WUN4ALL
WUN's mission is to help women to connect with other women, so they can share learnings, build confidence, and develop their own passion for the fast moving utilities space. Through our podcast episodes, we aim to provide our listeners with the skills they need to build long-lasting and fulfilling careers in the sector.
Find us at: thewun.co.uk
WUN4ALL
Ep. 78 WIU Award Winner Sophia Goring, Business Stream talking with WUN Advocate, Lyvia Nabarro,
In this latest WUN podcast Sophia Goring, reflects on Business Stream’s success at the Women in Utilities Awards – winning the Best Community Outreach Award. She talks through the initiatives Business Stream has been leading in working with young people and partner organisations in their communities to provide meaningful workplace experiences and how they are inspiring more young women to consider a role in the water industry.
With over 20 years’ experience of working in corporate communications and corporate social responsibility, Sophia is currently Head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) at UK-based water retailer, Business Stream. As part of her role, Sophia leads on the delivery of Business Stream’s sustainability agenda, which includes overseeing the company’s carbon reduction activities and delivering it’s community-based social value programme.
Sophia currently works with a number of charities and social enterprises, with a particular focus on supporting young people. She sits on the Career Ready Edinburgh, Mid-Lothian and East Lothian Local Authority Board to support the charity’s strategic aims and is a mentor through the Women’s Utilities Network (WUN) mentoring programme.
Please do get in touch if you are interested in receiving information regarding the 2026 Women in Utilities Awards, hosted in conjunction with Utility Week.
Helen@thewun.co.uk
Welcome to the Women's Utilities Network One for All podcast. Our corner of the world where we'll be talking all things energy, water, sharing personal stories and debating female issues.
Speaker B:Enjoy. Welcome to this episode of the Women's Utilities Network podcast. In this episode, we're shining a spotlight on community outreach because business and education and empowering women in STEM and utilities. I'm Linda Barro, Head of Market Engagement and Communications at Mosul and one advocate, and I'm joined today by Sophia Goring, Head of ESD at Business Dream. Sophia studied politics at the University of Edinburgh and then political communication to the University of Leeds, carving out a successful career in corporate communications before transitioning into senior roles in corporate social responsibility. Leading their efforts, Business Stream recently won the award for best Community Outreach programme at the One Awards 2025 for its experts Education program. Their mission is simple but powerful to inspire the next generation of utilities experts. So firstly, welcome, Sophia, and congratulations on the award.
Speaker C:Thank you so much, Liv. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker B:Fantastic. So we're going to be talking a little bit about Business Streams, community outreach programs and really what the work is aiming to achieve. So, sphere, before we move into some questions, can you tell us a little bit about Business Dream and the work that you've been doing?
Speaker C:So, Business Dream is one of the largest water retailers in the uk. We're based up in Edinburgh, but obviously have business customers across Scotland and England. And we launched our vision to make a positive difference to our customers, our people, the environment and our local communities back in 2019. And within the local community strand, that's where we've really developed our future Experts Education program with a real focus on supporting young people through skills training, work experience, qualifications and coaching.
Speaker B:And you've touched on that, working with young people. You've worked with over 500 young people and young women the past year. What kind of impact do you think you've seen in their skills, their confidence or even their aspirations?
Speaker C:Yes, I think nothing replaces giving young people an opportunity to come into workplaces or spend time with business professionals, really hearing firsthand what the world of work is like. And with every program and project that we run, we do place a lot of emphasis on spending time with the young people and bringing them into the office, giving them that opportunity to really see how things work in a business environment. And you can see, I mean, with the career ready program that we run, we have the students in for a four week period and the difference in our confidence from week one to week four is quite astounding. And you know, they Come in and they're sheepish to even walk down the corridor. And by the end of it they're like owning the place because they've just built so much confidence from having that exposure and learning so much. So I think these programs are fantastic because that's experience that you would never gain from a classroom.
Speaker B:Absolutely, yeah. The difference of being in a real world environment versus looking at business just from a textbook. Fantastic. And the programme also works closely with schools and charities like Career Ready, powering futures and SmartSTEMs. How important are these partnerships for your success?
Speaker C:So they're hugely important. I mean, we've always been really transparent about the fact that we're not experts, we're not in the education sector. So actually by working with social mobility charities or educational organizations, we can really maximize the impact that we have because we can take a steer from them as to, you know, where we can actually deliver real impact and also work with other businesses that are also supporting these organisations to have a real impact with young people. So we can do so much more by working with these partners as well as actually learning from them, so that we can start to shape our own programs. You know, we've worked with Career Ready and Empowering Futures and others, but we've consequently actually created our own kind of skills program that we run with our local high school that's literally down the road and we've developed that and I'm sure that the experience that we've gained from working with educational partners, it's really allowed us to be in a position where we can actually now develop our own programs that we know will have an impact for young people.
