Why your organisation should act on sustainability now

Sustainability discussion panel

The effects of climate change are happening now, so don’t delay your sustainability plans. Start today.

Our panel of experts met on the 13th January 2023 to discuss the benefits of taking sustainability action in your organisation now, and how to get started. Watch the full recording in the video above. Pst! The panel have written their response to an extra question as there wasn’t time to cover everything.

Answers to your sustainability questions

(2:00) Why your organisation should act on sustainability now. What’s in it for you? How can you act quickly? 

(23:10) What regulation changes do you think are needed to help achieve climate milestones? E.g. net zero targets. 

(42:07) What’s the best route to changing the behaviours linked to sustainability decisions? 

(59:37) Is the circular economy the best approach for sustainability? 

Meet our panel of sustainability experts and host

Rose Heathcote

Senior Adviser at Thinking People & Senior Lecturer at University of Buckingham

Rose cares about developing human potential to solve problems that matter. Her area of interest is bringing lean, sustainability and digital thinking together for sustainable enterprise transformation.

With a background in industrial engineering, learning and development, education, consulting, publishing and business leadership, she is fully committed to the learning and application of sustainable enterprise excellence.

Rose first discovered lean thinking early on in her career working in the automotive sector. With support from sensei from Japan, the United Kingdom and India, she supported the South African automotive industry in their ambitions to raise sector competitiveness. She spent more than 25 years in various industry and public sectors and coached 100+ micro through to multinational enterprises in Africa, United Kingdom, Middle East, Europe and India, supporting meaningful change. She served as the CEO of the Lean Institute Africa and more recently, Head of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Buckingham.

Gary Cundill

Visiting Lecturer at University of Buckingham School of Business

Gary is an independent advisor and researcher, with a keen interest in how companies can be better governed to enhance their environmental and social performance.

He has worked in the chemicals, explosives, steel and property industries. Before leaving corporate life he carried responsibility for safety, health and environmental matters for a multinational group of businesses based in Johannesburg.

A registered professional engineer, he has tertiary qualifications in chemical and civil engineering, a Masters degree in environmental management, and a PhD from Cranfield University’s School of Management.

He is a member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and the British Academy of Management.

Nick Reilly

Director at Sustainable X

Nick Reilly is the Co-founder and Director of Sustainable X, which supports businesses of all sizes to move forward on their sustainability to support their business objectives. Nick is a Practitioner of the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment and comes from a Civil Engineering background.

He is a multiple innovation award winner. Originally from Northern Ireland, he has extensive SME leadership experience as an MD and CEO in the construction and utilities sectors.

With a focus on strategic thinking and embedding best practices in all business functions, he supports businesses to measure and communicate, authentically, what they are doing on Sustainability. He believes collaboration and sharing will drive not only positive outcomes on all aspects of sustainability, but businesses who adopt these practices will see business results too.

Lorraine Mackin

Studying sustainability & climate action. Ex-Global Head of Government at KPMG & Ad Esse Consulting Founder

An experienced Senior Partner with a proven record of rapidly growing advisory practices, developing high performing Partner and Director teams to grow sales, revenue, and profitability.

Lorraine made Partner at EY Australia in 2012, having built their public sector transformation practice from scratch.

For over 30 years, Lorraine has been at the forefront of leading purpose driven change and transformation programmes spanning infrastructure, government, and health services with clients across the world. Her recent UK client work has been more focused on Transport, where she has led major programmes across DfT, Network Rail, Highways England, TfL, and Heathrow.

With an unwavering commitment to sustainability, she believes systematic adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals will enable the transformation of People, Planet and Prosperity. She is a member of the Advisory Board for Rewired Earth and is currently studying an MSc in Sustainability and Business at University of Leeds.

Gurdeep Gahir

Director at Ad Esse Consulting

Before joining Ad Esse as a Consultant in 2012, G worked in a range of roles for a social housing organisation and was responsible for managing improvement. He has a BA (Hons) in Social Sciences and a MSc in Service Management from the University of Buckingham. Over time, G has built up a strong competency in Lean principles and a consultancy skillset.

Along with his business partner, Rhiannon Gibbs, G bought Ad Esse Consulting from the founders in 2016 and is striving towards a world where social purpose organisations are the aspiring standard for business excellence. Through his time with Ad Esse, he has worked across various sectors including health, charities, housing, the police and with local authorities, to deliver substantial and meaningful improvement. He is experienced running both small-scale and large-scale, organisation-wide improvement programmes. He has a particular interest in working with leaders, challenging them to grow value-led organisations.

At Ad Esse, he seeks to create a workplace where employees are valued, trained, and free to pursue their personal passions.

(HOST) Rhiannon Gibbs

Director at Ad Esse Consulting

Rhiannon cares about continuous improvement and making a positive impact on social issues. As a Director at Ad Esse Consulting, Rhiannon uses Lean principles and her consultancy skillset to help organisations with a social purpose deliver operational excellence and sustainable performance improvement.

With roots in the public sector, Rhiannon worked as a Performance Analyst for the Ministry of Justice before becoming a Business Transformation Consultant at Ad Esse Consulting. She then went on to purchase the company from the founders in 2016 with her business partner, Gurdeep Gahir. As well as growing the company, she is the podcast host for Not Another Book Review, offers public speaking at events & conferences, and travelled to Romania for pro bono improvement work with an animal charity.

Rhiannon has an MBA and a degree in Computer Science. With over 15 years of delivering continuous improvement projects in the not-for-profit and public sectors, Rhiannon has worked with a diverse range of people at all levels to deliver sustainable performance improvement.