ProGRESS

Season 3 round-up: The lightbulb moment Featuring all 11 guests, this end-of-season episode highlights guests' explanations of how, when and why they got into their career. For some, it was a natural progression from a childhood interest or obsession, while others had a lightbulb or lightning bolt moment that made them reassess their courses or careers. About ProGRESS: Host Sandra Kessell invites...

In spite of business liquidation and a divorce, award-winning f:Entrepreneur Beccy Dickson and now ex-husband Macey Mitchell decided to remain business partners, founding Branded Bio, which supplies sustainable walls and backdrops full of living green plants and flowers for events, to interior designers and even to cover electric vehicle chargers and furniture. In fact it was a living plant-covere...

A creative child who was also interested in science, Helen Walsh was encouraged by her teacher parents to explore all her interests, something that stood her in good stead for her future career. Helen was fascinated by sharks as a child – though growing up in Stoke she was about as far away from the sea as it is possible to be in the UK. An animal lover and budding conservationist, even then, Hele...

Dr Matthew C Halteman is a professor of philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan and a fellow at the Oxford Centre of Animal Ethics. Beside his academic work, Matthew is on the board of directors for The Better Food Foundation and Creature Kind, and he's the author of Hungry Beautiful Animals: The Joyful Case for Going Vegan . Matt urges us to stop looking for moral perfectionism...

Jonathan Mearns OBE, has a job role topical to the festive season. Jonathan is a founder of London Christmas Tree Rental. The company rents out living Norway Spruce trees in England's capital city over the Christmas period. Trees are picked up by their temporary owners, then returned to their nursery after a brief encounter with the indoors. The idea of renting out Christmas trees sprang to life w...

Rachel Johnson's career was going swimmingly. In the two decades since graduating from University of Leeds, she had worked her way up through various early careers and student research organisations, such as Milkround, Not Going to Uni, UCAS and Cibyl at Group GTI, an independent market research agency specialising in student research projects across the UK and Ireland. She was a business director...

A decade ago Canadian Don Weatherbee moved from his long career crunching the numbers in mining to join a gold recovery company. From there, it wasn't such a big leap to start working with the pioneering technology business RegenX, innovating the way precious metals are recycled, particularly those in end-of-life catalytic converters. As part of the circular economy, reusing materials that have al...

Danielle Neal is a procurement officer for Norwich City Council. They gained a first class honours degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia, (UEA), studying a course that included a year in industry. Initially, and because of their strong background in business studies, Dani thought their future would be lie in accounting and finance, but because of their interest in con...

Jo Faulkner-Harvey studied theatre design but left her degree early when she was offered an amazing internship. It meant working on productions and prop-making behind the scenes on such classic films as Alien. But a twist of fate a few years later found her back in Northamptonshire, working at Silverstone racing circuit before she landed a job at Oxfordshire's hospice, Katharine House. In this epi...

Part 2 If you've heard of Stuart Mabbutt, it's likely to be through his podcast or his business Wildman Environmental Learning. His sensory nature workshops enable people to connect with the natural world, and sometimes an unlikely beginning leads to a life revelation. When he’s not doing that, Stuart is a wildlife sound recordist and producer, an author, public speaker, radio host and a wild...

Part 1 Stuart Mabbutt can recall the first time he engaged with the natural world and wanted to know more. He was in primary school, came across a dead magpie, and wondered why someone had ringed it. His teacher, meanwhile, was trying to persuade Stuart to leave it alone. And so began a lifelong involvement, not only in nature, but in being something of a contrarian. If you've heard of Stuart, it'...

Shaheer Hafeez left university and started studying for his accountancy exams with a view to going into a career in audit. But volunteering with the social enterprise Generation Success, and meeting its founder James Adeleke showed Shaheer just how far a can-do attitude can take you. He shifted his focus to work in Environmental Social and Governance and climate risk, applied for a job with Big 4...

