My background is in geography and environmental science, with my focus during university primarily being on the social impacts of climate change and the lengths human go to combat these affects. As well as being interested (and somewhat concerned!) by the adverse impact society has on the environment, I always found the human stories of those affected by and fighting against environmental impact intriguing. This interest has definitely lent itself to my role at FB, particularly as my role involves a lot of communication with external stakeholders. Being empathetic towards others views is vital here, and common ground can be found in most scenarios. Following university my first role was in waste and environmental services, managing the installations of small to large scale machinery that offered sustainable recycling solutions to clients. Often, these were in HM Prisons or NHS institutions; basically, anywhere that produced a lot of waste! This got my foot in the door of the environmental sector and led me to apply to the role of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Coordinator at Future Biogas Ltd.

The building blocks of the ‘environmental’ section of ESG at Future Biogas comes from physical actions we can take on site. Firstly, I undertake KPI reporting environmental performance for asset owners. This involves monitoring and measuring on site factors that have an environmental output (e.g. Propane, diesel and electricity consumption). On site, we always searching for ways we can improve our environmental performance. One of target areas is biodiversity, and we now have a biodiversity management plan in place for six sites with native planting scheduled to encourage an increase in local wildlife. As well as projects that I am responsible for, I work as part of the wider sustainability team. This involves collaborative projects such as improving carbon literacy, sustainability strategy and any associated accreditations (e.g. ISO 14064 that verifies our carbon footprint).

Like the environmental side, we also have social KPIs that have given Future Biogas an ESG platform to build on. These are related to site as well, and include factors such as health & safety (e.g. accidents, incidents, near misses reported), diversity and employment figures & money invested into the local area. The money invested in local projects is a vital part of our ESG strategy, as we work to be beneficial to the local area as well as for FB interests and the wider net zero goal. This involves a community funding scheme which opens every year, we often try to steer groups in a direction that is also close to FB’s work. E.g. Biodiversity enhancement and wildflower planting, improving the energy efficiency of buildings. We try to play an active role in the grants we give to local groups, often visiting and taking part in various community-led events. Further to this I assist the business development team as they begin to roll out potential new developments at public consultation events explaining the process and purpose of AD developments.

Good governance is the backbone of ESG at Future Biogas. This refers to our policies such as environmental, sustainability & health and safety for example. These policies inform our day to day actions and make sure that we remain compliant and act within the rules and regulations of our industry. Each year we review these policies where appropriate; This review stage has been particularly emphasised since the 3i acquisition due to an increased number of eyes on FB policy and practice. Further to this, accreditations such as ISO 9001 (Quality), 14001 (Environmental) & 45001 (Health and Safety) show to external stakeholders that we are a reputable company and striving to continually improve. These are audited against annually and a lot of prep is required to get reaccredited.