Vicky Murray

Background

I spend most of my time with one eye on the future; whether that’s related to the future of food, fashion, tourism or business in general. When you bring tomorrows challenges into focus, you begin to demand a lot more from today! For the last five years here at Forum I’ve worked with a number of extremely dedicated people in our partner organisations who work hard to help make their companies more sustainable, including Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer and TUI Travel.

My foray into sustainability began underwater. Volunteering on a coral reef conservation project many moons ago I saw first-hand how destructive we humans can be. Piles of coral rubble hit by dynamite (used for fishing) lay next to reef that escaped the impact- still beautiful and teeming with life. Witnessing that, plus a particularly inspiring set of lectures on Business and the Environment by Ken Peattie (of BRASS fame) whilst studying for my Business Admin degree at Cardiff University, convinced me that working with business as a force for good was what I wanted to do.

Next stop, AccountAbility, where I trained in the AA1000 Assurance Standard. During my time there I worked on various projects on the business case for and strategic management of corporate responsibility and stakeholder engagement. Two and a half years later I arrived here at Forum. My career took another mini-twist at the end of 2010, with a 3 month part-time secondment with the Marks & Spencer Plan A team.

My most recent adventure was a 3 month sabbatical where I spent a lot of time on the beach, and some of the time studying for a Permaculture Design Certificate with Rick and Naomi Coleman in Australia. I then went on to help out on a series of permaculture projects in Australia and Fiji. I’m back, ready to dive into my latest focus area – Food systems.

My dream project? Working to set up at series of outdoor gyms where people can grow their own veg, connect to where their food comes from and get fit at the same time! Imagine if all sports centres had veggie gardens attached… I could warm up with a personal trainer, work in the garden, get tips for my own garden, then jump in the pool for a warm down and afterwards head straight to the café to eat some very locally sourced food! You’ve just got to google ‘allotments and waiting lists’ to see there’s a demand!

What floats my boat outside work? Getting my hands dirty growing veggies on my impossibly small balcony, and regularly escaping to Northumberland for a much needed dose of deserted sandy beaches, stotties and lots and lots of fresh air.

On twitter: vickymurrayay
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/vicky-murray/25/5a2/b24