CAREER & TRAINING by
Jack Beckwith, Rachel Feeney and Cai Hayes
New Talents Entering the Industry Throughout this anniversary issue of The EMA Magazine, we have asked the leaders in the industry about their career journeys but we are not forgetting the new entrants and their experiences and hopes for the future. Jack Beckwith, Environmental Officer at believe housing
supportive. I always think the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask - I’ve probably tested the limits of that with some more unusual queries, but it all helps to build a better understanding of a new subject. While there has been a lot of new information to take in, in the energy and environmental sectors there are a lot of transferrable skills that can be applied. For instance, writing reports for a job isn’t too different from writing essays for a degree!
What made you choose a career in energy management?
THE EMA MAGAZINE • ISSUE JANUARY–MARCH 2022
I have worked in housing associations for around three years, and about two years of that has been in energy and environmental roles.
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Before that, I was fresh out of university after studying a biology degree and wanted to do something environmental. It sounds silly now, but I’d never even thought that there were jobs in either energy or housing! I knew it happened, but never thought of the people and roles behind the scenes that get it done. This means that everything was new to me; working a full-time office job and the specifics of each role. Thankfully at each stage I’ve had excellent managers and wider teams around, who have been more than
Now, I can’t really imagine working in another industry. A large proportion of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions come from housing, and social housing is around 18% of the UK housing stock. This means you can make a real and impactful difference through decarbonisation and energy efficiency improvements. What is the favourite part of your job? My job involves working with data, writing reports, and communicating ideas. But I’d say the biggest thing I work on, and my favourite aspect, is problem solving. Whether that’s a small day-to-day thing, such as “how do I get my excel sheet to do this?”, up to playing a (very small) part in the biggest issue humanity faces – “how do we solve the problems of climate change?”. As with any kind of problem
solving, you get a real buzz when you manage to crack the case. The work is varied, has a range of climate and social benefits, and you can often physically see the results of the work too. I can go out to site and see the new insulation and heating system installs, I can chat to residents about their warmer home and lower bills, and I can walk around the greener neighbourhoods I’ve worked on – this is the most rewarding aspect. How do you see the profession developing in the future and where would you like to be in 10 years? Honestly, I would be very happy doing the same role in ten years’ time, so long as the level of impact continues to grow. Ten years takes us to 2032, by which time social housing will have to be much more energy efficient, with the next milestone being carbon neutrality. That will be a big step requiring changes throughout the energy system, not least with a large increase in renewable electricity. A major change we’ll see in the profession is just in terms of growth and scale. There’s a lot of work to be done and not enough people doing it currently, so expect to see a lot more advertisements for “retrofit co-ordinators”, “sustainability officers” and the like. Along with this will come more money. Government already
