In conversation with Louise Whitaker, Circular Economy Manager, VirginmediaO2

Louise is focused on helping VMO2 customers take 10million circular actions. A circular action might be keeping technology in use for longer, choosing a refurbished device, donating devices, repairing and recycling. Her work centres on building collaborations across the business to develop more ways for customers to take these actions, whilst embedding circularity into different teams within the business.

Alongside this, her day to day work includes managing the Time after Time E-waste fund with environmental partner Hubbub, engaging with industry bodies to affect widescale change, coordinating research projects on behaviour change, policy asks, developing ideas for customer offerings, and reviewing the most circular approach for how VMO2 uses technology in its own business.

Prior to this, Louise worked in coffee and agricultural supply chains for 15 years, firstly in marketing and brand management roles and latterly as Group Sustainability Manager.

Outside of work, sport and the outdoors play a huge role in Louise's life, where she can often be found running the trails and sea swimming with her nutty GSP dog who is just learning how to jump the waves. Her guilty pleasure is an extra large packet of cheesy wotsits.

We chat to Louise about her work helping people understand how to become stewards rather than owners of tech, how she’s transferred skills from a marketing background and leaned into them as a sustainability professional and how that helps her to engage with humans in ways that help the agenda.

The conversation again considers the importance of networking (a definite theme in all of these chats) and what to consider when you are struggling to get people past the promise and towards delivery.

We are sharing our conversations about sustainability to help you start your own.