Environmental Improvement Manager
North East Lincolnshire County Council

Nathan V

00:00:03 My name’s Nathan V, I’m an Environmental Improvement Manager at North East Lincolnshire Council. I lead on the council’s climate change agenda so that’s looking at what the impact is of the council on climate change, what the council can do reduce that impact across the vast range of services that the council has. I wouldn’t necessarily class myself as an eco warrior, I don’t think that I necessarily look like an eco warrior. But that’s essentially what it involves.

00:00:33 My background’s engineering. At school it was something that I liked doing was some of the sciences. It was very much a teacher at the time that took me to one side and said, “You’re probably quite good at this, I think this the direction that you should probably go on.”

00:00:51 Once I got my A Level results they weren’t as good as I’d hoped for. I felt quite disappointed at that, really. The decision to make then was, well, which way do I go? Would I go to my first place university or would I not bother and just find a job and then start along that path? It was certainly one of the major decisions that I’ve faced.

00:01:13 So, once I got my A Levels I went to university to study manufacturing engineering and that was a thick sandwich course. So, after two years I did a year out within industry, if you like, to gain work experience. Before then returning to university to do my final year.

00:01:34 Within that year out I got a job with Philips Electronics within the manufacturing sector. Once I graduated they offered me a position actually with them for doing environmental management.

00:01:47 I kind of had an aspiration of going into consultancy at the time. That was where a lot of careers seemed to take off, there was kind of a lot of money in that as well, at the time. So, I moved deliberately from working where I was to going into the public sector.

00:02:07 In terms of my working life it’s kind of pretty hectic at the moment. I think the rewards are there for the people that want to do it. I certainly find myself having to make sure I keep myself in check to make sure that work doesn’t get the better of you. It can be quite stressful within a Local Authority. Outside of work I do a number of different things. I quite like running, that’s certainly something that I do to kind of burn off a bit of steam, really, and I know it’s quite trendy at the moment but I’ve got a vegetable patch as well. So, sort of certainly growing your own vegetables and getting some form of delight from that, as well.

00:02:52 Certainly some of the teachers at my school kind of inspiring in their own way in the way that they would relate to me or talk to me, give me certain opportunities to do things like out of school events and what have you. Certain managers this as well I’ve been fortunate to work with some people that have given me their time, passed on some of the knowledge that they’ve learnt in their own careers.

00:03:20 The dream job for me at the moment would be towards the top of an organisation whether it be a director or a chief executive level. It’s something that I think inspires me really and what I’ve come to recognise is that if you’re wanting to bring about a change in a particular direction, you often need the authority to be able to do that.

ENDS