Tegan grew up in Southampton and later moved to Bristol where she graduated from university with a Masters in Biology. During her studies, her focus was on wildlife and sustainability. Tegan had never really heard of energy efficiency retrofit, however she saw an administrator role advertised, working for her current company, Building Energy Experts, and saw this as a good first step in her career. Tegan excelled in the administrator role and, with the support of her manager Jack, was promoted to operations assistant and later, to her current role as operations coordinator.

Building Energy Experts is a Bristol based, sustainability consultancy firm. They operate nationwide across a variety of disciplines, including retrofit, new build consultancy and new build testing. In regard to the retrofit department, their USP is a single-visit approach, where they complete the retrofit assessment, and all required testing services, in one single visit, in order to minimise disruption, and maximise efficiency. They work with a variety of clients, including housing associations, local authorities, consultancy firms and architects. Their holistic approach to retrofit carries projects from the assessment stage, to coordination, to design.

In an industry where female representation is often scarce, Tegan said ‘being a woman and being young can be daunting, but my manager’s support has helped me to navigate these challenges.’ Jack encouraged her to undertake training and take on extra responsibilities. Tegan describes him as a very supportive manager who was instrumental in her career progression, helping her to believe she deserved to be there and feel welcome within the industry.

‘Coming into an industry that had such few women was a big change, as during my studies it was a pretty even split between men and women. Being an industry related to construction, there were often times when I felt I wasn’t taken seriously. I felt that I had to prove to some people that I had the knowledge and experience to do my role. Often they would expect my male colleagues to be leading a meeting! The more I led these meetings and proved myself, the more my confidence grew’.

Tegan’s advice to other women considering entering the retrofit industry or wanting to progress is ‘take the opportunities that are offered to you, and remember that networking is everything, whether it’s webinars, or events. Although it’s a growing industry, it is quite close-knit. Make yourself known - it can be intimidating- especially in a room full of men, but you deserve to be there, take up space, don’t back down and never shrink yourself’.