About Us

Background

Director and Founder of the Green Connect NI, Nicola Murphy spent over 7 years working throughout the USA and Canada in business development, marketing and sales. With a passion for reducing fossil fuel energy consumption in Northern Ireland, Nicola strives to reduce fuel poverty in Northern Ireland,(which stands at the beginning 2021 at 21.5%), in addition to encouragement of the agri-business sector to adapt more sustainable farming methods. The past 12 years have been spent in NI in the Energy Sector working for Action Renewables and SDS Energy in business development/management positions. In June 2015, Nicola founded Green Connect NI. More recently, in the past 4 years she has worked with the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) on their Sustainable Energy Communities program and continues to do so.

Green Connect NI work with trusted and professional specialists such as PlanEnergy consultancy on community mentoring projects and with True North Sustainability.

Further background on Nicola Murphy:

Previous work included volunteering on the organisational committee for the annual Practical On Farm Renewable Energy event, (POFRE), which involved working with the agricultural sector, delivering seminars and organising exhibitors to encourage the farming community to consider diversification to renewables. This volunteer work is vital in the drive towards behavioural change in the coming years as Northern Ireland works to achieve Net Zero emissions.

Nicola has been a member of the Northern Ireland Committee of the Energy Institute (EI) for over 10 years including a period of representing all the regions on the national council. Locally, she has held various positions from Treasurer to Vice Chair, and has now been elected as Chair, where she leads the committee and engages with members in Northern Ireland, encouraging them to take advantage of person development opportunities available,  such as Chartered status that the Energy Institute offers.

Nicola is a trustee of Holywood Shared Town where she frequently volunteers on a range of projects including hosting energy events for the local community.

In addition to the above, Nicola’s passion is to encourage more women into the Energy Sector.  Her aim is to see more women achieve senior management level positions and help them to take up board positions. 

In an interview with ‘Women in Business NI’, Nicola reports that: “79% of UK Energy companies have no women in executive board positions”

As a result of this, in January 2020, Nicola was instrumental in implementing ‘Women in Energy’ in conjunction with ‘Women in Business NI’ and hosted the inaugural networking event at Pinsent Masons in Belfast.  Further information on the event can be found on our ‘News’ page.

Nicola is also a member of the Energy Institute’s ‘Powerful Women’ group and is a major advocate of the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, former 1^st lady of the United States, diplomat and activist:

“Do one thing every day that scares you”

Expanding on that Nicola quotes:

“If you can’t manage once a day, perhaps once a week is more realistic, it could be agreeing to give a talk on something to your work colleagues, attend a new client meeting, taking up a management position.

Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised!”

Last updated March 2021