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The Technical Committee

Janet Kidner, BSc, MSc
Chair of the Planet Positive Technical Committee. Head of Sustainability, Lend Lease Retail & Communities UK

Areas of Expertise: Corporate Sustainability Strategy, Change Management, Operational & embodied carbon footprint measurement and reduction strategies, carbon project development.


Throughout her career, Janet has focussed on embedding sustainability into businesses, products and buildings. She holds a Masters degree (distinction) in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London, and previously was an Associate Director and a founding partner of dcarbon8. Prior to that, she was a sustainability consultant and carbon manager at Battle McCarthy Consulting Engineers. At Lend Lease Janet builds sustainability capability across the UK business by integrating sustainable processes and behaviours.

Martin Fry, MSc, CEng, FEI, FIMechE, FRSA
Director, Martin R Fry & Associates

Areas of Expertise: Energy efficiency and energy management.

Martin has been active in the energy management world since the late 70s. He is chairman of the Energy Services and Technology Association and leads the Energy and Environmental Technology and Economics Masters course at City University, London. Martin chairs the BSI Energy Management Standards committee and is leading the UK input to the forthcoming ISO 50001 standard for energy management.

Dr. Katherine Begg, BSc, PhD, MRSC
Senior Research Fellow and now registered visitor, University of Edinburgh

Areas of expertise: Energy and environmental policy, technology transfer, energy and development, climate change, decision analysis.

Previously Katie was a principal lecturer at the Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development (IESD) at Leicester De Montfort University. She has also worked at Surrey University Centre for Environmental Sustainability, where she focused on accounting procedures for emissions reductions, and delivering sustainability benefits from CDM projects. At Edinburgh her main interests have been technology transfer, marine energy sustainability and currently she has been co-authoring the Technology Needs Assessment handbook, for UNDP to feed into the climate negotiations.

Karen Fisher, BSc, MSC
Life Cycle Assessment Consultant, Environmental Resources Management

Areas of expertise: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), product carbon footprinting.

Karen is a senior LCA consultant in ERM's Waste Energy and Climate Change team. She has managed a diverse range of LCA and carbon footprinting studies, including appraisals of consumer goods and food items, construction products and waste management systems. Over the past few years, Karen has lead a number of high profile projects that have played an important role in the development of the PAS 2050 standard. She is managing the ongoing calculation of over 1000 product footprints for Tesco and acted as a technical expert to Defra in support of their PAS 2050 trials.

Paul Ashford, BSc
Director, Caleb Group

Areas of expertise: International climate change protocols, impacts of industrial greenhouse gases (HFCs, PFCs, SF6), ozone depletion, sustainable construction, energy efficiency in buildings.

Paul is the Director of his own environmental consultancy which advises on government policy and provides mediation services between government and industry groups on implementation issues. Paul has worked with multilateral environmental agreements for over 15 years, since his expertise was initially recognised and harnessed as an advisor to the Parties of the Montreal Protocol in 1991. He has been increasingly utilised by the Government to assist in the development and implementation of energy efficiency policies and standards - most notably the development and introduction of the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive in the EU.