Clare Ollerenshaw appointed Chair of the Innovative Low Carbon Working Group

Clare Ollerenshaw, Associate Director at Accelar has been announced as the new Chair of the Innovative Low Carbon Working Group (ILCWG), a network run by the Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands (IAWM) in collaboration with Sustainability West Midlands.

On becoming the ILCWG Chair, Clare commented:

“Big thank you’s to SWM and IAWM for inviting me to chair the ILCWG, I’m honoured and really looking forward to getting stuck in! A little bit about me so you know who you’re dealing with…

I work for an environmental strategy company called Accelar who support organisations to achieve their clean growth ambition and I’ve been with them just coming up to a year. I’ve worked in the sustainability and community sectors for all my career and that’s certainly where my heart is. For the last ten years I’ve grown my experience mainly in the area of circular economy, working for both WRAP (Waste Resources Action Programme) and ReLondon in this space. I’m really interested in how circular economy business models can support organisations to continue to be profitable and low carbon. Previous to this I’ve worked for the Woodland Trust project managing a new woodland creation scheme, in Tanzania with VSO working with a small NGO providing clean water and sanitation services to local communities, with a Council for Voluntary Service getting local people involved in decision making processes, and with local authorities selling compost bins and promoting energy efficient light bulbs. If you’d like to know a bit more, have a look at my LinkedIn profile.

As a current member of the ILCWG I’ve experienced for myself the benefits that the group brings and read with interest the positive stats from the last IAWM survey. My aim is to support the group to continue this fantastic work. Certainly, very few low carbon projects are achieved by one organisation working alone and it’s through groups like the ILCWG that we can meet others that can help us achieve our collective ambition. Looking forward to seeing you on 10 June!”

Clare will Chair the next ILCWG meeting which is taking place online on 10 June and will include presentations about sustainability for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. If you’d like to find out more about the ILCWG, you can sign up here if you’d like to attend the next meeting.