Each month Hilson Moran profiles one of its staff in our news section. This month is the turn of Joanne Thetford, Principal Sustainability Consultant.
Name: Joanne Thetford
Role: Specialising in undertaking building certification such as BREEAM, and more recently WELL, as well as SAP calculations and general sustainability for planning applications.
Training: Sustainable Development
Joined HM: 2014
Favourite HM Project: 184 Shepherds Bush Road
Loves: Mexican food, running, gin & tonic, 1980s films
Dislikes: Rudeness, traffic, plastic
A typical day will begin with a short tram journey into Manchester to our fabulous new office in the city centre. A lot of the work is office based and requires reviewing evidence and liaising with design team members, but also carrying out workshops with design teams – one of the great things about my job is working on a variety of projects and getting out meeting different project teams. I’m involved with projects in the south as well as up north which allows me to work alongside colleagues from our London and Farnborough offices.
Undertaking certification assessments is varied as you deal with a diverse range of topics from health and wellbeing, energy, ecology, to the selection of materials. As an assessor I am usually involved with a project from feasibility stage through to post construction. At the end of the project I get to go and undertake a site survey, it’s good to see the final constructed buildings, especially when design teams have embraced the sustainability brief and there are innovative architectural features or ecology rich roof gardens.
The Manchester office is pretty small so everyone knows each other which is great when working on projects run from the office as it’s easy to track people down. There’s always a few jokes throughout the day and there’s a really good work-life balance. We’re in a brilliant location, I like to make the most of getting out and about and enjoy being in the city centre.
At the end of the day I jump back on the tram to pick up my daughter from after-school club so we can spend the evening together. Some evenings I take myself out for a run to blow away the cobwebs and enjoy the Manchester rain.
