19 November 2007

'Waste management used to mean digging holes in the ground for landfill,' says Gillian Tatum, chief executive of Urban Mines since April 2006. 'But climate change, along with the fact that resources are finite, has changed all that. There's a real need for services that collect paper, plastic and card and consider what to do with it once it's collected. Because of that, my industry is pretty dynamic right now.'

Urban Mines is an environmental consultancy and charity that works with the public and private sectors to promote resource efficiency. 'That means getting the best out of new materials without creating unnecessary waste,' she says. 'For example, we'll look at how a manufacturing company can achieve 'lean manufacturing', or support a public sector company in promoting recycling and reuse within the community.'

Gillian's 20 staff have a heavy and varied workload. 'Urban Mines covers a huge breadth of different areas and clients and sometimes the team needs clear direction of what its priorities are,' she says. 'My greatest management challenge is helping them prioritise their work, and keeping them focused,' she says. 'We've just reorganised into different business units so there's a lot to do.'

She's a relative newcomer to ILM, having enrolled last year. 'I heard about it when I was doing a Level 5 NVQ,' she says. 'Since then, I've got a fair amount out of its member workshops and I'm looking to develop professionally with ILM in the future.'

She believes that Urban Mines' work in terms of diverting waste and having it as a secondary resource will have a good impact in terms of turning round climate change. 'If we can reuse resources to create more jobs and more value for local communities so we don't have to import materials from long distances, that has a beneficial effect,' she says. 'It feels good to do something for future generations.’