Richard Bubb: Richard runs Symeco Ltd – a Shropshire-based business helping to turn sustainable ideas into strategy and actions through solution-focussed planning and effective collaborations. Symeco operates in a circular way, with knowledge, skills and practical activities focussed on creating an energy shift to zero carbon lifestyles. This includes working with businesses, local authority and community organisation looking for advice and ideas about energy systems, renewable technologies, retrofit and energy saving. Richard is a trained coach for Climate-KIC – a large public-private partnership tackling climate change across Europe. Working with Climate-KIC, Richard has managed the introduction of a training programme helping businesses and organisations created circular economy strategies.
Duncan Sluce: Duncan is an experienced energy analyst and modeller, specialising in energy scenarios, forecasts and cost benefit analysis. He has considerable experience with both gas and electricity, supply and demand. His speciality is understanding how these interact, from his work leading the whole energy systems modelling in the National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios team for some years. In this team he also spent many years forecasting and developing scenarios of gas and heat demand. Here he focused on detailed domestic energy use, most notably for heating, and domestic energy efficiency.
Charlie Baker: Charlie has designed many things from furniture to housing co-operatives to large urban masterplans, always with a focus on sustainability. He is an expert in low carbon refurbishment and energy supply and has authored several reports on retrofit standards and finance. He is a director of Red Co-operative, design and build retrofit specialists, winner of the 2017 NWRCA Innovation Award. He established the Retrofit Pattern Book to share best practice ideas in retrofit and is currently delivering zero carbon homes with Retrofit Works in an ERDF-funded project called Homes as Energy Systems.
Phil Beardmore: Phil is an Environment and Sustainability Consultant, specialising in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water saving. His clients include public authorities, SMEs, charities, cooperatives, and housing providers. His current interests include the use of smart meter data to identify additional energy savings, and improving the energy efficiency of buildings being transferred from local authorities to the voluntary sector under asset transfer programmes. He was voted one of the Top 50 Green Leaders in the West Midlands. He is a founder director of Community Energy Birmingham. He has recently been appointed as a Trustee of the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country. Phil is also a leading figure in the cooperative movement locally and works with cooperatives on business planning, membership strategy and event management. Phil buys from cooperatives wherever possible. He is Secretary of Cooperatives West Midlands, an elected member of the Membership and Community Council of Central England Cooperative, a Director of Citysave Credit Union.
John Batchelor: John is director of Batchelor & Associates Community Economics Ltd and has over 30 years’ experience of research, development and evaluation of community-based economic development projects. He has long experience in the sustainable use of heritage assets and was a visiting lecturer at the Ironbridge Institute. He has also been appointed to a number of training and advisory roles and has undertaken interim management roles in local authority project management and sustainable community-based asset development for the National Lottery. He is a highly regarded research designer, especially for community engagement, and he has well-honed skills in translating complex technical and policy issues. At SHAP, he has evaluated major energy advice programmes, advised grassroots community organisations (as part of the Zero Carbon Rugeley programme) and was project manager for Innovate UK’s Staffordshire Net Zero pilot programme.
Rob Anabelle: Rob is an Architect and tutor at Birmingham School of Architecture. He is also Director of Axis Design Architects, delivering housing, community centres and sustainability consultancy. He is experienced in housing design and associated topics such as sustainability, digital tools, BIM and self-build projects. Rob has worked on numerous award-winning urban regeneration and housing projects across the Midlands.
Mike Leonard: Mike is a CEO and Visiting Professor of Manufacturing and the Built Environment, Birmingham City University. He established the Futures Group New Homes “Think Tank” which advises Government on better building regulation. Key issues include improving quality in building, preventing overheating, enhancing indoor air quality, embracing the skills challenge, promoting UK building materials and promoting the key role of SMEs.
Pat Laughlin: Pat specialises in supporting sustainable business growth and in supply chain development. She also has an extensive background in micro, SME and global low carbon business development.
Sarah Hughes: Sarah is an experienced business manager focussing on SMEs, sustainability (financial and environmental) and co-operative business models. Sarah’s research and project work includes: Summarising Finance Models for Retrofit of All Housing Tenures, Developing retrofit cost models and detailed finance proposals and householder agreements and Establishing a Local Authority Green Deal Plus Social Enterprise.
Paul Forrest: Paul is the Head of Research at the West Midlands Economic Forum (WMEF), a neutral, independent forum designed to bring together the private, public, and voluntary sectors to discuss and evaluate local economic performance. The WMEF seeks to foster greater understanding of sustainable trends within the regional economy, placing them in a global context.