How science, storytelling, and systems shape change
Meet Lucy Marum, our Project Delivery Manager here at Cirevo. Here’s how fieldwork, publishing, and purpose stitched a new path in climate innovation.
Lucy Marum, South Africa
MEET LUCY MARUM
I started out with a Master’s in Environmental Science at the University of Southampton, alongside Jon Coello – the co-founder of Cirevo. One of the most attractive things about the MEnvSci was the flexibility to choose a pathway that inspired you. While Jon moved towards data science, I became deeply rooted in ecology.
I’d always loved being outdoors. For my Master’s, I studied how large herbivore grazing impacts native reptile species and spent weeks studying heathland at Farnborough Airfield, where the land is mainly grazed by Highland cattle and Przewalski's horses from a breeding programme at Marwell Zoo. The quiet, mostly undisturbed nature of the land made it a sanctuary for reptiles like grass snakes, who thrived in the drainage ditches, as well as common lizards, slow worms, and adders.
After I graduated, I was at a crossroads. A part of me really wanted to stay in academia but felt pressure to move on and get a career. As a mature student, there was always some stigma around staying in education for too long.
PUBLISHING AND THE PULL OF ACADEMIA
Ultimately, I decided to move to London after graduation and cut my teeth as an editor, proof-reading and commissioning academic work. After being promoted from trainee to Commissioning Editor, I took on the editing of two environmental journals: one on biofuels, the other on carbon management.
While this was fun for a while, over time I started to feel that being a conduit for other people’s research (while immensely valuable) wasn’t enough – I felt jaded about not creating or contributing to the environment in the way that I wanted to.
That led me to a research position in Aberdeen with The James Hutton Institute, where I worked on carbon sequestration in the Highland grasslands. I loved being out in the field again, but then a change in circumstance meant that I had to move back to England. I went freelance as a proof-reader and editor. For years, the work was versatile and flexible, but slowly and surely, took me further and further away from science.
Still, my new home – a small cottage in the wilds of Suffolk – gave me the space to adopt and rescue animals left, right and centre.
In no particular order, I rescued guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, a bearded dragon, hedgehogs, a pair of tortoises, and even a few pigeons. I also hand-reared multiple birds and even picked up some veterinary training to care for the hedgehogs.
One of the rescued feral pigeons.
Then, right before COVID, I reconnected with someone I’d known during my time in Aberdeen: a research fellow who was based in South Africa. I mentioned that, as an environmental scientist at heart, I wanted to be doing something more impactful with my time. He invited me out to join him, where they needed help with a data collection project and had the funding and budget to support the move.
So, I left Suffolk and spent six weeks travelling around the Cape, researching molluscs and the impacts of ocean acidification on their calcium carbonate structures.
I saw breathtaking scenery and amazing landscapes, but I was most enamoured with the awe-inspiring fauna: tortoises (in the wild!), so many elephants, and a whale that broke the surface of the ocean as I was driving back to the airport. The entire trip was life-changing. It reminded me of why I’d gone to university in the first place.
Then, of course, COVID, hit.
“Over lockdown, I realised that saving and releasing animals felt like applying a sticking plaster to a critical wound. The world was on fire, and I wasn’t using my skills to help put it out.”
The trip to South Africa reignited my love for research and talking to people about real, evidence-based solutions. Not long after coming home, I was invited to Southampton for the 50th anniversary of the Environmental Science degree. I almost didn’t go then changed my mind last-minute.
It was there that I reconnected with Jon after twelve years, as well as some of the teaching staff that had inspired me so much as a student, including Simon Kemp and Malcolm Hudson.
It was the second time I felt at a crossroads in my career. While I considered going back to Southampton to do research as part of a PhD, an opportunity to do research and get paid for it came about.
COMing full circle
Two weeks later, I met Pete Redshaw, the co-founder of Cirevo, and was invited to join the Cirevo team part-time to help with project research.
That part-time role quickly became full-time – starting out with research, tenders, and grant applications, then evolving into blue-sky thinking, trend-mapping, early market research, and project management.
Cirevo is flat in hierarchy and flexible in structure, so I was encouraged to use the skills that came most naturally. I picked up Scrum master skills and began focusing on planning and sprint cycles as well as team dynamics.
To me, being a project manager is like being another kind of researcher. