30 April | Growing the sustainability workforce
How do you develop a sustainability career? For so many starting or changing career paths, making that first step into a sustainability role can be difficult. Join Cynnal Cymru in a facilitated discussion on how to upskill your workforce or develop your own green skills.
Where: ground floor event space, Sbarc|Spark, Cardiff
Time: 10am – 12:30pm
Why this matters
In this current climate and nature crisis, green careers are becoming more desirable and necessary. Looking towards a sustainable future, more and more people are rethinking the places they work for and the kinds of roles they play. With net zero goals and the growing visible local impacts of extreme weather, we urgently need more people taking action in their workplace as well as communities. Given that we spend up to a third of our days in the office, too, it’s crucial that you and your staff feel fulfilled and passionate about your work. Learn how to be a part of meaningful change towards a just transition in your job role or staff development.
In this half-day event, Finley Povey from Transport for Wales will discuss apprenticeships and how organisations can create their own internal schemes, joined by Cynnal Cymru’s Abi Hoare who will share their experience of the Future Generations Leadership Academy, and additional speakers to be announced who will share their experiences entering into sustainability roles. In a Q+A with the speakers and networking opportunities throughout, this event will help you understand how to upskill a green workforce, what opportunities are available for individuals, and how to inspire your staff’s next steps.
Who is it for?
This event is open to all individuals and organisations over the age of 18.
Cynnal Cymru Members can get two free places to this event. A limited number of free student places are available for Cardiff University students. Please email abi@cynnalcymru.com to secure your free place.
Speakers
Finley Povey – Sustainability Coordinator Apprentice at Transport for Wales
Finley joined Transport for Wales as a sustainability coordinator apprentice in January 2024 and has worked across the Sustainable Development and Climate Change team supporting on future generations, sustainable impact, heritage, environmental compliance, ecology, and climate change initiatives. This includes supporting policy or delivery plan development, ensuring administration activities and other duties are undertaken effectively, undertaking environmental audits across various TfW locations to assess environmental impact and compliance with sustainability best practice, working on decision-making tools to align with the Well-being of Future Generations Act and social value, as well as supporting the creation of TfW’s first sustainability exemplar project to integrate well-being, energy-saving, and biodiverse features into a depot site. In her talk, Finley will be telling us about why organisations should give apprentice opportunities to help build the next generation of sustainability conscious champions.
Jennifer Rudd – Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group
Dr Rudd has a decade of experience working in chemistry and the technical circular economy, developing next generation solar panels and working on hydrogen generation and carbon capture. Using this knowledge, Dr Rudd developed the You and CO2 programme in 2018, seeking to teach young people about climate mitigation. Since then, she has worked on a number of climate change education programmes across the disciplines, age ranges and countries. She has helped train teachers in Nigeria, co-created a programme for Welsh primary school pupils to learn about fast fashion, co-developed a new scale for measuring climate capability and consulted for a range of third sector and educational institutions on climate change education programmes.
Dr Rudd is a member of the Net Zero by 2035 commission, advising Welsh Government on pathways to Net Zero, she has been invited to present her work in the Senedd and at trade events in London.
Dr Rudd has communicated the climate emergency through national talks, radio and printed media and gave a TEDx talk in 2019. She is regularly invited to give talks on climate change mitigation and climate change education and was nominated for two Swansea University awards in 2020.
Facilitators
Simon Slater, Director at Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales
Early on in his career, Simon worked with the late Rhodri Morgan and Welsh Government as they explored what it meant to have the duty to promote sustainable development in your constitution. His Wales experience renewed his interest to work for the benefit of communities and the environment. He has subsequently worked across the world as an environmental advisor with royalty, charities, government, councils, and business. This has included borrowing ideas from Wales, such as creating a Board member for Future Generations for a Regional Development Agency 10 years before the Welsh Act.
More recently he has been running sustainability or community regeneration charities such as Sustainability West Midlands, the Springfield Project, and ecobirmingham. He is looking forward to coming back to Wales to continue to be part of the country’s sustainability story. “Wales changed me, now I want to be part of a charity that is helping Wales to change”.
Clare Sain-ley Berry, Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales
Clare has a background in delivering partnership projects for the natural environment and sustainable resource use and uses this to help shape our policy and development work. She enjoys facilitating collaboration across sectors and devising practical programmes to deliver strategic aims.
Clare leads on Cynnal Cymru’s work for a thriving natural environment, which includes our Nature Wise eco literacy training, as well as contributing to work around the foundational economy and decarbonisation.
Agenda
9:45 Arrivals & refreshments
10:10 Cynnal Cymru Welcome, Simon Slater – Director
10:25 Abi Hoare (Cynnal Cymru)
10:35 Finley Povey (Transport for Wales)
10:45 Jennifer Rudd (Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group)
10:55 Comfort break
11:00 Q+A Session facilitated by Clare Sain-ley Berry
11:30 Networking
12:30 Close
Our thriving community of mutually supportive members provides an opportunity to share learning, challenge thinking and mobilise action, be this through co-designed events, hosting networking sessions or simply sowing seeds for future collaborations or thought-leadership.
If you would like to talk to a member of the team about how we can support your organisation, please contact membership@cynnalcymru.com.
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