Meet the Team – Issue 4

Welcome back to the latest update of our \’Meet the Team\’ feature.

Every few weeks we have been talking to a different member of the Albion team and asking them to share some of their work and life experiences to help our clients get to know the people behind the brand. This week we are sharing Jane\’s great blog!

Jane Bond

Project and Business Development Director

Favourite Quote: I had to think hard about this one.  The first thought I had when asked the question was ‘’just keep swimming’’ but I wasn’t sure whether this was just relating to my new hobby.  But I thought more about this and there are 2 reasons for this being my favourite. The first one is because I started open water swimming in a local Loch during lock down and just love it for the calm and being at one with nature – a good stress relief!  The second reason is because it represents achieving something as a team and beating the odds.  If you watch Finding Nemo you will understand what I mean!

Job Role: Helping Albion win work, maintaining client relationships, project management, providing training – basically anything that helps to move the company forward and grow in projects, revenue and profit.

I\’m also involved in hosting various training sessions and sharing my knowledge and experience with others in the industry. My most recent online training session talked all about sustainability and if you\’re interested you can watch the recording here.

Experience: I have been in the waste management industry over 30 years (I started very young!!). My background is Geology and Environmental and Pollution Control with some Civil Engineering thrown in.  My first role was working as a hydrogeologist for a County Council in England in waste operations and waste regulation – poacher/game keeper before the Environment Agency came along.  This was a great start and gave me operational experience in environmental monitoring, design and installation of monitoring points, evaluation of environmental monitoring data and design, testing and CQA of landfill liner and capping systems.  I moved to Scotland in 1996 and worked for a Scottish consultancy called Babtie Group (now Jacobs Engineering).  This involved a wide range of waste management projects, my first project being as an independent consultant working for Hong Kong Government Environment Protection Department reviewing designs and supervising restoration of closed landfill sites in Hong Kong.  In addition to that I worked on waste strategy, contracts, waste composition, options appraisals for public and private sector.  I moved back into the public sector – working for SEPA – focussing on sustainability and in particular how businesses can improve their environmental credentials and save money at the same time.  After seven years of that it was time to move back into consultancy and work with Albion Environmental.

Favourite project I’ve worked on at Albion: What I like about working for Albion is the range of projects and getting involved, technically with the projects.  Also being a small company it is quick to make changes when these are needed and decisions are made quickly.  My favourite project has to be training for the NHS in clinical waste auditing.  This has involved training in each of the health boards on why and how to undertake pre-acceptance audits for clinical waste.  This has given me a good insight into the operations of clinical waste management and I have learnt a lot from this.

Get to Know Me: My first interesting fact is that I went travelling for 6 months in USA, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong in 1990/1991. Whilst I was there I undertook a project to look at landfill lining practices in each of these countries particularly relating to synthetic (HDPE) liners. Sad but true! I love cycling regularly cycling around 100 miles per week, I have recently taken up wild swimming and have swum in icy waters.  I hate running!  

When I’m not working, you’ll find me… Cycling or swimming.  If it is raining I am more likely to be making soup or doing a jigsaw. Knitting blankets is also another one of my favourite things to do – if anyone needs a blanket, supply me with the wool and I will knit it!!

If you\’d like to get in touch with Jane you can email enquiries to janebond@albion-environmental.co.uk or connect on LinkedIn here.