Job title: Project Director, Xlinks
What does your role involve?
I joined Xlinks just over four years ago and am the project director for its first renewable energy project. This involves building a 3.5 GW of onshore wind, 7 GW of solar PV, and 20 GW hours of battery storage in Morocco which will be a generation site about the size of Greater London. The power generated will be brought back to the UK via sub-sea high voltage direct current cables. This project will deliver 8% of the UK’s electricity demand and is the first of its kind; it’s such a ground-breaking project to be working on.
Where does your interest in sustainability come from?
From being at Malvern College and learning about climate change. I learned about the science behind it so it was clear even then that this was a big issue for the world, yet the world wasn’t talking about it with the urgency it should have. Fundamentally it will impact everyone’s way of life, so I chose to dedicate my life to renewable energy which is also a growing industry with lots of opportunity.
Climate change does change the way you approach things, and there is definitely a lifestyle element to it. Electric vehicles are a great example; people talk about how much they love driving an electric vehicle rather than petrol or diesel, but you must charge it in a totally different way to the way that you refuel. On the other side of things, there are just so many benefits of being sustainable. You can install something and then not have to pay for fuel so this drives down costs and we’re seeing this in business.
Sustainability is now filtering into every aspect of life and all decision making. You have these two completely opposite ends of the spectrum – down one path you have something which is incredibly bleak, and I think morally unjustifiable, and down the other path you have something which is positive and provides a lot of opportunity.
Why do you think Malvern College’s Green giving Day is so important?
Sustainability is such a unique challenge which is entirely borne out of humanity. But it has the potential to have catastrophic impact on the scale of what you’d normally only ever expect to be an act of God or natural disaster. Extinction is a real threat and people don’t necessarily appreciate is.
No one alive today is going to see the worst of the impacts of climate change. But unless we get on top of it very quickly, 50, 100, 200 years down the line, it is inevitable that catastrophic things will happen. It’s also something which is going to impact the least wealthy people globally and they will be the people who have contributed least to climate change. We can change this.
I think anyone who goes to Malvern College is incredibly fortunate to do so. It’s a very privileged opportunity and I think it certainly helps people to be leaders. And my view is that all leaders need to be conscious of sustainability.
For the College to be doing this, it sets the right example. If the College doesn’t act, it’s very difficult to reinforce quite how urgent and important the challenge is and then you know, potentially you’ve got another generation of leaders who don’t necessarily view it with the same level of urgency. We all need to do our bit and leading the way.