Luke has been working within the Irish environmental sector for just short of six years and is currently a senior member of the Environmental Team at ORS, an engineering firm with nationwide reach in Ireland.
Luke is currently site lead at several pharmaceutical and industrial facilities, and coordinates various projects to ensure compliance with the EPA Industrial Emissions Licenses, under which these facilities operate. Projects include environmental monitoring, fire risk assessments, and integrity testing. Having completed a bachelor's degree in Natural Science and a master's in Sustainable Energy, Luke began his professional career at a specialist environmental consultancy called Patel Tonra Ltd. There he picked up many specialist environmental skills and techniques, working on projects in contaminated land, environmental due diligence, and waste license compliance.
Environmental consultancy tends to be a highly varied role, and guidelines and legislation are constantly changing and improving as the sector becomes more established. It can be quite a challenge to stay up to date on everything, however the flip side is that in order to become an effective consultant, you must remain committed to your professional development. Things can get quite pressurised at times, however it is never boring.
Luke relishes the technical challenges of his role and intends to remain on the delivery side of projects in the short-to-medium term in order to bolster his experience. At ORS there is a clear path for employees to move into more senior roles and staff are encouraged to keep one eye on the internal "career builder". Opportunities to improve non-technical skills such as business development, client relationships and project management are constantly on offer by the company. Luke intends to take full advantage of these opportunities and progress into a more senior, associate role in the coming years.
In relation to choosing the IES to pursue environmental chartership, Luke commented: "I thought long and hard about which professional body I wanted to join, there were pros and cons for each of them. I chose the IES because they came across as the most 'scientific' of the various bodies. I really liked the content of the webinars hosted by the IES, I felt they resonated most with my academic and professional experience. The moment which sealed my decision was my attendance at a webinar which was hosted collaboratively by the Irish Brownfield Network and the IES. This was an extremely well-run and informative session. I submitted my application for Full Membership the following day."
Luke added: "In the months that followed, I am extremely happy with my decision. The staff of the IES are incredibly helpful and nice to deal with. I'm looking forward to the day we can attend events in person so I can meet some like-minded members."
