“It doesn’t matter how eco-friendly a building is if no-one wants to use it. The aim is to create an environmentally sustainable structure that people want to spend time in.”

Emma chairs the Construction & Development Partnership (CODEP), a charity founded by Mark Whitby and Sebastian Wood to support the education of children and adults in Sierra Leone. She is a member of the IStructE Humanitarian and International Development Panel. She co-leads our sustainability group, helped set up our equality, diversity and inclusion development groups, and runs in-house workshops on values and ethics. Assisting younger and less experienced team members is important to her. She started our women’s group to raise awareness of the issues faced by women in engineering through social interaction and discussion.

She says her key strength is the ability to forge excellent relationships with her colleagues, the design team and all stakeholders to achieve the best project outcomes. She is adept at simplifying complex technical concepts. She also challenges herself and her peers to improve the construction industry by creating life-enhancing structures and spaces.

Emma’s broad experience covers a wide variety of projects and a speciality in refurbishments. She is a super-organised multitasker, managing up to 10 schemes concurrently. Her notable projects include redevelopment and extension of a former factory complex at Brook Green, Hammersmith; conversion of offices into housing at Zodiac Court, Croydon; and a low-carbon science block at Emanuel School, Battersea.

Away from the office, she’s worked with various aid charities since 2013, volunteering on structural projects in Cambodia, Guatemala and the UK.