Judges

Danielle is a sustainability professional with over 20 years’ experience in delivering local, national, and European behavioural change and sustainability campaigns, business mentoring and green marketing support.

With a solid background in the industry, Danielle holds a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science, a CIM level 4 certificate in Integrated Communications; CIM training in behavioural change; a PgCert in International Business and a PgCert in Renewable Energy & Energy Management, both from the University of Ulster.

Danielle also established the All-Ireland Sustainability Professionals Network in November 2020, with the goal of raising the profile of the sustainability agenda across the region, encouraging opportunities to share best practice, learnings and collaboration opportunities. She continues to manage and chair this network, which now has over 300 members across NI and ROI, on a voluntary basis. From this came the establishment of the All-Ireland Sustainability Summit and Awards events.

Amy O’Hare is a recent graduate of the MSc programme ‘Leadership for Sustainable Development’ at Queen’s University Belfast, and an environmental consultant for Triterra.

Amy, as a young changemaker herself, is at the beginning of an exciting career in sustainability and has experience working on a range of sustainability projects across industries that have included tourism and hospitality, the food and drink sector and retail.

Amy has a keen interest in environmental research, where examples of best practice in Carbon Reduction, Waste Management and Social Sustainability from both businesses and individuals alike inspire her as a young professional, and is hopeful that the recognition of great work being done across the whole of Ireland not only raises the profile of sustainability across all industries but inspires fellow young professionals and potential future leaders to drive sustainable behaviours in their own lives and professions.

Shane has spent his career managing and developing some of Ireland’s largest Energy from Waste and Renewable Energy projects. A BEng in Civil Engineering and an MSc in Environmental Engineering were achieved before Shane became a Chartered Waste Manager with the CIWM in 2016.

Working with agriculture, agri-food and manufacturing industries, Shane has implemented a range of Circular Economy solutions including electricity production, sustainable agriculture and carbon negative transport.

Named Plant Manager of the Year 2018 at the World Biogas Awards, Shane has since founded Rumbo Verde where he is assisting the development of Biomethane production facilities throughout Ireland. These plants produce renewable products from waste materials to promote a circular economy.

Leona Donaghy is the founder of Wholehearted Environments, a healthy buildings consultancy which aims to make buildings healthier for people with an emphasis on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and helping organisations become more sustainable.

After working with people living in cold damp homes, investigating the issues of indoor air quality through PhD research at the Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment and suffering from chronic health issues herself, Leona decided to put her knowledge of tackling symptoms by finding and solving building issues to good use.

She helps clients by advising them on indoor air quality improvement, moisture management and selecting the most appropriate building materials to use on renovation projects. She is currently running healthy buildings courses through Queens University Belfast’s open learning programme and offering sustainability advice to businesses, educational talks, training and mentoring to interested groups, organisations, and individuals.

Head of Business Diversity Mark – the awarding authority on Diversity and Inclusion across the UK and Ireland. Nuala has been described by the Irish Times as “one of the next generations of female business leaders in the North.”

A community builder and connector by nature, Nuala has been an impassioned advocate for women’s equality with a deep commitment to creating workplaces where every person has a seat at the table and a chance to be heard.

Mike has worked in Gas, Electricity and water for over 25 years in Ireland, UK and US markets. He has extensive knowledge of these markets and the development of them into the renewable revolution and smart technologies.

After spending most of his career working for large energy suppliers, he decided to set up e-volv to help guide, educate & install energy saving, smart and renewable technologies to residential & commercial customers in Ireland.

His passion to help customers move away from fossil fuels has enabled e-volv to grow into a business employing a team of Home Energy Advisers in their call centre in Cork. With expansion into the UK market in 2023 the business is going from strength to strength and playing a big part in helping homeowners and businesses to reduce carbon emissions.

Outside of work Mike is a keen mountain walker with his family and the odd sociable night thrown in!

Adrian is Founder and Lead Consultant at AD Sustainability, an environmental and sustainability/ CSR consultancy based in County Antrim. His consultancy provides support to various public and private sector clients delivering cost reduction, compliance assurance and responsible business performance improvement, and is focussed on four main themes, their ‘4 C’s’ – Carbon, Compliance, Circularity and Corporate Responsibility.

Adrian is an experienced environmental and sustainability professional, with 25 years’ experience working in and supporting private and public sector organisations including AES UK & Ireland, Bombardier Aerospace/ Spirit Aerosystems, FG Wilson, the Northern Ireland Assembly, Queen’s University Belfast, River Ridge, Seagate Technology, Translink and Ulster University. He also provides support to clients under Invest NI’s Energy and Resource Efficiency Consultancy Framework and Enterprise Ireland’s Green Offer programme.

He advises his diverse client base in areas including carbon management, circular economy, CSR and environmental sustainability strategy, environmental training, ISO 14001 and 50001 management systems, resource efficiency and waste management.

He is a member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and a Chartered Environmentalist. He is also an approved NEBOSH environmental trainer and holds a BSc Hons in Environmental Technology and a MSc in Management and Corporate Governance.
Adrian believes in keeping things simple through the provision of practical, common-sense solutions wherever possible.

Esther Dobbin is the National Trust’s driving force for responsible tourism at the Giant’s Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede, located on the Causeway Coastal Route in Northern Ireland.

Esther brings nearly three decades of operational management experience in the tourism and hospitality industries to her current role as Responsible Tourism Manager at these flagship destinations and is a passionate advocate for community sustainability.

She specialises in collaboration to deliver bespoke experience packages which encourage visitors to connect with locals as they share their knowledge and passion for these special places.

Méabh is Development Manager for FareShare Northern Ireland, the largest food redistribution project of its kind in the region.  Since 2010, Méabh has played a pivotal role in developing the project from its humble beginnings to a project which provides employment, training, and volunteering opportunities to a workforce of 15 staff and 50 volunteers, and which prevents almost 900 tonnes of good-quality, edible food from entering the waste stream every year.

With an early background in community development having worked at Féile an Phobail and the Vancouver Film Festival for a number of years, Méabh has always been passionate about strengthening resilience within the Third Sector and has since developed a keen interest in waste reduction and the circular economy during her time with FareShare.

Méabh is currently a member of the All-Ireland Food Poverty Network, The Resurgam Trust Steering Committee and NIRN, the representative body for sustainable reuse and repair organisations in Northern Ireland.

Judy McElroy is the Sustainability & Environment Manager at NIE Networks Ltd, a position she took up in July 2020.

NIE Networks owns and manages the electricity networks in Northern Ireland, with c. 50,000km of network and c. 900,000 connected customers. Judy is responsible for the Sustainability, Environment Net Zero and ESG strategies and initiatives at NIE Networks.

Judy previously held a number of Engineering roles in NIE Networks including in Asset Management. She is a member of the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) and Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA).