The Sustainable Director

Hosted by Ellis Hall

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Aug 2025

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About the show

This podcast will feature speakers from all over the country discussing what sustainability means, why it is important and what businesses, directors and employees should be doing to ensure our planet stays below 1.5 degrees Celsius. There will be speakers from a wide range of industries covering all topics associated with sustainability.

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21 recent

August 20, 2025Episode 2139 min

Are you Future Ready with David Symons, WSP

In this episode of The Sustainable Director, I am joined by David Symons, Future Ready Global Leader at WSP, the world’s largest science and engineering professional services firm. With over 35 years in sustainability, David has helped shape how organisations see environmental challenges as opportunities for growth and resilience.David shares insight into Future Ready, WSP’s global program designed to ensure projects go beyond today’s standards and anticipate future trends in climate, technology, resources, and societal needs. From hospitals designed to adapt over decades, to retail spaces built for low-waste flexibility, David explains how Future Ready is changing the way WSP employees and clients approach design worldwide.The conversation also explores inclusion, such as designing transport networks with neurodivergent individuals in mind and how smaller businesses can adopt the same forward-thinking mindset. Beyond WSP, David highlights his role in creating Pledge to Net Zero, now a 150-member initiative driving real emissions reductions across the sector.David’s message is clear: sustainability is not just essential, it’s an opportunity. It helps win work, attract talent, and deliver better outcomes for clients and society. His call to action: don’t wait for others, start now.

June 26, 2025Episode 2051 min

The importance of communication with Helen Neal, HN Communications

In this episode, I’m joined by Helen Neal, a specialist in sustainability communications, to explore how organizations can build trust through honest, clear, and confident communication.We discuss: - Why sustainability must be integrated into business strategy- How to avoid the trap of only sharing ‘good news’- The power of transparency and progress over perfection- Why internal alignment is essential before external messaging- How even small businesses can get started, no matter their resourcesHelen shares valuable insights into why humility and honesty are key to credibility and how organisations can move beyond greenwashing to create real impact.Whether you're just starting your sustainability journey or refining your communication strategy, this episode is packed with practical advice, examples with a realistic outlook.

May 7, 2025Episode 1945 min

Silverstone's Shift to Zero with Stephane Bazire, Silverstone

In this episode, I speak with Stephane Bazire, Head of Sustainability at Silverstone. Stephane shares his background and how his career led him to this role at the home of British motorsport.Motorsports are not typically associated with sustainability, but Stephane shares what Silverstone is doing to shift that narrative. Over the course of four years, Silverstone has drastically improved the environmental impact and continues to deliver meaningful change year on year. This podcast delves into the importance of strong leadership, innovation, communication and the need for education, not just internal but external education to customers and suppliers to adopt better practices in their own operations.Listen in, get in touch, share your thoughts.

April 2, 2025Episode 1830 min

IoD National Sustainability Special Interest Group with Adrian Pryce, Be Partners

Institute of Directors (IoD) is a member community leading the way in developing better directors for a better world.IoD operate a number of Special Interests Groups which are made up of volunteer ambassadors. These groups help shape the conversation within organisations around important topics.In this episode, I speak with Adrian Pryce, the recently appointed Chair of the IoD National Sustainability Group. Adrian shares his strategy for how he is going to bring value to existing members and engage non-members in why embedding sustainability into any organisation is the responsible approach to business today.Adrian is also an Associate Professor at the University of Northampton and a co-founder of Be. Partners, an organisation focused on supporting organisations on responsible business conduct.

January 31, 202433 min

Episode Seventeen: Women in Leadership

In this episode, I speak with Penelope Hope, an entrepreneur and consultant that co-founded a UK renewable energy company with a social mission. More recently, Penelope has co-founded a tech business, www.ovluna.com, to help women enhance their performance in the workplace. Penelope shares her insights into why women are needed in global leadership roles and the power they bring to any organisation. Women are needed in business for many things. To enhance the sustainability and longevity by driving commercial value and long-term profitability. Listen to find out more from Penelope and how she is combatting some of the issues organisations face.

January 10, 2024Episode 1638 min

Episode Sixteen: Reflections & New Initiatives

In this episode, I speak with Donald Mavunduse to reflect on COP28, as well as share the creation of a new IoD Sustainability Group, that Donald is spearheading as Chair. COP can be a divisive. Listen in to hear what Donald has to say about some of the major themes that came out of COP. Shift from fossil fuels and investment in clean energy, the loss & damage fund, NDCs and others important outcomes from the conference. Donald also shares his plans for the Sustainability Group and how it is going to turn insight and information into practical tools for businesses to adopt. Give it a listen and let me know your thoughts!

November 29, 2023Episode 1541 min

Episode Fifteen: Two Drifters

Two Drifters Distillery was born out of the love for rum and the desire to create a product with a positive impact on the planet. Russ and Gemma, the Two Drifters, are building a brand with a purpose. A purpose they want to share with others, to help them be the best they can be. There business model is designed to incentivise themselves and their employees to take action at every stage of the process to avoid as many greenhouse gas emissions as possible. In this episode, Gemma and Russ talk about their purpose, their product and how they are working towards their goals. A fascinating team with an exciting story.

August 30, 202343 min

Episode Fourteen: The Sunny Kind of Coffee

Gert Linthout is the co-owner of Ray & Jules, the sunny kind of coffee. In this episode, Gert talks about his 10 year journey in the coffee industry as a clean tech business with a goal of mitigating 100 tonnes of million tonnes of dioxide emissions produced annually in the food roasting industry. Gert delves into the technology and why it is different from existing, ancient methods of roasting, and breaks through myths of industry scale roasting. Ray & Jules are bringing something new to the specialty coffee industry, an industry that has continued to thrive over the past couple of decades. This is not the only food roasting industry Ray & Jules are changing! The sunny kind of coffee addresses a major challenge in the food industry, a challenge to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. Gert discusses the benefits of this new technology from a quality and efficiency perspective. So if you like coffee, then have a listen and let me know what you think.

June 7, 202332 min

Episode Thirteen: Social entrepreneurship, an ocean size opportunity?

Wietse Van Der Werf is a social entrpreneur. An individual with an exciting story to combat the destruction we have caused our oceans over the past decades. A story that addresses all pillars of sustainability by combining environmental restoration with the creation of new jobs and skills for the people in coastal communities. The Sea Ranger Service is a Dutch born business dedicated to restoring 1 million hectares of ocean biodiversity by 2040 whilst training 20,000 young people for a career in the maritime industry. In this podcast, Wietse shares this story. This is a story we can all learn something from. One I would recommend listening to.

May 10, 2023Episode 1234 min

Episode Twelve: To B or not to B?

Richard Hagan is the founder and managing director of Crystal Doors in Rochdale. Richard started the process to become a completely sustainable business after facing rising costs and internal challenges. Since then, Crystal Doors has been awarded with the Queen's Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development, and Richard has achieved Business Leader of the Year at the Edie Awards which recognises the inspiring leaders who are walking the walk on sustainability and accelerating climate action. Richard has recently taken Crystal Doors through the long process to become a B Corp. You may be wondering, is B Corp the right thing for my company? Should I use their certification or should I use another sustainability certification? In this episode, Richard shares his views on B Corp, what they achieved, the areas a company is scored on, some of learnings he faced as well as many other interesting elements about B Corp. If you're considering becoming a B Corp, then this is for you. I will be speaking with Richard over the coming months to delve deeper into the B Corp certification and requirements to provide listeners with more insight!