Meet our Team – Connie Campbell
As part of a series of short blog posts we will be introducing you to some of the people at LEDA. I chatted to Connie this week, who is a Building Services Engineer at LEDA.
Connie joined us in 2019 and is a valued member of our workers co-operative. As well as her role as Building Services Engineer, she joins myself and others in various ‘sub-groups’ which make up our co-operative structure. We work alongside each other in the ‘People group’, where we meet regularly to discuss our policies and procedures. I asked Connie what she liked about working for a workers co-op. “It’s a great place to work, we are supportive of each other and we are all striving to improve our business” she explained. “Our structure enables us to make good decisions collectively, and it ensures we are all working towards ensuring quality work is done for our clients”.
One of the projects Connie is currently working on is a housing delivery programme for the City of York, alongside Mikhail Riches. I asked her to tell me more about it. “It is an exciting and ambitious project; we are working on the net zero calculations to make the housing energy efficient. It is challenging to predict how families will utilize their homes, for example how many showers they will take, or how many TV’s they will have. But all the design team are really engaged in designing the systems to be sustainable, we are putting a lot of effort in to make this work” Connie explained.
Sustainability is integral to all our work at LEDA, I asked Connie to explain more about what it means to her. “It is so important – I’d like to see all companies in the building sector have more of a focus on it”. Connie elaborated “It not only helps the planet, it is vital for families and communities, that we build houses that are functional in our changing climate, ones that are good for our health. And I believe sustainable housing should be accessible to all”.
We moved on to talking about our current working situations. I haven’t ‘seen’ Connie in real life for months! I asked her about her home working environment. “Well I moved house half-way through lockdown, so after the initial stress it is much better now!”. She continued “It is nice to have a quiet, dedicated work space. It can be difficult to separate home and life, but I value the time saved from commuting. We have been forced into this, but at times I find I am more productive, and we have all got better at virtual communication!”.
Finally, we discussed how we manage to ‘switch off’ and relax at home. Connie responded “well the new home came with a lovely garden, so I’ve enjoyed learning about the plants I have, and buying more for inside my home and outside”.
