Speakers

Alessandra McConville - Climate and Environment Programmes Leader : EEF The Manufacturers Organisation

Alessandra McConville is Climate and Environment Programmes Leader at EEF the manufacturers' association. She is responsible for developing new services for EEF members and clients and is currently rolling out EEF's Carbon Reduction Commitment support services. She joined EEF from the Carbon Trust, where she worked in a variety of roles including low carbon innovation with a focus on low carbon buildings. Prior to the Carbon Trust, Alessandra was a consultant in the Energy group at Deloitte Consulting working on a variety of projects including the London Congestion Charging project. She has also worked at the International Energy Agency's Clean Coal Centre, the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute, AEA Technology and Environmental Resources Management.

Andrew Wiseman - Head of Environmental Law: Stephenson Harwood

Andrew has extensive experience of all aspects of environmental law. He is listed in the Chambers Guide to Legal Profession as one of the country's leading environmental lawyers which has referred to him "as being without question a leader ….. " and "admired for his ability to explain issues ….in a calm and clear fashion" and having "won praise from clients for his impressive knowledge……… ".. Andrew is a past chair of the UK Environmental Law Association and currently is the convenor of UKELA's contaminated land working party. He is the chair of the London Borough of Islington's climate change fund advisory panel and has been appointed by the Minister of State to chair the advisory council of the Export Credits Guarantee Department. He has also acted as a specialist advisor to the Local Government Association on environmental law and is a Vice Chair of Environmental Protection UK's Land Quality Committee. He has written for various publications and been interviewed on television and radio including BBC News 24, the 6 and 10 O'clock news, Watchdog, Radio 4 and 5. He is on the editorial board of Environmental Law & Management published by Lawtext.

Barry Paschali - Founder & Director: Paschali Engineering and Management Consultancy

Barry Paschali [that’s Pas-ka-lee] has enjoyed over a quarter of a century in the multidisciplinary world of engineering. He has worked at director level for global engineering firms and possesses a wealth of experience in the diverse sectors of renewables, sustainability and carbon reduction. Since its launch last year, Paschali Engineering and Management Consulting has already attracted the attention of international clients – including Regus, the world’s leading global provider of innovative workspace solutions, for which Barry is helping to install a greener working policy, plus guidance on CRC Energy Saving Scheme compliance (previously known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment).Barry’s passion for sustainability and vision for making the most of existing buildings was fostered at Arup where he jointly wrote the Existing Buildings Survival Strategies Guide, showing how to re-energise tired assets and reduce operational costs, demonstrating how sustainability adds value. He built upon his early chartered status when he joined Atkins and successfully furthered their business and staff growth, despite the 1990s recession. Barry generated extensive interest in his unique Paschali Engineering and Management Consulting business with its official launch at the prestigious Energy Solutions section of the Working Buildings Exhibition at the London Olympia in October 2009.

Ben Wielgus - Lead CRC Advisor: Carbon Advisory Group, KPMG

Ben has been a member of KPMG’s carbon and sustainability advisory groups for almost 6 years. During this time he has worked with a wide range of clients, helping them understand the risks and opportunities from the sustainability agenda. His clients come from all three sectors of the economy, ranging from global petrochemical producers and mining companies, to NHS trusts, universities, Government departments and national charities. Ben has increasingly been involved in supporting clients address the challenges presented by the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) and is a frequently requested speaker at national events, focussing on sustainability reporting, management and organisational cooperation. He also regularly works with bodies such as the CBI, ICAEW, CIPFA, BVCA, LGIU, LSA, BSA and others to help them and their members understand how this legislation will affect industry members.For the last twelve months, Ben has worked almost full time on the CRC, developing a number of solutions for clients that help them understand the impact of the legislation, their preparedness to comply and developing good practice solutions to individual challenges. This includes trading strategies, monitoring and reporting controls, as well as building board buy in and helping organisations structure appropriately to address the challenge of the sustainability agenda.

