An environmental and sustainability specialist with two decades of professional experience in the areas of: sustainable energy; climate change and carbon footprinting & management. Paula has a PhD in climate change chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a Masters degree from City University, London.
Paula has worked in the academic, public, charitable, governmental and corporate sectors over her career. She started her professional life working for Manchester Metropolitan University running the Global Climate Change Information Programme – the first government funded public information dissemination project on the topic. She then joined the British Library heading up their environmental information services. From there she moved to the (then) new sustainable development charity Forum for the Future to take up a senior management position, and finally worked for the Energy Saving Trust for eight years before setting up her own agency in 2010.
Highlights from her career include: publishing the book Decommissioning the Brent Spar early in her career; the inception, research and writing of four highly regarded energy and carbon related publications: The Rise of the Machines, Ampere Strikes Back, Elephant in the Living Room and, most recently, Powering the Nation. These publications have done much to aid the understanding of the role the residential sector plays in the increasing energy demand within the UK over the last four decades.
Paula was the project lead in the creation of the first official UK government’s carbon calculator for the domestic sector – the Act on CO2 Calculator. This award-winning calculator had been an exceptional success since it was launched, but sadly disbanded by the Conservative administration when it came to power. She oversaw two subsequent update versions of the calculator that improved and expanded areas of coverage, and developed the iPhone App. Other carbon management tools have been developed for Google; the BBC and Energy Saving Trust.
Paula has worked with a number of multinational companies on projects involving energy matters; environmental data & information management and tools; employee training and behaviour change. Organisations include: Procter & Gamble; British Gas; BSkyB; Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Tate Museums and the Big Lottery Fund.
Paula is also an experienced media spokesperson and has spoken widely on all major UK broadcasting channels, as well as radio and the published media. Highlights include the BBC news; Sky News; BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours; It ain’t easy being green; The One Show and the Tonight Programme.
In 2012 she was awarded a London Leaders position by the Greater London Authority and the Mayor’s Office. This is an honorary title that saw her carry out a year-long project to research whether fun and games could help make Londoners more environmentally friendly. She also was awarded an Unltd Social entrepreneurs award to help fund this project. From that she co-funded eco action games, a social business with the mission of saving the planet through fun. It develops and sells educational resources, disguised as games, and host interactive educational events.
In 2015 she became a trustee of the climate change charity 10:10.
Email Paula on: paula@greengumption.co.uk
