Watch back
Live from Grenville Turner Studio on campus, join our CEO and VC Karen Holford for the launch of Green Week 2023. Tune in online to meet our panel of academics and entrepreneurs working hard towards creating a more sustainable world.
Chaired by our CEO and VC, Karen Holford and facilitated through our studio, this exciting session will formally launch “Green Week”.  Green Week takes place each year and comprises a series of events and activities to help raise awareness around sustainability, including hands-on activities on the Cranfield campus.
Cranfield is proud to partner with Green Futures Investment Ltd (GFIL) to deliver financial, technical and business support to innovators and entrepreneurs who are striving to create a greener future. Two of our panellists are from companies recently funded by GFIL - and . They will be joined by two of our leading experts on sustainability, Professor Chris Fogwill and Dr Rosina Watson.
This is an important event in our calendar and we hope to attract a lively audience of staff, students and other invited stakeholders.
Green Week
Every year, our Green Team host Green Week to create fun, social and engaging activities to inspire our staff and students to take positive environmental action. During the week, we showcase key environmental projects from the University, hold inspiration talks, host games, film nights, exhibits from environmental charities, tours of facilities on and off campus and carry out campaigns/promotions.
Speakers
Professor Karen Holford CBE
Chief Executive and Vice-Chancellor, ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ | Chair
Karen’s engineering career spans industry and academia; starting as an undergraduate in engineering at Rolls-Royce (Aero), gaining a BEng (Hons) at Cardiff University, followed by a PhD, sponsored by the HSE. She then took a role as graduate engineer at AB Electronic Products Ltd, culminating in a position as senior engineer with technical responsibility for all projects and leadership of a large mechanical design team. At Rolls-Royce she contributed to a range of technical projects including development of Adour and Pegasus engines in collaboration with engineers from Europe and the United States and spent an interesting period in engine strip and rebuild during the Falklands war. At AB Electronic Products she was responsible for management of technical projects, including the design and development of a significant new product (a thin film pressure sensor for BMW ABS systems), as well as developing automotive electronic products for Jaguar and Rover.
Professor Chris Fogwill
Pro-Vice-Chancellor - School of Water, Energy and Environment, ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥
Chris obtained his BSc in Geological Oceanography at the University of Bangor in North Wales in 1995, and then joined the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University as a postgraduate research assistant in the palaeoceanography group. This was followed by a PhD at the University of Edinburgh focused on ice-sheet reconstruction and modelling in Antarctica and Patagonia. After a NERC-funded postdoctoral research position within the School of Geoscience at Edinburgh, Chris took up a position as Senior Lecturer and Director of Programme in Physical Geography at the University of Exeter in 2007. This was followed by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2012 at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, where he was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2012 based at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), the leading hub for climate system modelling in the Southern Hemisphere, where he remains as Adjunct Professor.
Dr Rosina Watson
Head of Sustainable Business Group and Associate Professor of Sustainability, ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥
Rosina is Associate Professor of Sustainability at Cranfield School of Management, and Head of the School’s Sustainable Business Group. Her research centres on sustainable innovation, both in large corporate organizations and by entrepreneurs, with a focus on how partnerships and collaboration can enhance sustainable innovation. She directs a specialist Sustainability MSc (available as a master’s level apprenticeship) as well as leading teaching on sustainability on general management courses, including the MBA and Executive MBA. 
Founder/CEO, Manhole Metrics
Will is the founder of ManholeMetrics, a tech start-up tackling flooding with innovative sensors and software. After falling victim to a flood whilst completing his Masters of Engineering at Imperial, and realising not just the current scale of flooding, but also the future threat it poses thanks to climate change and urbanisation, Will founded ManholeMetrics, leveraging his background as a Civil Engineer and his experience working on infrastructure projects such as the Tideway Super Sewer. ManholeMetrics is developing low-cost, long-life and easy to install manhole sensors alongside associated management and analytics software to enable proactive flood prevention.
The company has received numerous grants including from Innovate UK, Cranfield’s GFIL TAF programme as well as the Mayor of London and the Royal Academy of Engineering, where Will was awarded an Enterprise Fellowship. More recently the team received venture backing from a consortium of top investors. The firm has field trials underway with Yorkshire Water with other trials upcoming with infrastructure operators in both the UK as well as the US and Europe.
Co-Founder/Director, SAGES London
Co-founder and Director of SAGES London Ltd. Emily has 9 years experience of working in the fashion industry for market leading companies such as the Arcadia group (Topshop, Miss Selfridge), Zara and Primark. A wealth of industry contacts with both small scale UK producers as well as large scale manufacturers, mills and dye houses in China, Vietnam, Romania and Portugal. She completed her MA in Fashion Futures from London College of Fashion with strong ties to the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. She is also a sustainability consultant for fast-fashion brands.
Chief Executive, Cambridge Cleantech
Sam is CEO of Cambridge Cleantech, the UK’s first cleantech network and a European climate innovation leader. With 20+ years’ experience in project management, regeneration, and economic development, Sam builds innovation ecosystems for climate-positive technology.
Achievements include managing international accelerators and implementing energy efficiency policy programmes. Sam connects members, impact investors, strategic partners, and R&D experts, and under his leadership, Cambridge Cleantech now has 300+ member organizations spanning energy, infrastructure, transportation, and the circular economy.
James Berry
Head of Strategy, Green Future Investments Ltd
As an individual I am interested in agriculture, technology and being part of the solution to Positive Climate Change. As a Father I feel a need to be able to secure the future for my children. I want my legacy to be that I helped leave the world in a better place. I jumped at the opportunity to work with this team. I now have the opportunity to maximise my sustainability impact and be marvelled by the problem solving minds of our future generations.
Who should attend?
We welcome students, staff and friends of ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ to join us online to hear this exciting panel. Chat to us online and ask the panel your most pressing questions about how entrepreneurship and innovative thinking can help us create a more sustainable future.
