New hire brings fresh strength to sustainability team
INDUSTRY body Scotland Food & Drink (SFD) has strengthened its net zero commitment with the appointment of a new programme manager for its dedicated team.
As part of the firm’s plans to hit net zero by 2045, SFD has hired Louisa Coursey as the new programme manager for its Net Zero Commitment team and help achieve practical support in reaching this goal.
Coursey brings with her a wealth of experience in the field including 17 years in delivering sustainability programmes across renewable energy, logistics, manufacturing and the food and drink sector.
In her most recent role, Coursey led on the circular economy business support programme at Zero Waste Scotland for six years, providing businesses of all sizes across the country with support to introduce more circular practices across their operations.
As part of her new role, Coursey will help to support Scotland’s 17,000 food and drink businesses to achieve the sector-wide target of reaching net zero by 2045 and provide direct support to small & medium enterprises (SMEs) which SFD said makes up around 96% of the £19billion industry.
Speaking on her appointment, Coursey said: “Throughout my career I’ve delivered direct support on a broad range of sustainability-focused opportunities to SMEs, so I understand the common challenges they face – primarily around funding, resourcing and knowledge gaps.
“The food and drink sector is integral not only to the Scottish economy, but to every person in the country, so it’s a real privilege to help tackle the climate emergency and to support our domestic producers in their mission to operate more sustainably.”
Iain Clunie, programme director at the SFD Partnership’s Net Zero Commitment, said: “Louisa has been at the forefront of many of Scotland’s key sustainability initiatives and her expertise will be a vital resource for our food and drink businesses.”
