Utility Week

People & Opinion Utility Week community UtILItY WeeK | 4th - 10th November 2016 | 7 Martin Alder Small-scale renewables champion martin Alder died suddenly at his home in Gloucestershire on 10 october, following a struggle with cancer. Alder served for many years with the Association of electricity Producers, which merged with other bodies to create energy UK in 2012. After this consolidation, he became an energy UK board member. he played a leading role in developing the renewables obligation, feed-in tariffs and the contracts for difference regime. Following his death, colleagues paid tribute to his dedication to establishing renewables in the UK energy mix as well as his dry wit. obituAry What's the most important lesson/idea people should take away from your presentation? Don't give up! Challenge complacency by being an activist for process safety. Anyone can do this, from a chief executive to a plant technician. Educate yourself, learn from outside your industry, and look at what training and skills you and your organisation have and where the gaps are – then share it. What has been the most successful or challenging experience in your career and what did you learn from it? My response isn't about a single dramatic event, it's about passion and perseverance. In the context of health and safety, the biggest challenge I've faced is raising awareness and driving engagement in process safety, both where I work and across the UK water Speaker's corner Anna Chivers, COMAH compliance manager, Anglian Water industry. It's taught me the importance of three life skills: communication, patience and commitment. It demands a huge personal effort in terms of educating those who are interested but have lots of questions (which is, of course, great); and on the very rare occasions meeting out-and-out resistance or dismissive attitudes, which can be hard to deal with. The latter makes me reflect if I'm failing to communicate clearly and what I can do to be more effective. There's also a certain amount of inertia inevitable in large organisations and industries because it takes time to get the mass of people on board and moving in the same direction. So change takes time. This is frustrating when you want every one to be as passionate as you are and race ahead with you. The danger is that you'll leave them behind and change won't happen, so I remind myself to be their friend and be patient – especially as sometimes it's me who is struggling to understand or keep up with everyone else. Stick with it, though, because most individuals and organisations will understand the business case for process safety as well as their moral and legal duty. It's just that sometimes we don't make the message clear or we want change to happen faster. So remember: communication, patience and commitment. Identify five people you would invite to your dream dinner party and why. 1. Captain Sensible (guitarist). 2. Dave Vanian (singer). 3. Monty Oxymoron (keyboardist). 4. Pinch (drummer). 5. Stu West (bassist). Why? Because together they are the current line-up of The Damned. Best. Band. Ever. Name four items you keep on your desk/with you at work that reveal something about your interests/personality. 1. A digital radio. I have my own office, which is fortunate for others because BBC Radio 6 Music provides a soundtrack to my day when I'm at my desk, especially Lauren Laverne's show. I find music helps me to focus. 2. I'm a very recent convert to gardening, inspired by Monty Don. So I have a few photos of my back garden the first summer it was in full bloom. The pictures remind me of relaxing on the garden bench watching the buds on evening primrose slowly unfurl into beautiful flowers. The vibrant colours of the flowerbeds really cheer me up, particularly during the short days of winter. 3. My handmade pencil case with an appliqué scene of beach huts. Nothing evokes memories of long holidays and days by the sea better than a row of beach huts. 4. A Queens Park Rangers coaster. It reminds me of being younger, when I, my mum and my dad were all season-ticket holders in the Upper Lo£. Sitting next to my mum at a game showed me what passion means. Anna Chivers is speaking at the Utility Week Health and Safety conference in Birmingham on 30 November. For more information, visit: events.utilityweek.co.uk/hs "So far this year, 86,000 people have had to boil their water to make it safe. This is more than twice as many as last year." Gerard O'Leary, director of the Office of Environmental Enforcement at EPA Ireland 79% Proportion of the UK public who support the use of renewables, according to figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – 1 per cent are strongly opposed

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