sustainability agenda, including working closely with partners. colleges and providers in the FE sector to develop opportunities and resources to support leadership, capacity building and organisational improvement in sustainability and carbon reduction. As a result I have seen the sustainability agenda grow and evolve and have gained extensive experience of sustainability in action in the FE sector. Most recently I have developed LSIS’ strategy and action plan on sustainability (Leading and Learning for a Sustainable Future) and led its implementation. I and LSIS/CEL have been keen advocates and supporters of the EAUC and other partners in leading and advocating sustainability in the FE sector, and I have worked in partnership with EAUC on a number of projects to maximise the contribution that both LSIS and EAUC can make to the sector.
David Somervell Sustainability Advisor, University of Edinburgh I trained as an architect and worked as a Community Energy Project Manager, then Technical Services Manager in Heatwise Glasgow, a large organisation employing 450 people in Glasgow’s schemes. I was appointed the first Energy Manager at the University of Edinburgh, then Energy and Environmental Manager, Energy and Sustainability Manager and now off the tools as Sustainability Adviser. I organised the 1990 Energy Management in Further and Higher Education Conference held at Edinburgh which was attended by 120 delegates from all over UK and was editor of Educated Energy Management which grew out of the conference. I co-authored UCCCfS in 2008/09. I’m also involved in management committees of nearly a dozen voluntary organisations as a member / trustee / director and recognise that this is not an easy role. I’m a committed conciliator, Quaker and change agent.
Elaine Crawford Sustainability Development Advisor, Dumfries and Galloway College I have an MA in Environmental Sustainability and an MSc in Carbon Management. Throughout my studies I worked at Dumfries and Galloway College as the Student Association Liaison Assistant, and as a result of this and work I did within the college during a work placement, the role of Sustainable Development Adviser was created for me. This is a part-time role and my main remit is to embed education for sustainable development (ESD) in the curriculum. I also work part-time as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the University of Glasgow where I teach the environmental strand of summer school and also help teach on the undergraduate programme Environmental Stewardship. I am starting a PhD with the University of Glasgow in September 2011 which will be looking at ESD in tertiary education within Scotland.
Erik Bichard Professor, University of Salford I have worked in the field of sustainable change my entire career across four different sectors (public, private, third and academic).I am currently a Professor of Regeneration and Sustainable Development at Salford University. Before I took up this role I was for 10 years Executive Director of the National Centre for Business and Sustainability, a 3rd sector company formed by the Universities of Manchester and the Co-operative Bank. Prior to this I was an environmental planner with Cheshire County before becoming a sustainability consultant with Entec and ERM. I have been until recently on the National Sustainable Development Panel. At Salford I am the academic representative on the Carbon Management Board and I am Team Leader for our Change Academy (HEA) initiative to integrate sustainability across the whole curriculum. My research is on motivation to change behaviour on the way people respond to the threats from climate change in the built environment.
Esin Esat Director of Sustainability, Bedford College In the past 8 years I have been very proactive in embedding sustainability into Bedford College’s curriculum and operations as well as contributing to national initiatives to embed SD into the Learning and Skills Sector. Leading numerous low carbon industry and low carbon skills projects and having gained many awards in recognition of our work, Bedford College is now recognised as a sector leader in sustainability. Examples include Skills for Energy CoVE (2005), Green Gown Award - Courses (2008), Green Gown Award - Colleges, Highly Commended (2009), Green Gown Award - Skills (2010) and National Skills Academy in Environmental Technologies East of England Hub (2011).
James Wilman Data Centre Strategy, Future-Tech Established in 1982 as a commercial fit out contractor, data centres and other close control ICT environments make up 100% of Future-Tech’s turnover. During the last 24 months Future-Tech has worked on 73 data centres and this work has varied from minor improvements to air conditioning and power systems to complete design, construction and maintenance contracts. The company currently has 34 planned preventative maintenance clients that span the UK and mainland Europe. Future-Tech won the Data Centre Dynamics Innovation in Design Award in both 2009 and 2010 for the creative methods used in rejecting and reusing heat generated from the nominated facilities. The company has also recently been awarded the Uptime Institute’s most prestigious Green Enterprise IT Award for its RARE data centre at the University of Hertfordshire. Future-Tech has successfully built Tier 2/3 data centres with PUEs as low as 1.16 and the company ethos is that resilience and energy efficiency can go hand in hand providing the correct design process is followed.