Speaker B:Thank you. And I think just recognizing that we've all got our own areas of expertise, so I could completely see that the power of partnerships is how you can support one another and learn from each other in developing those, but. Great that they've put you on that pathway as well. Yeah.
Speaker C:And I think the other thing is that they need business support to run, you know, a lot of these Career Ready as a charity and without the support of businesses, they wouldn't be able to run these programs for young people. So, you know, I think we're really mindful of, actually they support us, but we really want to support these organizations to survive too, because they play such a vital role in helping young people.
Speaker B:Absolutely. So does that mean when you're searching for partnerships, do you look for partnerships where you can be really proactive together in developing work?
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely. And we've, I mean, most of the, all of the programs we run, actually, we would never. We've always shied away from any type of partnership where it's essentially a kind of exchange where you give them some funding and you don't see them for a year. Every program we work in, there's a really strong involvement element from ourselves and for Powering Futures, for example, the school we support is in a remote part of Scotland, up north, like past Aberdeen. Takes us like a full day to get there and get back. But we've purposefully committed to going up and visiting that school regularly so that it isn't just, you know, the students actually really get to know us and they know that we're supporting there, we're there to help them. We've always been adamant that any partnership that we take on, there's a real commitment from our side, too.
Speaker B:So we're going to change topics slightly, talking about the utilities, but also the STEM sector. So I think we all know that women remain underrepresented in both utilities and stem. How is your program helping to change perceptions and perhaps even create role models for young women?
Speaker C:Yeah, well, I think by nature, I mean, Business Stream has a pretty 50, 50 gender split. So by nature, the fact that a lot of our colleagues that get involved in these programs are women that are then going into schools or they're coaching or mentoring young women, they're giving them that exposure to the fact that the utilities industry is open to all. I'd also say it's not actually just about gender. It's also just that exposure you give to young people, the just sheer variety of roles that exist, and that applies to any industry. But, you know, there will be a perception amongst young people that if you work in utilities, you're out there fitting, you know, burst pipes, when actually in reality, we have a communication department and a finance department and a legal department, and, you know, in all these different areas and jobs and roles, that actually would be really interesting to a lot of young people. So we see it very much as our role to, yes, go in and absolutely make that point, that actually there are so many roles within the industry that they, you know, that they very well suited to them.
Speaker B:Yeah. And I think you shared in one of the chats that we had before this podcast around the reaction that you got when you went into one of the schools about you not being what people expected or what one student in particular expected. Can you share that story?
Speaker C:So I once went into high school and the teacher had obviously told the students that somebody from the water industry was coming in, and I was Actually coming in to give them talk all about communicating and networking effectively in the world of work. And when I stepped into classroom, one of the boys was like, no way, Miss. I totally thought it would be a guy with a high vis vest on. And. And I think he genuinely thought that anyone that came in from the utilities industry was working in that kind of infrastructure engineering side and couldn't believe that actually somebody that worked in communications actually also worked at a water industry. So I think this is the type of, you know, what we can do and this extends beyond our industry, actually. But just kind of inspiring young people to just how many jobs are out there is really important.
Speaker B:Yeah. And that's just because what people see is, you know, people fixing water pipes on the street, so they don't know that there are, you know, many offices, many careers. And I love that, that I think we talk about it a lot in my workplace, that lots of people sort of fell into water, into the water industry, not knowing that there was a whole lifetime of careers in front of them. So that's a great thing to change those perceptions. So you kind of touched on the fact that you were about a 50% split female to male ratio at Business Stream. I think about 60% of your leadership team are women. So how important do you think it is to have balanced representation at senior levels and how do you think that that impacts on your community programmes?
Speaker C:Yeah, so, I mean, look, in an ideal world, you would always have balance. I suppose I take quite a pragmatic view in the sense that, I think, you know, the right person for the role should be in that role, should be recruited into that role. But there's no doubt that, you know, we typically, when it comes to role models, we look for people that in some way we see ourselves in. So, you know, as a young woman coming into the watch industry, joining a company, there was a lot of female leadership. You know, we've got a female CEO, we've got a female chairwoman that is inspiring to, you know, to a female who's young. And I think we look at women in particular. If you're thinking about starting a family, wondering how you're going to balance that with growing in your career. So to be able to see senior female leaders is inspiring and makes you believe that actually there's no reason why you can't get there too.
