Jo Holden – Sustainability Director at MediaCity

A day in the life. Meet Jo Holden, Sustainability Director at MediaCity, whose working day includes everything from renewable energy to figuring out how to make buildings fit for the future. Jo describes greening MediaCity.

“There’s no typical day for me, but there’s the same theme: helping MediaCity be more climate resilient. That can mean anything from managing energy to assessing how the climate will affect the way we work. I talk to people, particularly the people and businesses who work here. They want to know what they can do, how can they reduce emissions, where’s our energy coming from? And we listen: next month we’re switching to 100% renewable energy across MediaCity.

It’s definitely a journey. There’s so much more we can do, but there’s no silver bullet to achieving net zero carbon: it’s about using all the tools we have, learning from what we do. Our last building refurb saw us save 60% on our carbon, so we’ve taken that experience into our next refurb. And it’s not just about buildings. People, how they behave, how they use spaces, is just as important.

I love MediaCity for its walkability. Walking around in a traffic-free place, by the water, and then you see these modern buildings. I remember going to football matches years ago and this is where we would park. There was nothing here. It sounds corny, but I sometimes feel – look at what we pulled out of the ground, out of that nothing. And if we did that, what else can we do? If you’re a sustainability person you have to be up for the challenge – to continue to aspire, to continue checking in with people to make sure we’re going in the right direction.