Alice Burrows
Biography
Alice is a Chartered Resource and Waste Manager with experience across air emissions and waste management activities. Alice has supported many clients to secure environmental and emissions trading scheme (ETS) permits, including applications for bespoke permits relating to a wide range of installations and waste activities, such as energy from waste (EfW), metal recycling, household waste recycling, carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), data centre back up generation, peaking plant, food and drink, and manufacturing. She also worked on the permitting of the UK’s first industrial-scale CCU plant, which is Tata Chemicals Europe’s Winnington CCU plant in Cheshire.
Story
What is your role at Ricardo?
I support clients to: secure environmental and ETS permits; procure waste services; create waste management strategies; carry out regulatory processes; and collate evidence to help inform business or policy decisions.
What does your average day at Ricardo look like?
Day to day, my role is mainly desk-based but the types of projects I work on can be quite varied. My day usually involves checking on the projects I manage to make sure my team members have everything they need for their tasks. I also have project work of my own to do, which can include providing advice on Emissions Trading Scheme permits or leading a vision workshop for a council’s waste strategy. I generally have a few meetings a day, with some weeks more meeting-heavy than others, but I can usually count on Friday to be quieter.
What do you look forward to at work?
The thing I most look forward to is working with my colleagues each day. I work with such a great bunch of people at Ricardo and they always make me feel like a valued part of the team, regardless of whether I’m at home or in the office.
What do you find most rewarding at work? / Are you proud to work at Ricardo?
I am really interested in the challenges faced in the drive towards a circular economy and the fight against the climate crisis and I look forward to the projects I work on that allow me to work on those challenges in some way. It feels very rewarding when we get to work on a project like that.
How have you developed your career at Ricardo?
Shortly after I joined Ricardo, I applied for Chartered membership of CIWM, for which Ricardo gave me time to put towards preparing my application. This year, I applied to be on the CIWM London & Southern Counties Centre Council, which Ricardo also supported. This has given me opportunities to meet other people in the sector and expand my knowledge base, which further helps me in my day job.
What opportunities do you have at Ricardo to share your knowledge or expertise?
I enjoy sharing my experiences through articles and getting involved with the industry via my CIWM membership. I recently put on a CIWM event at Ricardo’s London office where I talked about Ricardo’s BIOCCUS project as part of a waste innovation webinar.
What advice would you give to anyone considering a career as a Energy Consultant?
Be open to putting yourself forward for a range of projects to broaden your horizons, but also practise setting boundaries so that you don’t get overwhelmed with too much work all at once.