Welcome

"I wouldn't necessarily class myself as an eco-warrior. I wouldn't think necessarily I look like an eco-warrior. My name's Nathan Vear, Environmental Improvement Manager at North East Lincolnshire Council. I lead on the council's climate change agenda, so that's looking at what the impact is of the council on climate change.

My background is engineering. At school it was very much a teacher at the time, who took me to one side and told me "you're probably quite good at this, I think this is the direction you should probably go in."

Once I got my A-level results, they weren't as good as I'd hoped for; I was quite disappointed really. The decision to make then was which way to go, to my first place university, or would I not bother and find a job and start on that path. That's certainly one of the major decisions that I faced.

I got a job with Phillips electronics, within the manufacturing section. I kind of had an aspiration of going into consultancy. So I moved deliberately from working where I was to going into the public sector.

I've been with this authority for four years now, initially as just an officer. Within the space of four years that's kind of grown into the managerial role. It shows there's a lot of progression there and who knows in the future what opportunities will come up from a senior manager perspective."