Digital Sustainability Conference 2024: Green, greener, greenest – or green at all?

With a background in adult education, Kirri is passionate about harnessing technology to improve student outcomes, inclusivity, and the overall learning experience. This passion has translated into her work supporting nationwide deployments of Google Workspace for Education and Chromebooks across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Over the past 6 years, Kirri has collaborated with numerous UK universities and colleges, empowering them to realise their vision for a digital future and unlock the transformative potential of technology.

Charlotte has over 15 years experience working in sustainability with roles in energy, climate change, sustainability management and climate resilience across the public sector. She currently oversees the programme management of activity to meet Nottingham Trent University’s ambitious 2040 Net Zero Carbon target across all 3 scopes of emissions. Charlotte’s specialities include carbon footprinting, climate change risk assessments and scope 3 supply chain emissions.

John has worked in IT for nearly 30 years and has a life-long love for the environment. He’s applying his broad experience from the public and private sectors to HE, achieving material improvements to his University's sustainability whilst taking colleagues along the path to whole-scale adoption of environmental sustainability principles.

Sean in an experienced Digital, Data and Technology Director having worked in Financial Services, the NHS, Housing, Police, Local Government and now Higher Education. Leading large teams and significant digital transformations.

In his current role he leads the Digital and Data Technology Services for the University of East Anglia where he has worked for almost 18 months.

John is the Director of Customer Services for central IT at the University of Oxford. He has been involved in IT sustainability initiatives in various roles, initially focussed on reducing in-use energy consumption but more recently encompassing supply chain and full lifecycle impact. Projects have included a University-wide PC energy monitoring and reporting service, driving end-user device purchasing strategy towards low-carbon solutions, measurement and modelling of emissions associated with EUC and GPU-intensive systems, and initial development of a carbon footprint calculator for IT services and projects.

Henrik has gathered his experience of leading people through change and digital technologies from many sectors including Publishing, Tour Operating, Housing and, lately, Higher Education. Having worked in a variety of leadership roles encompassing operational management and strategic delivery, he is an experienced communicator at many levels. Henrik has spent the last decade in two leading universities creating successful Service Delivery and Operations departments with a focus on strategic goals and business outcomes, underlined by a culture of empowerment and achievement. He is the vice-chair of the UCISA Sustainability Group, member of the UCISA Support Services Group, an eager contributor to UCISA projects, and enjoys voluntary work, latest for tuition charity The Access Project. Continuous learning is a core principle to Henrik, he completed a Master’s degree with distinction in Management not long ago, and he perpetually embraces opportunities to learn through a variety of platforms. He is a keen architecture buff (having recently built a house to his own design) and loves a good cup of tea!

Paul worked in university IT for over 30 years, unintentionally contributing to carbon emissions through the technology he supported. Now an independent consultant with a focus on sustainable IT, he’s also interested in broader environmental challenges—in education, other sectors, and everyday life.

Clare joined Jisc as Head of Environmental Sustainability in Summer 2022 with over fifteen years’ experience of working in HE and public sector. At Jisc, Clare has been leading on the development of the sustainability strategy and programme. which looks to embed sustainability into the core of Jisc’s strategic aims, as well as the products and services that it provides to the FHE and skills sector. Working closely with colleagues, and partnering with institutions, she is keen to look at how Jisc can support delivery of net zero through its products and services and the use technology to effectively monitor, manage and report on key information and data points.

Nick developed his digital HE career at the University of Bristol, where his roles included head of IT infrastructure. He is now an independent consultant, working with universities on initiatives from data centres to digital learning.

Dr Marcia Tavares Smith is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University, working on the EPSRC-funded PARIS-DE project. She is co-designing a framework with other researchers and industry to explore and tackle the environmental impacts of digital technologies.

Over the last 25 years, Scott has helped bring to life innovations we take for granted today. He is an innovator, advisor, speaker, author of the Exploring Digital Carbon Footprints report, prior NED for the Association of Colleges, contributor to the Open University and founder of Digital Carbon Online.

Catherine is a User Experience Research Specialist at the University of Edinburgh, where she helps colleagues across the University understand the users of their websites and digital services. She is currently investigating the relationship between web design practices and carbon emissions, and how this applies to the University’s web estate.