ENVIRONMENTALIST
Jo Carris
Hi, my name's Jo and I'm an Energy Manager, which means I help create energy efficient buildings and protect the environment. When I learnt that buildings are responsible for almost half of UK CO2 emissions, half of our water consumption and about a third of landfill waste in the UK, I wanted to do something about it!
Right now, I'm working to make the London Olympic Games the greenest Olympics ever. Our goal is to cut carbon emissions at the Olympics by 50%. My role is to manage the design team and put efficient energy sources, like wind turbines, into practice. Doing Physics at A-level has really helped my in my role as I use the skills I learnt every day. I'm really proud of what I do and I love having a job that benefits the entire planet as well as leaving a legacy for the future.
Learn more about London 2012 and other jobs that will make it a success.
Did you know?- Typical salaries range from £18,000 - £50,000.
- You won't be stuck in an office- Environmentalists go on site regularly and inspect their projects.
- With a career as an Environmentalist, you could make a real difference to the planet and create a cleaner world for future generations.
- Most new buildings are trying to lower their carbon footprint so you could be involved in anything from houses to space stations.
- Whatever type of Environmentalist you want to be, it's important to have science qualifications behind you
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:I'm Jo Carris, I'm the Energy Manager at the London 2012 Olympic Park.
In 2012 the world's top athletes are going to come here to compete in the Olympic Games, but after that Londoners are going to use the park to work, live and play in a sustainable way.
I think I really became interested in the field when I found out that buildings have got such a big impact on the environment, and I just wanted to do something about it.
So you can see the Olympic Park being built behind me. It's one of the biggest construction projects in Europe, so there's massive opportunity to implement green initiatives and really do the right thing.
My role is to work with the design and construction teams to make sure that they're building energy efficient buildings and that we're reducing the carbon emissions on the park.
So this behind me is the Aquatic Centre, it's been designed to be really energy efficient, so we've thought about increasing natural light and insulation to make sure that it produces its carbon emissions.
I use maths and physics in my job quite a lot really, doing all sorts of energy efficiency calculations, looking at costing of things, and you really need those skills to be able to work in our field and deliver on projects of this size.
Studying maths and physics has given me a really good grounding of my career, I could go in to numerous different jobs with those as a background skill.
I really, really love making a difference to the environment, what I'm doing now is going to have an impact on future generations.
I love my job, I get to do what I love every day.
Interested in becoming an Environmentalist? Find out more about it here, check out our Useful Links section or talk to a careers advisor at school.