Speaker B:And I believe that your CEO, Joe Dowan, Businesswoman of the Year at the One Awards. Fantastic. Absolutely great role model. And you've got lots of your colleagues who, through your work, give their Time as mentors or trainers and role models. So we've touched on role models already. But how does Business Stream as an organization support and encourage this? And why do you think it's important?
Speaker C:So no, I think it's hugely important that we encourage and support our colleagues, which we absolutely do at Business Stream. Because the reality is without our colleagues involvement, we wouldn't be able to run these programs. You know, every program is heavily dependent on the commitment of our colleagues from across the business. And if I take for example Career ready, you know, we take on every year we take on a minimum of six high school students that we mentor for almost two year period and they in the middle of that program come to our offices and do a one month paid work experience placement. Now every young person needs a mentor, so that's six mentors. But actually during the one month placement I think we must have almost a third if not more of our workforce supporting the program in some way. You know, whether that one to one networking sessions of students, running skill sessions with students, supporting them with some of the project work we give them. So it becomes, you know, the whole company is aware that RW Ready students are in and does support that program. And we've been really when we hugely appreciate actually how many colleagues and what our colleagues do to support young people through this program, that's incredible.
Speaker B:And I think that shows when something a program is embedded across an organization, when you have that many colleagues involved in supporting it, that's great. Do you think? I wonder if it's shifted. I don't know about you, but when I was earlier on in my career, I don't remember being talked too much about mentors but it feels like there is a much more open conversation about the importance of having a mentor, having a sponsor, having networks. Do you think that that has changed now in how we support young people?
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely. I think the world is becoming probably a more complex place and that has huge opportunities. Like the number of jobs available for young people now compared to when I was at school is massive. And there's, you know, I think it can feel overwhelming for young people. Exciting but also overwhelming. So I think if you have a mentor or somebody that, you know, even if it's just somebody to listen to as you kind of talk out loud about all the different options or somebody that due to their experience, experience can kind of see where your strengths are and can offer you a little bit of guidance, I think that's pretty priceless. And I think a lot of young people leave school with no idea of what they want to do and that's totally normal. You know, many of us have been in that position. But having somebody to kind of support you along the way is lovely. And actually it's win win because every year we see all of our colleagues that mentor get a lot out of it too. I've mentored a lot and I absolutely love it because it's lovely to feel like you are supporting someone.
Speaker B:Yeah. And filling definitely as you said, a gap where they might finish school and not know what's next. But having someone to support you in those next steps, those formative career steps is really important. I think you've touched on some of this already. But you're a relatively small company so I think you're about 300 people. But your impact and it's is evident through your award submission and obviously you won the award. It's been significant. So how do you make such a big difference with limited resources? And where do you prioritise perhaps?
Speaker C:I mean I think where we're really lucky is have really strong leadership buy in into this program. You know, it's part of our company vision. It sits under a local community strand. So this isn't something we just do as a nice to have. It's kind of integrated into what we do as a business. You know, so it's become a really important, it's seen as a priority. It's not seen as just something that we do if we've got the time to do it. And that definitely makes a difference knowing that we've got that support from top down to be able to deliver it. And the other bit is we're really flexible with so you know, like the career ready mentoring is open to every single colleague. So you know, it might be one year you don't have the capacity to mentor, but there'll be other people that do. I think it also, in reality it's more than just the community benefit aspect which is my biggest driver and for many people in our business. But we also recognize that there's real benefits to our colleagues as well. You know, it's a, it's a lovely kind of employee engagement program. It provides kind of coaching skills for, you know, for people that are working at Business Stream. If you, you might not necessarily be a manager yet, but actually by coaching and mentoring a young person for two years you gain a lot of skills in that area. And, and I think businesses these days are expected to kind of demonstrate their commitment to, you know, driving positive change to delivering kind of purpose led programs. So, so for us, this is. We've definitely fallen into it very naturally. You know, we started working on Career Ready before we. Our company vision, but it's. And it's grown kind of organically, but we. I think with any of these types of things, you have to prioritize it because otherwise it would fall to the site. But we've. We've had that, I guess, that structure and governance in place to really allow us to expand this program over the years.