Sarah Daly is a climate champion and independent sustainability consultant who advises organisations, businesses and agencies. A TEDx speaker, Sarah is a leading LinkedIn sustainability influencer, and is named in the 2023 Unlock Net Zero Climate Champions' Power List. Sarah's varied workload includes discussing responsible supply chains and procurement, or advising City of London businesses on de...

Imogen Overy is a personal trainer (PT) at the UK’s first carbon neutral gym chain. As a vegan, she chooses a plant-based diet, but she encourages clients to eat to be healthy, meat included if they want it. Imogen was studying classical civilisations at the University of Warwick, with a view to going into law, when she decided in her second year that she didn't want an office job. Working in a ca...

He shelved his ambition to be a chef, went to university and for 25 years ate no meat. Then Glen Burrows became an omnivore. Glen discusses his high-octane, interesting and hugely successful career as a globally sought-after professional photographer and videographer, and his very intriguing personal choices around food. Having been the 'awkward veggie one' among his meat-eating friends, Glen foun...

Kurt Henderson is a polymath. Before Kurt landed at the B-Corps certified company Byway Travel he was an entrepreneur, starting his first venture while at school. He began studying architectural technology at Brighton University but switched to digital media and design, a move he describes as "one of the best decisions I've ever made." Now he's a senior product designer at Byway, which coordinates...

After leaving school and studying fashion design Nicki Black joined a PR firm. She hated it. But a friendly stylist took Nicki under her wing and helped her navigate into the world of fashion shoots. Over the last 20-plus years she has carved out a stellar career as a fashion and creative director, working on campaigns for big-name brands such as Adidas, Under Armour and Next, as well as in-house...

Mark Harvey is the managing director of Fielden Whisky of England. Fielden puts emphasis on the heart of its whisky, ancient grains grown on chemical-free land, planted with an under-storey of white clover. Everything starts from this point of regenerative farming and the grain is grown across England, from Cornwall to Norfolk. But as Mark says in the podcast, if the whisky didn't taste good the m...

Lydia Carrington works as the sustainability manager for the iconic cricket stadium Edgbaston, which is something of a beacon when it comes to promoting green sporting events. Edgbaston Stadium's commitment to changing its carbon emissions for the better is particularly noticable on match days, when as many as 25,000 people watch from the stadium and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) more wa...

Host Sandra recaps on some of the best bits since the show was launched at the beginning of 2024 and picks out a highlight from each of the 12 guests featured in series 1. She reflects on the amazing insights they've shared, the actions they took along their career pathway and there are some funny stories in there too. All the episodes, along with shownote links to the materials, sites, books and...

Sarah Ashworth was the first in her family to go to university after receiving a contextualised offer in recognition of her achievement. She studied pathology and microbiology at Bristol University and remembers the benefits she gained from a Nuffield Foundation placement. She also talks about working in water quality control for AstraZeneca in her industrial placement year and her PhD research wo...

Duncan's career change from advertising and marketing executive to social entrepreneur and charity head was instigated after a life changing six-month world motorbiking trip. He returned to the UK with a vision: selling bottled water for good causes and using the profits to bring clean water projects to the one billion people worldwide who lived without access to it. Duncan explains why he went in...

Sanjukta Jitendhar​​​​ is an architect working at Mikhail Riches. In this episode she discusses her professional philosophy and aspirations, and her views on rent affordability and home ownership, particularly for her generation. She also talks about refurbishing and repurposing existing homes and buildings, rather than demolishing and rebuilding them. Sanju (as she's known) started to develop an...

Jake Fiennes is director of the Holkham Nature Reserve and general manager, conservation, at Holkham Estate in Norfolk. But he left school aged 16 to move to London and work at a nightclub and from there, his career path involved a few twists and turns before he became a hugely respected and listened-to conservationist and advisor. Jake credits his parents with enabling their children to become in...

Global climate change scientist Professor Rachel Warren is internationally respected for her research but she could probably walk down any street in any country without people realising the scale and reach of her work. In this episode Rachel explains how an early interest in bird conservation marked the start of her awareness of the environment. While studying physics and the natural sciences at C...