Keeping People at the Centre: Leadership, Collaboration and the Future of Green Careers

For Gemma, Founder and Director of GJF Strategic Advisory, Commercial Director at Installio, and Principal Consultant for Metis by SMS, more than two decades of experience across housing, local government, energy and decarbonisation have reinforced one central belief: ultimately, everything comes back to people.

Looking across a career that has spanned local authority, strategy, housing management, neighbourhood services, commercial leadership, business growth and strategic advisory, Gemma sees a clear thread running through each chapter.

“What connects every role isn’t necessarily retrofit or renewable technologies – it’s people,” she explains.

Gemma began her career in housing, driven by a belief that everyone should have somewhere warm, safe and healthy to live.

“That belief has never changed,” she says. “My career has simply given me different ways to help make that happen.”

Today, Gemma combines three complementary leadership roles. As Founder and Director of GJF Strategic Advisory, she advises organisations navigating growth and the transition to low carbon. As Principal Consultant for Metis by SMS, she drives strategic growth, partnerships and business development across its low carbon residential proposition. As Commercial Director at Installio, she is responsible for the company's commercial strategy, business development and go-to-market approach, supporting one of the UK's leading renewable installation businesses. Together, these roles enable her to operate across the full spectrum of the sector - from shaping policy, financing the transition and forging strategic partnerships, through to delivering low carbon technologies into customers' homes at scale.

“I’ve never wanted to sit in just one part of the system,” she says. “Understanding every perspective is what helps me bring people together to deliver better outcomes.”

A career shaped by purpose

There have been several defining moments throughout Gemma’s career, but some of the earliest came from witnessing first-hand how quickly people can find themselves struggling to afford a warm home.

“Fuel poverty doesn’t discriminate, and circumstances can change for anyone,” she reflects.

Another significant moment came when she moved from policy into frontline housing management. Having previously been involved in developing strategies, Gemma wanted to understand what those policies meant when translated into people’s everyday lives.

“I wanted to understand whether the strategies we’d written actually worked for residents,” she explains.

Managing homes and supporting customers gave her an entirely different perspective – one that continues to influence the decisions she makes today.

More recently, working with innovative financing models such as Metis by SMS has reinforced another long-held belief.

“We already have the technologies we need,” Gemma says. “The challenge is designing commercial models that make them accessible at scale.”

Housing first, with green careers following naturally

Unlike many people who find themselves in the retrofit sector unexpectedly, Gemma always knew housing was where she wanted to be.

“Housing was always the destination,” she says. “The green sector evolved naturally around it.”

Her involvement with heat pumps stretches back to 2006, long before the technology became part of mainstream conversations about domestic decarbonisation. Since then, she has watched the sector evolve considerably.

What has remained unchanged is her focus on affordable warmth and improving the health and wellbeing of residents.

“For me, decarbonisation has never been about installing technology,” Gemma explains. “It’s about improving people’s homes while reducing energy bills, tackling fuel poverty and creating healthier communities.”

Curiosity, relationships and seeing the bigger picture

When reflecting on the skills that have helped her progress into senior leadership, Gemma identifies curiosity as one of her greatest strengths.

“I’ve never been afraid to ask questions or step into areas I didn’t fully understand,” she says. “Throughout my career I’ve worked and learned at the same time.”

Her experience across different areas of the sector has also given her the ability to look at challenges from multiple perspectives. Having worked across policy, housing operations, commercial leadership, funding, delivery and customer experience, she understands how decisions made in one part of the system can affect another.

Relationships have been equally important.

“Our sector is incredibly collaborative,” she explains. “I’ve learnt that progress almost always comes from working together rather than working alone.”

Leadership through trust

Gemma’s understanding of leadership has evolved significantly throughout her career.

“Leadership isn’t about having all the answers,” she says. “For me, it’s about creating an environment where people feel confident enough to contribute theirs.”

Earlier in her career, Gemma admits she often felt responsible for solving every problem herself. Experience has taught her that effective leadership is instead about bringing together the right people, building trust and creating the conditions in which others can succeed.

That approach is closely connected to her wider belief in collaboration – recognising that the scale and complexity of the challenges facing housing and decarbonisation cannot be solved by individuals or organisations working in isolation.

Finding confidence and creating opportunities for others

Like many women working across housing, energy and the built environment, Gemma has experienced occasions when she has been one of very few women in the room.

“Earlier in my career I sometimes felt I needed to prove my credibility before my ideas were taken seriously,” she reflects.

Over time, however, her perspective changed.

“I realised that confidence comes from experience, and experience comes from being prepared to keep learning.”

Gemma also acknowledges the importance of the colleagues and mentors who have supported her throughout her career, particularly those who valued collaboration rather than hierarchy.

Having benefited from that support herself, she now sees creating similar opportunities for others as an important part of her own leadership.

“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work alongside supportive colleagues and mentors,” she says. “Today I try to create those same opportunities for others.”

A sector built on collaboration

Asked who or what has influenced her most throughout her career, Gemma’s answer is simple: people.

“I’ve learnt something from every organisation I’ve been part of,” she says.

From local government and housing associations to national businesses, each experience has contributed something different to her understanding of the sector.

Today, it is the increasing collaboration between government, housing providers, manufacturers, investors and installers that gives her particular confidence about the future.