Speaker B:Absolutely. So grown organically, but then as it's grown, you've put that structure around it to make sure that it's embedded and supported. And where do you see the programme going next? Are there any new areas or communities that you'd like to reach?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think the kind of. The way we've approached it is we've established partnerships that have made sense to us and then we've always looked for ways to kind of embed ourselves further into that partnership. So I'll give you an example. So for Career Ready, you know, we started off mentoring two or three students and then each year the numbers have kind of grown. But on top of that, we also facilitate Career Ready masterclasses where we go in and speak to large cohorts of students, preparing them for their work experience placement, regardless of where they go and do that work experience placement. And then we're also represented on the Career Ready Lab, which is the board up here, in order to help support the charity to grow. So actually that's about, you know, recruiting in new businesses to support the program and deliver this program to young people. So we're always on the lookout for how we actually work better with the charity program, you know, and go beyond the kind of, essentially the, you know, what you're expected to do as a business partner. So I think there's definitely scope for us to do more with developing the own workforce with powering features, which is a relatively new charity for us. Absolutely. Committed to continuing to work with Career Ready. And then we're always on the. There's only so many programs we want to do because we never want to spread ourselves too thinly. But I'm always on the lookout for programs that kind of fit in with our values and fit in with our objectives. So there's nothing to say we won't look to new programs as well in the future that allow us to kind of expand, you know, what we're doing too.
Speaker B:And I think you touched on a really important point there around aligning the work to your values. I think that makes it so much Stronger when you've got a really clear tie that colleagues and external parties, charities, partners can see. You lead a lot of this work. You're head of esg. What is your one maybe takeaway or one of the most memorable or proudest moments that you've got through this work?
Speaker C:I've been involved in the development of our make a positive difference vision from the outset. And it's a broad vision. It covers almost every aspect of responsible business. I think the reason why I always get so passionate about this one is because this is for me. I just think there's no better job out there than to support young people. I probably should have been a teacher, to be quite honest. So I think I sometimes live vicariously through these programs. But every year when our career ready students come in, they do a presentation at the end of that four weeks and it's a presentation about what they've learned, what they've gained, the projects that they've done, the skills that they'll take away with them. And it's really hard every year to not actually feel almost emotional about what these young people have achieved. And that's not through me. It takes so many people across business stream to support them. But I genuinely believe that we give these young people a fantastic opportunity. We throw so much into it to make sure that yes, they learn lots, but actually that they have fun too. So they come away and it's fantastic. You know, when we see students apply for our modern apprenticeship program the following year because they've enjoyed being here as a fifth year student like that, that's just wonderful because I don't think any student comes, finds out they're coming to a water company and goes, oh, brilliant. That's my, that's my career goal. But they come in and they just, they have a great time and they learn so much. And I think, I think being able to offer that opportunity, particularly for young people that wouldn't necessarily get that opportunity otherwise, is just. Is probably my career highlight every year.
Speaker B:Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. And again, I think your answer speaks to something around. I suppose my last question to you is why is it so important for the utility sector to invest in talent now, future talent, rather than later? And I think you've touched a little bit on the fact that not many people, young people, people might think of the water industry as a career, but when they get insight to it and see the company and see the work that you do, how important it is. So why do you think it's important to invest in talent now? Rather than later.
Speaker C:Yeah. I mean, I think if you consider some of the big challenges we're facing, you know, at uk, but actually at a global scale too, you know, around climate change, water scarcity, these are. These are big challenges. And the utilities industry will play a key role in helping to address these, you know, challenges that we're facing. So I think building is vital that we build a kind of future pipeline, a skilled workforce for the future that will actually be well equipped to, you know, continue to do the work that we're doing now to try and address these, you know, actually quite massive environmental issues that we're facing. And for. For us to do that, it, yes, it's about giving young people the skills, but it's actually about giving them the appetite and inspiration, too. So by exposing them to the industry, by the wide variety of jobs within that industry, and actually even talking to them in that context of, you know, these are big, you know, they just transition the green skills, you know, making it really relevant to what they're learning in school, I think we'll be in a better place than if we, you know, just keep our fingers crossed that the utilities industry will always attract talent. I think we've got a job to do and a responsibility to do, actually, to really inspire young people to consider a career in this.
Speaker B:I completely agree. Thank you so much for joining me for this one podcast, Sophia, and sharing more about the work that you're pioneering at Business Stream and across your community to empower young people and attract that fresh new talent into the utility sector. And thank you everyone for listening. Join us again for the next one podcast. Thank you and bye for now. Thank you, Sophia.
Speaker C:Thank you, Sa.