Bright young things

Project brings together nine young up‑and‑coming professionals who care deeply about sustainability to uncover their hopes for the future. Make space for the next generation, writes Emma De Vita.

Meet the youngest generation of high‑flyers. Our second attempt at gathering in a West London studio for our photo shoot is a success. The rescheduling because of extreme heat has put the worry of climate change to the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Sustainability is a core purpose for these young professionals, who are making their mark in broad range of sectors. And they’re walking the talk. Stacey Bishop, one of APM’s youngest ever chartered professionals, now works as a Project Manager at SSE Renewables. “I moved into renewables and that was really my moral compass telling me to move into something that is going to have a positive impact,” she says. “Climate change is such an issue, and by working on offshore wind farms I’m directly contributing to tackling that.”

For these 20‑ and 30‑somethings, sustainability goes way beyond the personal. “Sustainability matters to everyone now,” says Iona Neilson, Senior Sustainability Manager at Formula E, “so project professionals need to make sure it is a consideration in any project they are delivering. Understand that Millennials might only want to work with you if you have an element of that and offer training or at least the space for that individual to integrate the sustainability principles into that project because that’s future‑proofing it,” she warns.

What frustrates them is the slow pace of change. “I have this sense of urgency about climate change and I feel that often with projects it’s a really slow process,” explains Ashlyn O’Riordan, Assistant Project Manager at Turner & Townsend. “I want people to start pushing their clients to think about sustainability as an essential part now, because the later we do it the worse it will be.” She urges those at the top of the profession to “feel that sense of urgency that we do”.

Joined‑up efforts across companies and industries is the hope, says Daniel Lockwood, Associate Director at Faithful+Gould. “I’d like to influence how we interact as a wider industry across other disciplines to come together to solve the sustainability issues that we have. Working in construction, there are a lot of changes that we need to make as an industry and hopefully we can make them quickly and become a little bit more innovative and adaptive to change.”

This adaptable attitude is what Generation X and younger Millennials now expect from their project leaders. “A good project leader will always stay open‑minded, always keep learning and stay really agile,” says Peiwen Tian, Project Manager at Gleeds. “You need to expand all your soft skills, working with a huge range of people from more professions than previously. Also, being able to push boundaries – there are some really experienced project managers who think of a data workstream as not part of an infrastructure project. We don’t live in the 19th century – infrastructure is not just about pouring concrete any more. It’s important to absorb the new elements.”

Ollie May, Project Manager at Mott MacDonald, sees a gap between how the older generation does things and how the younger generation would like to try and improve the way things are usually done. “There may have always been a way to do something, but there must be a better way to do it, and it can be quite difficult sometimes for a younger professional to challenge those in a senior position,” he explains. “Change is necessary in most things and for sustainability it is about taking an open‑minded approach.”

This younger generation hopes for more change at the top. “A lot of the top of project management looks very similar,” says O’Riordan. “I’d love to see more women at the top, particularly more women of colour. I think that would be really exciting. Something we talk about a lot at work is diversity, but particularly diversity of thought.”

Lockwood urges those senior professionals not to fear new voices and new ideas: “There is still some resistance to doing things in a new way and I think that needs to change from top to bottom, and not just chief executives; it’s everyone, to the guys building it on‑site. By embracing these new ways of doing things, that’s how we’ll see real change.”

Stacey Bishop, 25, Project Manager, SSE Renewables

Moving from the defence sector to work on the Berwick Bank Offshore Wind Farm project, Stacey Bishop was until recently APM’s youngest ever Chartered Project Professional. The project is currently in the development stage, with the construction phase due to begin in 2025. Energy should come online in 2029, delivering a massive 4.1GW to the National Grid.

Specialising in digitalisation, Bishop is responsible for making the project as efficient and effective as possible. “I’ve written a digital strategy on ways that we can use technology to make the project more efficient; that could be anything from automating processes that are admin‑heavy to developing digital twins for when the wind farm has actually been built, and remote asset management to make managing the wind farm easier.”

Reflecting on what makes a good project leader, Bishop says communication is key. “Soft skills are really important: being able to communicate clearly, being able to influence your team to help achieve a common goal – which is what a project is. Being able to do that effectively and efficiently without confusion is really important to leading a project.”

An up‑and‑coming future leader, Bishop has a message to those in positions of power: address your bias, whether it’s conscious or unconscious, or about age, ethnic background or gender.

“Just because someone is younger than someone else, it doesn’t mean that they have to be sat on a seat for a year before they can move into a different position – or because someone is younger, it doesn’t mean that they can’t manage someone who is older than them,” she says. “A diverse workforce is an efficient workforce, so getting new ideas into the project management atmosphere is so important.”

Eleni Antoniou, 30, Environment Manager, Ørsted

“Sustainability is really important to me. When it came to starting my career I was keen to do something with meaning,” says Eleni Antoniou. “Climate change is the biggest issue facing not only the profession but all organisations and individuals. As one person, the climate challenge feels too big to address, so the fact that I can play my part in the green energy transition and work towards something positive for the environment is incredibly motivating.”

Joining renewable energy company Ørsted in 2018 to work on its Hornsea Three offshore wind farm, Antoniou manages its kittiwake compensation requirements (the kittiwake is a kind of sea bird), leading the delivery of artificial nesting structures. “This is the first project of its kind, so I have established a process from scratch and shown resilience through multiple challenges, while setting the standard for the industry and developing proposals entirely focused on biodiversity.”

Antoniou manages an environmental monitoring and research programme and coordinates large groups of consultants from diverse disciplines to execute work to a tight programme. While ‘project manager’ might not be in her job title, project management is what she does. She urges the project profession to support the pipeline of project management skills coming through, as large‑scale renewable energy projects cannot be delivered without them.

“The renewables industry is booming,” she says. “It’s really exciting to be part of the renewables industry and contributing towards the UK government’s ambitions for offshore wind. The fact that it is purposeful is really important to me.”

Daniel Lockwood, 32, Associate Director, Faithful+Gould

Based in Edinburgh, Daniel Lockwood has recently taken on a new role within the consultancy as Regional Sustainability Lead for Scotland and Ireland, while also studying for an MSc in sustainable urban management. He coordinates Faithful+Gould’s sustainability offering across five offices and is a key member of the sustainability technical leadership group within the UK business, as well as an internal business project called Decarbonomics, which aims to decarbonise existing large‑scale estates, from calculating a carbon footprint benchmark and advising on optimised net‑zero roadmaps through to design and delivery of interventions on‑site.

His client‑facing projects include working with local authorities in Scotland, looking at their strategies for public buildings and domestic housing to identify the most appropriate route to achieving net zero. “Sustainability is one of the most critical challenges. Ultimately, if we don’t stop climate change then we are going to have even more geopolitical problems,” he says.

Lockwood says that he feels supported by his bosses and colleagues to make changes in this area. “I feel really empowered personally, but I suppose where you start to feel a little bit less empowered is when you see COP26 happening and some great headlines that come out of it and what sounds like real tangible action, but then a couple of years down the line we measure against those targets and we realise that we haven’t hit them. There has to be a real mindset change at government level and at the top decision‑making levels to not just make these promises but actually keep to them.

“I hope that, because there is such a groundswell of support for sustainability with new generations of people, that will change. I just hope that it’s not too late to make the difference we need to make.”

Amelia Morgan, 31, Legal Project Manager, Pinsent Masons

Chair of the newly launched Climate Change and Sustainability Employee Network at law firm Pinsent Masons, Amelia Morgan also manages the One Million Hours Pledge project, which aims to raise one million hours of intellectual capital across the legal industry to be drawn down on projects that seek to arrest climate change.

In her day‑to‑day role, Morgan coordinates matters in international arbitration, litigation e‑disclosure and development consent orders for solar farm developments. Launched in 2021, the Climate Change and Employee Sustainability Network is a global employee group for her colleagues who are concerned with climate change; its purpose is to inform, educate and advocate for the promotion of sustainable, climate‑conscious living. “We hope our network bridges the gap between what we tell our clients to do and what we as individuals do,” she says.

What does she think the future holds for her and the project management profession? “I would like to be more involved in the delivery of implementation plans to actually get those solutions to spread as far and as wide as possible – with as many companies, industries and people as possible – so that you can make the difference and have some impact,” she explains. “There is so much potential and opportunities are just going to keep coming up for all these exciting new things, and with all these ideas, people will need help putting important change in place. We can be the ones who make it happen,” she says.

What’s needed right now, she argues, is a clearer path towards action. “There seems to be a real lack of direction in how people can get involved in an impactful way. There is a real gap between having that ambition to make a difference and knowing where to go next. So, I’m working on a green mentoring programme. There need to be more professionals who are willing to educate and support younger people in knowing how to go about getting involved.”

Ollie May, 30, Project Manager, Mott MacDonald

Mott MacDonald supports the design and construction of a number of facilities at RAF Lakenheath which are intended for US Visiting Forces. Ollie May was tasked with finding innovative ways to save energy for one of the larger buildings being designed, and he successfully convinced US stakeholders to accept a novel hot‑air recirculation system. Capital cost savings of £250,000 resulted and £650,000 per year of ongoing fuel savings were estimated, resulting in a lifetime saving of 116,000 tonnes of CO2. “It was a no so many times before it was a yes – it was just ensuring that the right people were shown the right information in the right way,” May explains.

“One of the pillars that Mott MacDonald really emphasises is to approach sustainability in a very open‑minded way,” he says. “Within the sector the client is generally after function over form – it either works or it doesn’t – and sometimes you can approach them with these new ideas and you’re almost on the back foot; it’s new, it’s never been done before, but it’s about taking them along the journey,” he explains.

“Sustainability for me is just a way of doing and delivering better so that you’re forward thinking and future‑planning the whole time, otherwise we’ll get to a point where we can’t turn back. Clients trust you to do the best job and you can show them something they’ve not known about before. Hopefully there will be a domino effect and people will start to see how things have changed and how they are being delivered, and all of a sudden the barriers that were put up because it is the unknown start to just fall down.”

Ashlyn O’Riordan, 26, Assistant Project Manager, Turner & Townsend

Ashlyn O’Riordan joined Turner & Townsend in 2021 on the graduate scheme after a stint at The Carbon Trust and now works with Essex and Suffolk Water as an Engineering Construction and Contracts Project Manager, including on its eel works programme, which is about installing eel‑screen infrastructure in rivers to improve biodiversity. She also leads sustainability within her cost centre.

“It’s very easy to get quite depressed by the headlines,” she says, “but we are taking steps, and everything you can do, especially in the most polluting industries like aviation and infrastructure, counts. If I can change some of my clients’ attitudes towards purchasing or the way that they structure their contracts to make them more sustainable, then that is really important.

“I think we have power as project managers over our projects, but also over our clients; we can influence people really well. We have this iron triangle of time, cost and quality, but sustainability doesn’t really come into that and I think it’s because a lot of clients don’t have the buy‑in, because 2050 is so far away. They’re tight for money and time, so sustainability seems like an expensive add‑on. I want to make the iron triangle more of a square – I want to make sustainability another absolute corner of the process as a way of expanding it.”

O’Riordan is clearly in the right profession. “I like getting stuff done and managing teams, so project management was built for me. Even though I’m a graduate, I have so much autonomy in my work.”

James Patraiko, 27, Engineering Project Manager, Corre Energy

James Patraiko is Engineering Project Manager for the lead partner in a global green hydrogen consortium. He was most recently lead contact and applicant with the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on a fully funded feasibility study that aims to receive a further £9.42m to build and demonstrate the world’s first intrinsically safe and non‑toxic hydrogen storage medium.

“Project management makes sense; it’s logical and it looks at statistics and analysis based on human behaviour and teams and it breaks down how to create something out of nothing in the most efficient way,” he says. “Engineering and project management are in such high demand, and I’m so fortunate in that because they are so versatile and they are needed now, especially in sustainability.”

Sustainability, he says, means everything to him. “There are numerous things you can think about when going into a career based on your own fundamental goals and values. Do you want money, meaning, a fast‑paced job or to influence people? Mine is to make the world a better place both environmentally and for people, and there is a connection between those two.”

His dream is to eventually set up his own company to support the billion people in the world who don’t have access to electricity. “I want to create some system by which you can go into these places and give them something, like hosting their own solar panel station that purifies water and then they can charge things from their lamps, and then teach them how to maintain it and build a new one.”

Iona Neilson, 28, Senior Sustainability Manager, Formula E

Formula E is the world’s first fully electric single‑seater racing series. Iona Neilson joined in 2018 as a technical expert in environmental management and compliance, carbon footprinting and ISO 20121. She also featured as a member of the inaugural Edie 30 Under 30 young sustainability leaders club in 2019.

There are two levels to her role, she explains: strategic and operational. “Formula E aspires to be one of the most sustainable sports globally, so we have a small team to make sure that this is embedded and integrated into our business. The second strand is more operational delivery, and the project management element of it is to make sure that sustainability is truly integrated into our race product.

“What attracted me to Formula E was that it was really the only sport that had a purpose around sustainability and it was in its infancy. We could really mould and shape the sustainability strategy as we saw it. To be involved in projects like achieving ISO 20121 and achieving net‑zero carbon from inception, and being part of all of these from the very beginning to the very end, is really satisfying.

“I’ve always felt that I go to work and I really make a difference in sustainability, not just within the sport but across the whole industry. We’re in such an influential position at the moment – even bringing in hardcore motorsports fans.”

Neilson, despite not being a qualified project manager, says project management skills are vital in her role because projects are ultimately what she delivers. The future, though, lies with professional accreditation. “It gives you credibility,” she says, and it is something she is certainly considering for the future.

Peiwen Tian, 27, Project Manager, Gleeds

Having recently joined Gleeds, Peiwen Tian was seconded with the Heathrow Carbon Programme, where she manages the data workstream, focusing on streamlining the process of capturing, curating and reporting carbon data across the airport. “My role is to build on the current carbon footprinting process and improve the data quality, as well as automating the process. There is a growing demand from stakeholders for carbon data to be available. The business needs insights on carbon performance in all areas of its operations to make sure we are on the right track for net zero.”

Before joining Gleeds, Tian worked on the Greater London Authority’s retrofit accelerator programmes in London through Turner & Townsend and supported London boroughs on their energy-efficiency projects. She also worked on the Heathrow Surface Access programme for sustainable transport, which included projects to encourage more passengers to use public transport to travel to and from the airport.

Her mini career change to move into sustainability came during the COVID crisis. “I wanted to get involved in sustainability projects,” she explains. “When I think about what the purpose of my work is, one of the biggest challenges we all face is climate change. Working in sustainability keeps me motivated every day to go into work, as it is part of solving a problem that would impact our everyday lives and future generations. Some people think the work is all glamorous, but obviously it is not always like that. Once you get into the details, it’s not dissimilar to other infrastructure projects, but with different considerations, and lots of topics to learn about as it is quite a new area for most people. I feel more fulfilled in my job working on something I’m passionate about.”