Inclusion Moment: Alexander Herridge, Senior Carbon Reduction Manager, Anglian Water
Sustainable futures: Embedding action in major projects
Tuesday 21 April 2026
I want to talk about micro actions. They’re basically the opposite of micro aggressions – which are those subtle little behaviours that can make people feel excluded. Micro aggressions can be intentional or unintentional and are sometimes compared to mosquito bites: just one or two aren’t always a problem but when there are lots, they can add up and the problems start – they begin to make people feel excluded.
Excluded people then don’t bring their whole selves to work, and performance suffers. Examples could be asking, ‘Where are you really from?’ or switching to the other side of the street to avoid someone with a certain characteristic. These things can start to eat away at people.
Micro actions, on the other hand, are small, often unconscious actions and gestures that can make people feel more included. They mean different things to different people. It’s a small step that we can all take to be actively inclusive, rather than inclusion just being something passive that happens. We can’t just assume that these things will happen or that it’s someone else’s responsibility.
There isn’t a magic formula, but it’s something we can hopefully all practise. Just simple things like accessibility. Office 365 has an accessibility checker, to ensure neurodiverse people can access the material you’re showing them more easily.
Think about things like colour contrast, and how over-italicising text can make slides difficult to process, for example. I decided to talk about this topic because a new starter joined the team recently. He’s been providing feedback about our onboarding process – he feels it went well and he has felt supported by myself and the wider team, often picking out the smaller acts that I didn’t realise were having a large positive impact.
So that got me thinking about the Major Projects Association and working in a project environment. Even within the same organisation we quite often chop and change teams – onboarding into new teams, and working with different people. How we start in that new team can be really important – even simple things like inviting new starters to lunch can make people feel included. It gets them up to speed quicker, and helps ensure they bring their whole selves to work.
What I’ve learnt about micro actions is that it’s a positive message rather than a list of things not say or do. More importantly, they are something we can all practise – and you might just make someone’s day.
About the presenter
Alexander Herridge, Senior Carbon Reduction Manager, Anglian Water
Alex Herridge is the Senior Carbon Reduction Manager within Anglian Water’s @One Alliance where he leads the Alliance’s approach to decarbonisation and climate resilience. A geographer by background, he has more than 16 years’ experience in carbon and energy management within the infrastructure and utilities industry.
Alex specialises in strategic approaches to decarbonising the delivery of water infrastructure by utilising data, making connections across the value chain and applying an innovation mindset. Alex enjoys working with other industries and sectors to bring diverse perspectives to problem solving, and delivering the many additional benefits that low carbon opportunities can bring.
Alex is a chartered member of CIWEM and a Chartered Environmentalist who is always happy to talk carbon, and help colleagues explore their roles in building a climate resilient net zero world.