From Design to Construction: How Local Authorities Can Achieve Net Zero Carbon; Sponsored by Wokingham Borough Council

Wokingham Borough Council – Gregor Murray, Executive Member for Resident Services, Communications and Emissions and Chair of Climate Emergency Working Group

After being appointed to the council’s executive committee, Gregor formalised the council’s commitment to the climate change agenda by pushing the council to declare a climate emergency with the ambitious goal of reducing the borough’s carbon footprint to net carbon zero by 2030. Since the council’s declaration in July 2019, Gregor has been leading the council’s work on tackling climate change which includes a variety of exciting projects including a green bank, solar farms, the borough first net-zero carbon building and more.

Wokingham Borough Council – Tanya Lee, Dinton Activity Centre Manager

Tanya is one of Wokingham Borough Council’s Countryside Officers based at Dinton Pastures Country Park. She has been the Activity Centre Manager since the doors first opened in 2010. The Activity Centre is situated in the heart of the boroughs flagship country park and offers a range of adventurous activities to the public as well as environmental education sessions to schools.

Tanya’s background is in Mechanical Engineering and Design, but she always had a passion for teaching sailing and outdoor sports. Her knowledge in sailing tuition along with her background in entrepreneurship is what set the ball rolling for the business case for a new activity centre at Dinton Pastures. With hard work, determination and great customer support the council are now in a position to invest in a new facility for the existing Dinton Activity Centre.

RCDC – Vince Ruane, Director

Vince Ruane is the Director and founder of RCDC, a building services and sustainability consultancy. Vince founded RCDC in 2019 with the aim of delivering high quality, digitally enabled, sustainable design. In its first year, RCDC has grown to four staff, working across a number of sectors including commercial, education, public sector and advising a number of clients on how they can become Net Zero Carbon leaders within the Construction sector.

Wokingham Borough Council – Diana Tovar, Climate Emergency Strategy Officer

Diana is Wokingham Borough Council’s first Climate Emergency Strategy and Commissioning Officer. She has worked in collaboration with businesses, residents, and schools to develop the Council’s response to the climate emergency.

She has worked in environmental management and sustainability for the last 15 years. Over her career, she has advised and supported various organisations to improve environmental performance.

Wokingham Borough Council – Tim Searle, Senior Construction Project Manager

Tim, a Chartered Building Surveyor, has over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Tim joined Wokingham Council in 2008 as a client project manager. He has been working on the Council’s varied education and corporate capital projects taking them from inception, through the design, procurement and construction phases and handover to the end user.

HLM Architects – Alex Pullin, Architect

Alex Pullin is an architect with extensive experience designing for the education and leisure sectors within the UK and internationally. Alex is passionate about designing buildings that draw inspiration from their site specific contexts and believes that sustainability should be a key principle for all projects. Alex is the lead architect for the new Dinton Activity Centre building.

Faithful+Gould – Julie Mathur, Associate Director

Julie is an Associate Director, Chartered Quantity Surveyor with Faithful+Gould. Julie and her team have cost managed many Wokingham Borough Council projects over a 10 year period, more recently using MMC with the benefits it has to offer, particularly in the current Covid era and as we are all driving towards the Net Zero Carbon goal.

Reds10 – Paul Ruddick, Chief Executive Officer

Paul has been involved in the construction industry for the past 20 years and has etched a reputation for himself and for his enterprise with his positive and proactive leadership. Reds10 are integral to the zero carbon agenda in Wokingham and are supporting the council with a host of offsite and modular solutions that fit within sustainability parameters.