Submitted by Jessica Haskell on Mon, 2020-04-27 21:12
Rachel Steward, Environmental Manager (job share with Clare Palferman)
What does your position involve?
Together with my job share, we oversee the work of the Environment Team. This involves helping manage our communications and engagement work, including the University's Green Impact scheme, its network of staff sustainability volunteers (Environment and Energy Coordinators) and wider student engagement with our colleagues at Cambridge Zero. The Environment team is also responsible for other work strands including waste, Environmental Management Systems (EMS), data and legal compliance. Specifically, I am the project lead on all things biodiversity and I'm currently working with experts on the University's Ecological Advisory Panel, colleagues within the wider University and external stakeholders, to develop a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for the University's rural and operational estate.
What is your (education/qualification) background and how did you get here?
My first degree is in Zoology (I am Sir David Attenborough's biggest fan!) followed by a Masters in Environmental Management in Conservation and Recreation. My career route started, oddly, with three summers at Camp America where I discovered I enjoyed, and was surprisingly good at, working with teenagers and managing teams of staff. This experience led me to get my first ‘proper’ job working for the Essex Wildlife Trust as a youth specialist setting up an outdoor learning programme. From there, I progressed to managing a team of 16 staff and over 100 volunteer environmental education specialists across the county, delivering programmes to over 44,000 children, young people and adults annually. Later, I worked for The Wildlife Trust BCN (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire) in a similar role as the Head of Education and Community, and now I'm here!
What were you doing before joining the Environment and Energy section?
I have been freelance for over a decade now, delivering a variety of projects on a consultancy basis under the banner Wild Play and Education. I continue to work on this alongside my part-time role at the University.
What are you looking forward to getting your teeth into in the coming year?
Getting the University's first Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) approved and starting to implement it is a hugely exciting prospect. It will also be fantastic to see a new Communication and Engagement Strategy developed for the E&E section and pilot a scheme across the University to deliver environmental action at a more local level.
Who is your inspirational figure (real or fictional)?
Real = Sir David Attenborough of course! He introduced me to the natural world as a child and I have been obsessed with all of his books and television work ever since. I have been lucky enough to see him on six different occasions (yes, I have kept count!) and even managed to hold a conversation with him once. Typically as down to earth as you would expect, he was behind us in the tea and coffee queue at a the annual British Naturalist Association annual event to receive an award and give a talk. To meet your hero and not be disappointed is a wonderful thing!
Do you have any hobbies?
Netball, skiing, travel, the outdoors, walking (generally around a golf course following the three super keen golfers I live with!) and watching my boys compete at sport. My weekends are often spent jumping between two football matches on a Saturday morning then golf competitions in the afternoon. Sport is very much missed in our house at the moment but a makeshift golf practice net in our very small garden, and a table tennis net across the dining table, is helping!
What do you think is the biggest environmental challenge?
Recognising the environment will not always be top priority for everyone and altering our messages accordingly. The need for understanding that, for many globally, they have much more immediate priorities like putting food on the table or a roof over their heads. How we work collaboratively and kindly is key.
What gets you out of bed (and into work) in the morning?
An annoying chirpy cricket sound on my phone alarm (I am not a morning person!), coffee and the cycle in usually provides me with a good amount of time to wake up and properly get into work mode…having to change routine due to COVID-19 means I am really missing my morning bike ride but I am substituting this with an early evening bit of outdoor exercise with the whole family instead.
What is your environment-related pet hate?
Waste of any kind…buying stuff you don’t need, not switching things off (I’ve turned into my own dad repeating the phrase ‘why are all the lights on in the house…it is not Blackpool illuminations you know!’ to my boys on an all too frequent basis!), heaping your plate with food you don’t want to eat (again I’m from the ‘being told to clear your plate’ generation) etc.
What is your proudest professional achievement?
I actually have a few, now I stop to think! Building the team at Essex has to be up there as the team hadn't had a dedicated manager before I was promoted. The funding for my post came from a very generous legacy so really building the team and reaching thousands more people on a yearly basis felt like the perfect way to repay that individual’s generosity. Working with The Wildlife Trust BCN on their Rushden Lakes Visitor Centre project in the Nene Wetlands Living Landscape was another proud moment for me and a great journey! It was incredibly satisfying seeing a lakeside muddy field transform into a building project and finally into a fully functioning visitor attraction open to the public. Finally, setting up my own freelance business and website was a really rewarding exercising, giving me the opportunity to reflect on previous projects, photographs, and my own skills that I've developed through years on the job.
What is your favourite green gadget?
My new bike and rucksack paniers.
First impressions of Cambridge?
I was born in the old Mill Road maternity hospital and loved growing up here but moved away as it was ‘too small a city for an 18-year-old’. I returned to Cambridge after 15 years and a family of my own. It's a wonderful place to raise a family and rediscover my love of cycling as a mode of transport.