Sefton Laing - Head of Sustainability Services, Royal Bank of Scotland

 

Not many people would think of one of Britain's largest banks when asked to think of a company engaging in 'sustainability', and that is precisely why we have invited Sefton!

 

Sefton is RBS's central point of expertise on sustainability strategy, research and advice. He is also a member of UNEP's Finance Initiative Banking Commission, which aims to minimise and mitigate negative environmental and social impacts derived from financial services, and promote positive social and environmental impacts from them. 

 

 

Jo Hodges - Public Artist

 

Jo is a public artist who explores the human relationship to the environment. She works across art forms and is intersted in exploring new strategies for engaging people with art in the public space. Her work is context driven and responds to site, environment or community.

 

She has collaborate extensively with other sectors, including the public sector and academia, for example on the project 'A New EIA for Natural Scotland: Environment, Imagination and Aesthetics'. This project reimagines current land-use planning processes to include perceptions of beauty, wilderness, naturalness and impact on place, memory and community. 

 

Take a look at her website for more info on Jo's work.

 

 

 

Gina Hanrahan - Climate and Energy Policy Officer, WWF Scotland

 

Please note: unfortunately Gina is no longer able to attend. However, she has organised a great replacement, Sam Gardner, Head of Policy at WWF.

 

Sam is responsible for overseeing the design and promotion of WWF's priority areas of climate, energy and marine governance to decision makers and key stakeholders. He has also previously chared the Stop Climate Chaos policy group. He can be found on Twitter @SamGardnerWWF.

 

 

 

Philip Wright - ex-Deputy Director of the Climate Change and Greener Scotland Division in the Scottish Government

 

Now retired, Philip was previously Deputy Director of the Climate Change and Greener Scotland Division in the Scottish Government. In this role he was responsible for climate change policy and helped to push the Climate Change (Scotland) Bill through the Scottish Parliament. 

 

As a member of the UK delegation to the annual UN Climate Change Conferences for over ten years he gained a depth of knowledge and experience of international climate change negotiations. Through his previous roles he has worked extensively with evidence provide by academic colleagues, as well as providing his own expert input to other organisations.