Emma Sueref

As infant, child and adult, Emma Sueref spent longer being educated at Bedales than almost any other OB. Here Emma describes life as the daughter of an esteemed school geography teacher, her early passion for volunteering work and sustainability and how she has translated her gifts into a leadership role in sustainability within the construction and real estate industries.

There are Old Bedalians who spent their sixth-form years at the school. There are long-term OBs, whose years at Bedales reach back to Dunhurst or even Dunannie days, and then there is Emma Sueref, who may well have a claim to be the longest-serving Bedales student of them all. Emma was at the Hive Nursey from the age of six months and then stayed with the school until after her A Levels, never more than a short walk away from her daily routine!

Emma is the daughter of Jackie Sueref, who for over 30 years was geography teacher at the school, taking on extra roles during her career. “It was because Mum was a teacher at Bedales that I was able to be there, of course”, Emma reflects. “I knew that I was in a privileged position and able to enjoy school life as a result. That was a feeling I tried to carry with me throughout my school days, even though I probably never quite appreciated the beauty of our surroundings as much as I should have.”

In most other respects, however, Emma was an enthusiastic participant in the life of the school. “Playing the flute as part of the orchestra was a big thing for me”, she recalls. “Then there were dance lessons and under the direction of the inspirational Simon Kingsley-Pallant, I also loved drama in my younger years."

One of life’s academic all-rounders, Emma’s GCSEs covered almost everything from art to her main interests of geography and science. One subject – maths – had always been a stumbling block and it was here that Emma had particular cause to thank the unswerving dedication of one of her teachers. “Without Jane Webster, I would never have got anywhere near a GCSE in maths” she says. “I had never been good with numbers, but Jane spent so much time working with me that amazingly enough, I managed to get a B. When I saw that grade, I practically burst into tears of happiness!”

The other great teaching influence on Emma was, naturally enough, her mother. “My A Levels were quite a mixture: geography, history, biology and philosophy”, she says. “Mum taught me for some of my sixth-form and there was never any problem with that- she was still just ‘Mum’ to me in the classroom and was as wonderful there as in the rest of life. We had always been close; I was really proud of her achievements and therefore delighted to be known around Bedales as ‘mini-Sueref’! In so many ways, my experiences of Bedales were different from a lot of students – our dog would even wander around the school campus from time to time….”

Comparatively quickly, Emma had formed the ambition to make a career in the environment and sustainability field. Much talked about but still far from widely practised in the commercial world, these disciplines would form the basis of Emma’s university studies at the University of Plymouth. Leaving Bedales, her comfort zone for so long, however, was the cause of mixed emotions, as Emma admits:

“I wanted a new challenge and I was looking forward to it, but at the same time, I felt anxious, having spent so long in the ‘Bedales bubble’. Leaving school was a celebratory experience in the end – drinking in the orchard with friends – and then it was off to Plymouth, which was definitely a culture shock at the beginning.”

Any sense of displacement did not last too long and Emma was soon throwing herself whole-heartedly into her new environment. “Getting stuck into everything is in my nature but I was particularly motivated on the academic side”, she explains. “My undergraduate degree in Environmental Science was very theoretical but I still managed to get a First Class Honours degree and secure a scholarship to stay on and complete a Master’s in Environment Consultancy. That suited me perfectly; I’d met my partner, I loved living in Devon and didn’t want to leave, and years later I still don’t!”

Emma’s MSc took much of the theory that she had absorbed as an undergraduate and transformed it into practical action. “One of the main reasons for doing a Master’s was that it was much more likely to lead to a better job on the sustainability side of industry” she says. “In 2015, some places were starting to take it seriously and embed sustainability into their business but most still only had at most one professional dedicated to it. The construction industry, which is where I felt a difference could be made, had an appalling environment and sustainability track record at the time, but has come on leaps and bounds in the last six or seven years.”

Emma’s contribution began within Shield Services before she truly hit her professional stride at Vistry Group. In just over five years, she moved through the ranks swiftly, establishing a reputation for leadership as Graduate Development Manager, Land and New Business Manager and finally Group Sustainability and New Business Manager.

“My final position at Vistry allowed me to be a real catalyst for change”, Emma reflects. “It also led to me securing my current position at Coreus Group as Director of Sustainability and Growth."

In addition to her day job, Emma is contributing her efforts to the sustainability cause at Exeter Community Energy (ECOE), where she serves as Director of EDI, Retrofit and Healthy Homes for Wellbeing. “It’s good to be part of a real local initiative” she says. Earlier this year, Emma became a South West Regional board member at RICS, the national organisation that promotes and enforces the highest professional standards in the development and management of land, real estate, construction and infrastructure. In addition, she was recently shortlisted for the RICS Ambassador of the Year Award and is heavily involved in mentoring projects both nationally with Brightside and locally with STEM and local careers hubs, supporting the younger generation to explore careers in both construction and sustainability.

In spite of the apparently endless political dithering and squabbling that always seems to loom as an obstacle to progress, Emma is resolutely optimistic that a properly sustainable future is on the horizon. “There’s no limit to what can be achieved across all areas of sustainability in the built environment” she insists. “People and companies now largely ignore the attitudes of politicians and lead the push towards doing and being accountable for sustainability in all its forms. The ambition now is to continue with work at Coreus and, I hope, to help grow the organisation into one of national significance in the area of sustainability.”

There is a very Bedalian determination in Emma’s approach to her work, which also happen to be her passion. “The skills I learned from an early age at Bedales are largely the ones that I’ve put to good use as an adult,” she says. “My character means that I strive to explore and to achieve as many different things as possible, but that nature was also fostered by Bedales and I remain very grateful for that."

Emma Sueref was interviewed by James Fairweather in August 2023