“Seeing that collaboration gives me confidence that we’re moving in the right direction,” she says.

The opportunity of the Warm Homes Plan

For Gemma, the Warm Homes Plan represents an important opportunity to bring together many of the elements the sector has been working towards for years.

“For the first time in a long time, it feels like policy, funding and delivery are beginning to align,” she explains.

But she is clear that the opportunity extends far beyond the installation of individual technologies.

“The Warm Homes Plan isn’t just about installing technologies,” Gemma says. “It’s an opportunity to rethink how we fund, deliver and support healthier homes for the long term.”

If successfully delivered, she believes its impact could extend across environmental, economic and social outcomes.

“If we get it right, we’ll reduce carbon emissions, improve health, tackle fuel poverty and create thousands of meaningful careers at the same time.”

The skills connecting retrofit together

Looking towards the next five to ten years, Gemma believes installers and technical specialists will remain fundamental to the growth of retrofit. However, she also expects significant growth in the roles that connect the different elements of delivery.

Programme management, customer engagement, retrofit coordination, data and digital expertise, commercial strategy, finance, resident support and aftercare will all become increasingly important as the sector scales.

When asked where the biggest opportunities for women lie, her answer is emphatic.

“Everywhere.”

While there are significant opportunities within technical careers, Gemma points to an equally broad range of possibilities across programme leadership, customer engagement, commercial strategy, digital innovation, project management and operational leadership.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that green careers are only about engineering,” she says.

Recognising the skills people already have

Gemma believes one of the keys to growing the green workforce will be helping people recognise just how transferable their existing skills can be.

“Communication. Problem solving. Project management. Commercial thinking. Empathy. Collaboration.”

These capabilities, she says, already exist across countless sectors – including housing, healthcare, construction, customer service, retail and logistics.

“Technical knowledge can be learnt,” Gemma explains. “The right attitude, passion and collaboration are much harder to teach.”

For people considering retraining or changing careers, she therefore recommends starting with conversations rather than qualifications.

“Talk to people already working in the sector,” she advises. “Attend events, webinars and networking sessions.”

Organisations and networks such as Women in Retrofit, she believes, can play an important role in making an unfamiliar industry feel much more accessible.

“Think about the skills you already have,” she says. “You may be far closer to a green career than you realise.”

Creating better pathways for women

For women and girls considering careers in retrofit, energy or housing, Gemma has one particularly important piece of advice.

“Don’t wait until you feel ready.”

In a rapidly evolving industry, she argues, nobody can expect to arrive knowing everything.

“Nobody starts their career knowing everything, and this sector is evolving so quickly that we’re all still learning,” she says.

Her advice is to remain curious, build strong networks and be prepared to embrace opportunities that may initially feel challenging.

“Ask questions, build your network and say yes to opportunities that stretch you.”

But responsibility for creating a more diverse workforce cannot sit solely with individuals.

Gemma believes employers, government and the wider industry must also broaden the way green careers are presented.

“We need to stop talking about green careers as though they’re only technical,” she says.

Clearer pathways, more visible role models and stronger collaboration between education, employers and industry will all be important.

Most importantly, Gemma believes the sector needs to become better at communicating why these careers matter.

“We need to show the real impact these careers have on people’s lives.”

Diversity that goes beyond recruitment

For Gemma, building a genuinely diverse workforce requires much more than simply increasing recruitment numbers.

“Success isn’t just recruiting more women,” she says.

Instead, organisations must create environments where different perspectives are genuinely welcomed and where people can see opportunities to build sustainable, fulfilling careers.

“It’s creating workplaces where everyone feels they belong, where different perspectives are valued and where people stay and build fulfilling careers.”

It is a distinction she believes will become increasingly important as the green economy grows and competition for skills intensifies.

Telling more human stories

If Gemma could change one thing about how the sector attracts talent, it would be the stories it chooses to tell.

“I’d tell more human stories,” she says.

While carbon reduction, technologies and targets are all essential parts of the conversation, they do not always communicate the human impact of the work being delivered.

“We spend a lot of time talking about carbon, technology and targets,” Gemma explains. “I’d like us to spend more time talking about the families whose lives improve because their homes are warmer, healthier and more affordable to run.”

It is this connection between large-scale policy ambitions and individual households that has remained at the heart of Gemma’s career from the beginning.

A message for the next generation

Looking to the future, Gemma is encouraged by the growing level of collaboration across housing, energy and retrofit.

“I’ve never known the housing, energy and retrofit sectors work together as closely as they are today,” she says. “There’s still a huge amount to do, but there’s a shared determination to make it happen.”

For the next generation of women who will help shape the homes and communities of the future, her message is one of confidence, curiosity and mutual support.

“Don’t underestimate the value of your own perspective.”

There is no requirement, she stresses, to follow a conventional career path or arrive with every answer.

“You don’t have to follow a traditional path or have all the answers to make a difference.”

Instead, she encourages women to remain open to learning and to support one another as they progress.

“Be curious. Keep learning. Build relationships. Support other women as you progress.”

Above all, Gemma believes the sector must never lose sight of the people behind its policies, programmes and technologies.

“Every policy, programme or installation ultimately affects someone’s home,” she says. “If we keep people at the centre of everything we do, we’ll build a future we can all be proud of.”