Ten minutes with Carla Tucker
Last updated on 16 April 2024
Meet Carla Tucker, Sustainability Project Co-ordinator. Carla is one of the Facilities Directorate’s Staff Voice Ambassadors.
The FD Staff Voice is a forum where volunteer representatives from the directorate discuss ideas, questions and concerns raised by their colleagues and work together to find solutions.
Read our interview with FD Staff Voice Champion, Matthew Whiteley.
Can you describe your role in a few sentences?
I’m the Sustainability Project Co-ordinator and a member of the Sustainability Service. My role is to manage our certified Environmental Management System (EMS), alongside the Environmental Compliance Officer. It’s a framework that the university uses to minimise risk and maximise opportunities with regards to the potential environmental impact of its activities.
My day-to-day includes building inspections, audits, reviewing EMS documents and providing EMS information to staff and students.
What is the FD Staff Voice?
The FD Staff Voice is almost like an experiment that looks to bring about positive culture change within the FD. It’s a group of people working together to make the working experience for everyone in the FD better.
Why is the FD Staff Voice important for colleagues?
It’s self-empowering. Yes, we can’t change everything, but here’s an opportunity where you can have actual input, which could potentially bring about lasting change. I know people can be sceptical when programmes like this start, but it’s something worth doing and having input in. It could make a difference.
I can appreciate that this is a long-term process, and it may take some time before you might see lasting results, but I don’t think people should be discouraged by that. Especially when you’re working in a large organisation with so many different work areas, getting everyone on the same page takes time. But we will get there.
How did you become involved in the FD Staff Voice?
I was already looking to do some volunteering work that would enable me to meet more members of staff from both inside and outside the Directorate, because a part of my role is to promote the EMS.
A manager approached me to ask if I’d be interested in representing the Sustainability Service for the FD Staff Voice programme. I read the description and thought that it sounded interesting. In a previous role, I helped with a social and sports club, so I could see the value of a programme like this and what it can create in the future.
What is beneficial about being involved in the programme?
As I said, a part of my role involves promoting the EMS, and I’ve been able to meet people from different areas to do that. It’s been useful to find out how other teams and departments function and why things are the way they are. I’ve even met someone who was able to give me advice on an issue I found in an inspection.
For me, just meeting and working with people, you really get to see their personality, which I think is really cool.
What would you like to achieve on the programme?
It’s still a new thing, so I haven’t been able to think too much about specific ambitions, but one thing I’d like to do is to work with the rest of the group to formalise processes to help the FD Staff Voice become a sustainable programme.
Even if it allows people to engage with people they don’t usually interact with, it definitely adds value.
