Sustainability Sprints

Can advertising ever really be sustainable? In this episode of Sustainability Sprints, we’re joined by Angela Rawstorne for a thoughtful conversation about media, fashion, consumer behaviour and the evolving role of sustainability inside the advertising industry. From conscious consumerism and greenwashing to carbon measurement and behaviour change, Angela reflects on the opportunities and tension...

Hannah Bloomfield joins Sustainability Sprints to talk climate resilient energy systems, interdisciplinary working and why sustainability needs people from every background. From maths and physics to climate resilience and Net Zero, Hannah shares honest reflections on confidence, communication, imposter syndrome and translating complex science into practical action. Insightful, hopeful and full of...

Professor Hayley Fowler joins Sustainability Sprints for a thoughtful and deeply human conversation about climate science, mentorship and finding your people. We explore climate resilience, leadership, academia and the importance of creating spaces where others can thrive. Hayley reflects on careers, confidence and the power of sharing knowledge openly in a rapidly changing world. Warm, wise and q...

In this episode of Sustainability Sprints, Meryl shares her unconventional journey into sustainability — from geology and waste management to climate education and activism. We explore climate anxiety, the importance of embedding sustainability into education and why sometimes being “too outspoken” is exactly what the moment demands. Honest, passionate and full of hope, this conversation is about...

In this episode of Sustainability Sprints, we’re joined by sustainable procurement expert Gillian Askew for a lively and thought-provoking conversation about procurement, leadership and systems change. We explore how procurement can move organisations beyond price and towards real social, environmental and economic value, alongside reflections on resilience, leadership, legacy and the power of sma...

In this episode of Sustainability Sprints we’re joined by Ishwari Wadekar, Sustainability Manager at Naturalmat, for a thoughtful conversation about career change, self-doubt and building confidence in sustainability. From web design to sustainable development and B Corp certification, Ish reflects on learning on the job, navigating imposter syndrome and figuring things out in real time. Honest, r...

Katy Bird believes data tells stories — and that sustainability is about far more than carbon. In this episode of Sustainability Sprints, we explore ESG, housing, social value and the hidden connections between policy, inequality and climate resilience. From sustainability reporting and social housing to politics, green jobs and community impact, Katy reflects on how sustainability increasingly cu...

What does it mean to be a “sustainability person”? In this episode of Sustainability Sprints, we’re joined by Simran Dhanjal-Field from The Forward Institute for a thoughtful conversation about responsible leadership, agency and the human side of sustainability work. We explore leadership, imposter syndrome, courage, community and the importance of translating big sustainability ideas into meaning...

How do you build a meaningful sustainability career without burning yourself out? In this episode of Sustainability Sprints, we’re joined by Thulsi Prabakaran from Jisc for a reflective conversation about wellbeing, mentoring and working in sustainability as a young professional. We explore burnout, purpose, diversity, representation and the value of being a sustainability generalist in a rapidly...

Katie has worked as a sustainability professional for over 13 years, firstly within the Higher Education sector and now as the Sustainability Manager for Barbour, within the apparel and footwear industry.  Her roles have focussed on pioneering and delivering Sustainability Strategy, from enhancing product circularity to developing education programmes for students.  Her role covers a breadth of re...

Danielle has been leading embedding and implementing sustainability throughout South Yorkshire Police since 2010. She works nationally, regionally and locally with emergency service organisations and a range of public sector partners, sharing best practice and delivering programmes to affect positive change.  Danielle has developed and implemented a range of initiatives across all areas of force a...

With over 20 years experience in education at both secondary school and higher education levels, Tania’s expertise lies in how institutions empower youth to participate in social-environmental scientific decision-making. Tania collaborates with senior leadership, academics, and community stakeholders to drive practice and policy change. Her leadership in this field has been recognized through the...

Jo is a passionate environmentalist with a strong connection to nature underpinned by a history of voluntary work to support human rights. With more than 25 years working in Environment and Sustainability, she has led on the development and implementation of environmental and sustainability policies and strategy and management systems including energy and zero carbon planning. Projects have includ...

Louise is focused on helping VMO2 customers take 10million circular actions. A circular action might be keeping technology in use for longer, choosing a refurbished device, donating devices, repairing and recycling. Her work centres on building collaborations across the business to develop more ways for customers to take these actions, whilst embedding circularity into different teams within the b...

Katherine has over 25 years’ experience working in the sustainability and environmental management profession. Her passion to do something about environmental issues was sparked from a young age when the ozone layer and acid rain were top of the agenda, and climate change was an emerging issue. She soon understood that to make an impact, sustainability needs to be integrated into business-as-usual...

Rhian Sherrington is a career coach and sustainability expert, the founder of The Women in Sustainability Network. Since its foundation in 2014, the Network has helped over 10,000 women to flourish in their careers and take the lead in businesses tackling the climate and ecological emergencies. As an executive and career transitions coach with over 12 years’ experience and a member of the Internat...

Sarah West is a professor specialising in citizen science at SEI at the University of York, and is Director of SEI's York Centre. SEI is a research organisation connecting science and decision-making to develop solutions for a sustainable future for all. For the past 15 years she has been using citizen science approaches in her research on topics ranging from air quality in schools to parenting. I...

Harriet Waters has been Head of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Oxford since 2013. She is responsible for the delivery of the University’s recently adopted environmental sustainability strategy. Harriet ensures that sustainability projects at the University are carried out in collaboration with academic staff, practitioners, students and external organisations. Prior to working i...

Sustainability sprints are designed to Fast-Forward your sustainability journey. We're sharing the conversations we use to help people, teams and organisations get there faster. So, whether you need to get off the starting line, demonstrate progress, or bring about radical change in your organisation, these conversations will help you sprint towards sustainability . In this second season our conve...

A Sprint through Social Justice This conversation takes us to the intersections of the environmental, social, and economic elements of sustainability through the lens of equity and fairness. We chat about access to resources, who is hit hardest by pollution and climate change (spoiler alert: it isn’t those causing them) and we think about how to ensure everyone is heard. We discuss resilience, bey...

A Sprint through Fabulous Failure If innovation is essential to sustainability, then we need to consider our relationship to failure because we can’t expect to do new things without making some mistakes along the way. It was important to us to share this conversation about re-framing how we think about failure and how we intentionally make space for it in our sustainability practice. We talk about...

A Sprint through Travelling Hopefully This conversation reminds us about the importance of hope in relation to sustainability. We chat about how we use hope to avoid despair and burnout when we’re trying to tackle massive global challenges. We talk about the importance of finding ways to help us keep going. Sheri-Leigh attempts ‘running chat’ as we discuss the sustainability cliché ‘the journey’ b...

A Sprint through Storytelling We loved recording this chat! We talked about how hard-wired humans are to hear and tell stories and how stories are used to help us make sense of the world. We shared the ways we use stories as part of our own work, to make connections, fast-track understanding and encourage engagement. The SDGs get another honourable mention, as we talk about using them as a way of...

A Sprint through Impact and Measurement As we chat around impact and measurement in this Sprint and we find ourselves discussing honesty, confidence and whether we’ve ever had ‘the right amount’ of data for reporting (spoiler alert: we haven’t!).  Jenny reminds us to revisit materiality when we’re thinking about measurement and impact and Sheri-Leigh shares a couple of pitfalls to avoid when decid...

A Sprint through Operationalising Strategy Our conversations in this podcast are about embedding sustainability. How we build sustainability into the policy, process and practice of an organisation or team. Some of the ways we can make sure 'business as usual' includes sustainability. We're exploring how we trace the threads of sustainability from strategic ambition out into the wider...