Louise Beale is Chair of the Specialist in Land Condition (SiLC) Professional and Technical Panel that runs the scheme. She is a geologist who has worked in environmental consultancy as a land quality specialist for 30 years. She recently had a change in career direction and currently manages the integration of acquired businesses into SLR Consulting. Taking on the SiLC Chair and a new career direction after many years of providing consultancy advice to clients was a big change that she wouldn’t have taken without the encouragement and support of her peers. Learning new skills, applying her experience in a different context and interacting with a whole new set of people has given her a new lease of life and passion for her career.

Lucy Bethell is a Technical Director in the Contaminated Land and Remediation Team at Mott MacDonald with over twenty years’ experience in land contamination projects. She is also a working parent of two primary school age children, a school Governor, a CIWEM and SiLC Affiliate Mentor and involved in various groups within CIWEM, as well as her role as the SiLC PTP Deputy Chair. She is passionate about technical excellence, supporting colleagues and all things environmental! She works part time and during her career has had a sabbatical to go travelling and two breaks for maternity leave.

Experience as woman in the brownfield industry
Both Louise and Lucy’s experience as woman working in the brownfield industry has been largely positive.

Lucy has had some brilliant opportunities for interesting and notable roles on projects, some of which she only got due to her SiLC accreditation. She has had some fantastic female role models and very valuable women specific training which taught her a lot. She has also been supported in taking a technical career route as this is what fulfils her – my ikigai. However, she has seen and experienced some negative aspects including borderline harassment, which she didn’t fully recognise at the time, but was supported through intervention by male allies. “It does sometimes feel like we aren’t doing enough in terms of the environment, supporting others and also outdated, unacceptable behaviour by some in the brownfield sector”. But, as an eternal optimist this gives her the drive to get involved in trying to improve things. She is a firm believer in the strength that diversity brings to a team and therefore tries to support women and other underrepresented groups in our industry.

Louise’s early career was always an equal mix of men and women who worked hard and socialised together under a strong leader. “He was all about doing the right thing, doing it well, and enjoying your work while you did it. He really motivated and encouraged us to be one big team. I think everything I know about leading and managing people, l learned from him.” After having children Louise led a team as part of a job share. “It worked brilliantly. We complemented each other so well – we were better than the sum of our parts. I’m a lot better in the mornings, she was better in the evenings. I’m more ‘big picture’, while she had a lot more attention to detail.” Louise believes that having a family means you learn to work differently. Rather than doing whatever hours it takes to get the job done you become much more efficient.
Two of the biggest work challenges Louise has experienced were managing the menopause and overcoming a career plateau. Mental and physical menopause symptoms are numerous and it can take a long time to understand why you feel as you do. Loss of confidence and the wish for an easy life mean you just take a back seat. Awareness raising and support networks provided by her company have helped. She hopes that in the future with the right support women 15 or 25 years into their career wont even notice a blip and more leadership roles will be filled by them.

Why do we volunteer?
Lousie and Lucy both value the extra voluntary roles in industry that they do on top of their day jobs. They relish the opportunity to work with a brilliant range of people, get involved in a wide range of initiatives, support and encourage technical excellence and career development and try to shape and improve our sector. They are always curious to see what is going on in the industry and hope they can give something back to an industry that they are proud to be a part of.

Top Tips
Louise: Believe in yourself and try something new as you never know what you might learn and the boost you might get in a different environment. Find an ally who will encourage and support you and be an ally to others.

Lucy: It’s not always easy to find the time and I have a habit of overcommitting but the phrase I try to remember is “you can do anything, but you can’t do everything”.