Katie Ridley is Senior Sustainability Manager at Barbour, the global family-owned apparel brand headquartered in South Shields, where she leads the development and delivery of the company’s global sustainability strategy. Her work spans carbon reduction, circularity, nature, preferred materials, packaging, supplier engagement and partnerships, helping translate sustainability goals into practical programmes across the business.

With more than 15 years’ experience in the field, Katie has built a career around embedding responsible business practices and improving measurable environmental performance. At Barbour, recent initiatives have included setting SBTi-approved carbon reduction targets, certifying preferred materials across more than 300 products, expanding the brand’s circularity offer and engaging more than 600 suppliers through a new traceability project.

Before joining Barbour in 2021, Katie worked across higher education organisations in the North East, including leading Northumbria University’s sustainability agenda. Alongside operational sustainability, her work focused on building education, research and engagement programmes designed to strengthen sustainability skills and knowledge. During her time at Northumbria, the University rose from 40th to 4th in the People & Planet League and ranked 27th globally for sustainability in the THE Impact League. She also implemented the University’s first ISO 14001 certified Environmental Management System and led cross-functional teams to improve environmental performance.

Katie has been involved with Business in the Community for more than five years and has completed its Responsible Business Management Training. Since November 2024, she has also served on Business in the Community’s North East Leadership Board, supporting opportunities for shared learning and collaborative impact across the region.