Elizabeth Hinde - Lead Officer: British Retail Consortium

Elizabeth graduated from the University of Leicester in 1998 with a BSc in Communications and Society. She began her career in policy at the National Farmers Union as a horticultural policy adviser lobbying on behalf of farmers in both the UK and Europe. Since leaving the NFU in 2002 she has worked for a number of public sector organisations in the areas of transport, housing and environment as a policy manager. Elizabeth joined the BRC in April this year and is responsible for the policy areas of Property, Energy and Transport. Elizabeth is the lead officer for the BRC on the Carbon Reduction Commitment and worked closely with members to engage with the Department for Energy and Climate Change on the final regulations for the scheme.

Jane Dennett-Thorpe - Department of Energy and Climate Change

Jane leads the team responsible for developing and bringing in the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme. She joined the civil service in 2003 and has worked on a variety of high profile environmental, energy and climate change policy areas. Before that she had a varied career, including working as an astrophysicist.

John Barraclough - Project Director for Business Futures: Sustainability West Midlands

John is a Sustainability West Midlands Associate who leads on business engagement and is currently the SWM Project Director for the Business Futures project. Over the last few years, John has been actively involved with the development and delivery of a number of resource efficiency and carbon reduction programmes, targeted at helping businesses across the West Midlands region to become more sustainable. As well as working for Sustainability West Midlands, John has also spent time with a number of other sustainable business solutions providers including Envirowise, Groundwork, WRAP, Advantage West Midlands and Business Link West Midlands. John comes from a technical background, having spent over 15 years working in technical roles within the food and drink industry. He also has direct experience of providing consultancy to help companies to implement environmental management systems and reduce their carbon footprint.Through Business Futures John is currently looking to identify and recruit large companies from across the West Midlands that are leading on Sustainable Development.

Mark Johnson - Principal Consultant: AEA

Mark is a Principal Consultant with AEA. He manages consultancy projects for a range of private and public sector clients in the energy and environment arena. In particular, he manages AEA’s technical support to DECC and the Environment Agency on the Carbon Reduction Commitment. Mark has delivered other emissions trading policy projects covering the spectrum from the EU ETS to personal carbon trading and is AEA’s Knowledge Leader in this area. Mark has also managed many carbon reduction, carbon footprint and emission reporting projects for private sector clients. Prior to joining AEA Mark worked for a large UK power utility for 10 years, where his work included energy and environmental policy analysis covering the range of measures affecting the sector.

Max Jamieson - Consultant: ICF

Max is a consultant at ICF’s London office where he supports both public and private sector organisations on climate change strategy and policy development. His work at ICF includes providing carbon management and CRC support services for a range of private sector organisations. He has also supported carbon market analysis and carbon credit development assignments for international organisations and market participants. Max holds an MSc in Environmental Technology specialising in energy policy from Imperial College London. ICF is a leading global management, technology, and policy consulting company, which has been supporting Governmental and private sector efforts to tackle climate change since the mid-1980s.

Simon Mendham - Senior Energy Manager: Land Securities

Simon has recently joined Land Securities as their Senior Energy Manager.
He has worked in the Energy Management field for the past 18 years. Simon has had Energy Management roles on the client side with Vodafone and Thames Water, and on the consultant side with National Britannia. He has a broad range of experience in energy conservation, energy Procurement and everything in between. He has also attained an MSC in Energy Technology & Economics at the City University in London.

Steph Hague - Technical Manager: Enviros

Steph has over 15 years experience of energy use in buildings, covering energy audits, monitoring and targeting, and managing the implementation of recommendations. She worked as an in-house Energy Manager for South Yorkshire Police before joining Enviros in 1995, where she is currently a technical manager for the Climate Change and Renewables team.Currently projects involve working with a number of organisations to provide assistance and guidance in preparation for the Carbon Reduction Commitment. This work ranges from project management support for compliance, the development of tools for data collection through to assisting organisations improve their league table position. For instance, such projects include addressing Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) and support to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard.The Climate Change and Renewables team at Enviros have provided support to Government throughout the development of the CRC including an economic cost—benefit analysis of CRC participation for the NHS (DECC, 2008) (which Enviros completed together with NERA) and three analyses of stakeholder responses to Government consultations on the CRC (most recently for DECC, 2009).