Jamie Agombar Ethical and Environmental Manager, NUS I am a senior manager at NUS and, working across the NUS Group, head up the successful Ethical and Environment Department. Over eight years in the role, I have overseen development of NUS’s award-winning national engagement programme; greening students, students’ unions, institutions, communities and suppliers. In 2010/11, my team delivered Degrees Cooler – an engagement programme that led to swings in behaviours of up to 15% across 90,000 students and staff; Green Impact Universities and Colleges – a departmental accreditation scheme at 35 institutions covering 630 departments containing 36,000 staff; a major Defra-funded action based research project into the barriers and motivators of pro-environmental behaviours; the HEA/NUS survey into first-year students’ attitudes to, and skills in, sustainable development. I sit on a total of nine sector sustainability committees and roundtables, and my specialist interests are behaviour change theory and delivery, student and staff engagement and education for sustainable development.
Karl Jackson CTL Built Environment and HE Coordinator, South Cheshire College I have extensive experience working within Construction, Manufacturing and, for the past seven years, Further Education. My current role differentiates between that of HE Coordinator and Course Lead for Higher Qualifications in the Built Environment. I have also held the title of Estates Manager on a one year secondment. I completed an MSc in Construction Project Management with Loughborough University in 2010 and I am currently undertaking a PhD with a focus on “Implementing new technologies into buildings of the past”. Other qualifications include Level 5 in Management, teaching qualifications, BRE assessment etc. I am also College Lead for the Environmental Hub. I’m currently project managing a special project on behalf of the College where the development and conversion of a Victorian building is being converted into a Centre for Alternative Technologies (CAT).
Kat Thorne Head of Sustainability, University of Greenwich I am currently the Head of Sustainability at the University of Greenwich, and am responsible for leading the University’s drive to improve its sustainability performance across all its activities. I am also co-chair of the London Universities Environmental Group which brings together universities in the South East region on a monthly basis to share knowledge and support one another through the challenges and the opportunities! Prior to this I was a Strategic Sustainability Consultant and worked with large organisations benchmarking their performance and developing and implementing their sustainability and corporate responsibility strategies. I have also worked for Business in the Community supporting companies and local organisations to work together to regenerate local communities.
Keith Pitcher Director of Sustainability, University of Nottingham I have worked in the HE sector since 2003 in Environmental Management, working with students and staff to embed sustainability into campus and curricula. I have led Environment sections at Leeds and Nottingham Universities, to develop and implement policies and programmes for carbon management, transport, grounds and waste management, and teaching and learning programmes, resulting in 5 Green Gown awards achieved. I participated in HEA’s Green Academy programme. I was an EAUC Board member from 2005 to 2010 and helped the transformation into the successful Association we now have. I worked in the water and renewable energy industries, including developing 3 wind farms in the Pennines. This required communication and planning skills with local authorities, residents and consultees and with UK policy and European Commission departments, winning £ multi million grants.
Liz Smith Programme Co-ordinator FE HE, Sustrans Working for Sustrans, I have gained a wealth of experience in development and delivery of sustainable transport initiatives. I’m Sustrans’ programme co-ordinator for the FE/HE sector and have a UK wide overview of Sustrans work. Responsible for ensuring methods of best practise are shared between current university projects, I also identify and develop new active travel opportunities within the sector and build effective partnership opportunities. I have previously worked in the realm of community led street design and used key project and management skills to help design and deliver successful neighbourhood schemes for Sustrans. Overall, my special skills and expertise in facilitation, partnership working and sustainable transport project development would ensure that I’m a sound representative to champion active travel initiatives as well as someone who is able to make a valuable contribution toward the process of effective communication between MAC and EAUC members.
Mark Durdin Energy and Environment Engineer, Swansea University I have spent the last 17 years working within the HE Estate at a large University in South Wales. I am currently responsible for energy and environmental issues for the University, covering such diverse issues as Waste, Carbon Emissions, Travel Planning, Environmental Management Systems, Biodiversity and awareness raising. I have previously worked for a Rural Local Authority as an electrical design engineer, designing the electrical infrastructure for buildings ranging from schools to a state of the art police station.
Maureen Ellis Associate Lecturer, Open University Teacher Training, consultancies and publications in Applied Linguistics and Inter-cultural education in over 50 countries. Work experience in Eastern Europe, Middle East, SE Asia. Employed by UK universities, exam bodies, publishers, British Council, both in the UK and abroad. Have frequently submitted reports to Ministries of Education overseas. Expertise in Language and Communication for governance, science, international relations and business. Regularly present at international and national conferences; published textbooks for teachers and students; reviewed work in ELTJ; conducted research involving 400+ teachers at Institute of Education and other HEIs. I’m currently Coordinator of Global Issues SIG, one of 14 SIGs of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), which had its 45th annual conference at Brighton in April this year. At the Open University, elected positions on the Associate Lecturers Assembly, on Faculty Committee, and this year relinquish a role on Education and Professional Development.
Michelle Dixon Director, Revise Ltd I have been working in the FHE Sector for the last 8 years and have become a well known member of the EAUC. Initially as Environmental Manager at the University of Hertfordshire I led initiatives relating to all the key sector programmes at that time – the HECM Carbon Management Programme, EcoCampus and the EAUC Sustainable Procurement Programme. I also led Biodiversity and Waste Management Programmes and oversaw the implementation of the Travel Plan. Also at this time I managed the production of the Biodiversity Guide. Having developed my FHE sustainability management skills, I became a founding Director of Revise Ltd; a sustainability consultancy, training provider and software developer, established specifically for the FHE sector. Over the last 2½ years I have worked with over 30 FHE institutions and delivered sustainability training for several hundred FHE, including several programmes for the EAUC. I graduated from the University of Hertfordshire with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Studies and PhD in Environmental Management for Business.
Peter Rands Sustainability Development Manager, Canterbury Christ Church University I have a strong background in ICT having risen to Director of Computing Services at CCCU for 5 years until 2006. Maximising the potential and limiting resource use of ICT has been a key driver for me in the last 20 years. In the late 1990s I led a large scale implementation of thin client technology, extending the life of potentially redundant PCs for a further 3 years. In 2006 I took on a technical project director role for a £35m strategic development of a new Library and Student Support Centre in Canterbury, with particular responsibility for M&E services and technical integration at an IT level. I worked on the sustainability aspects of the building and took part in the BREEAM HE Pilot in 2008. Since 2010 I have taken tactical responsibility for Sustainability across the University; from leadership to operations and engagement to education for sustainable development. I am currently the project leader for our Green Academy project; ‘The Futures Initiative’ and our EcoCampus Implementation at Christ Church.
Stuart Mullineux Director of Campus Services, City College Norwich I am the Director of Campus Services at City College Norwich and am responsible for the strategic direction, planning and delivery of the Environmental agenda at the College. We have instituted a number of programmes including technology investment totalling over £800,000 over three years to reduce energy consumption so far by 18%. At the same time we launched a staff and student engagement programme entitled Eco-warriors. Last year, in combination with an innovative switch of supply chain on reducing waste to landfill, our recycling rate rose from less than 8% to over 80%. Prior to joining CCN I have worked as head of a business unit managing the provision of Energy Performance Certificates, acclaimed by CLG auditors as the best practice in the industry. In addition I have directed a number of continuous improvement projects using Lean Six Sigma methods to reduce waste on all manufacturing processes.
Trudy Cunningham Environmental and Sustainability Officer, University of Dundee I have been in my current position for nearly 4 years. I started working for the university as a campaigns assistant whilst studying for my degrees. I have qualifications in Environmental Science, Sustainable Development , Renewable Energy and environmental modelling. I am an active member of several topic support networks in Scotland and co-convene the transport TSN. I am also a member of the operations (climate change) consultation group for UTC. I am a committee member of various organisations; Dundee Fair Trade Forum, Dundee in Bloom, Dundee transition group, Dundee partnership for the environment, TACTRAN sustainable transport group, both directly and indirectly connected with my role at the university. I first ‘preached’ to my mother about CFCs and the ozone layer over 30 years ago after reading an article about CFCs in aerosols. I promptly banned my mother from buying any more spray cans and I haven’t stopped warning and informing people about climate change since.
Victoria Hands Director of the Sustainability Hub, Kingston University I’m passionate about sustainable development, operational efficiency and collaboration. I took up the role of Director of the Sustainability Hub of Kingston University in January 2012 following 5 years at London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE). Here, I wrote my PhD on embedding sustainable development institutionally. I developed the Sustainability Team from a part-time post to a team of five full-time permanent positions and established an EMS. I reinvigorated and now co-chair the London Universities Environment Group, doubling membership and running a dynamic programme of monthly workshops. I am on the advisory board of NetImpact London and also coach development and leadership programmes. I’m a London Leader working closely with the GLA to promote leadership for sustainability. I’m an excellent presenter, networker and connector and am able to take a strategic yet practical delivery focused view. My areas of expertise include: sustainability indicators; zero waste; climate change and planning; urban sustainability; leadership; and motivation.
Yvonne Rowse Senior Environmental Consultant, ECUS Ltd With a degree in Metallurgy and an MSc in Water and Environmental Management, I have always had an interest in the challenges that exist between organisations and the environment. As the Environment Manager for Purac Ltd, I helped the company to achieve certification to ISO14001 before joining ECUS as a senior consultant. My expertise ranges from an indepth technical understanding of environmental legislation and the management of environmental risk to the broader challenges that sustainability poses to our economy and society. I believe my background and expertise have given me a range of skills which would add to MAC. I have excellent written skills which I use to share my knowledge and passion about environmental issues through our blog. I’m not afraid to share my opinions and ideas but I like to listen and understand other people’s points of view as well. My experience as a trainer gives me the ability to be inclusive in my interaction with others.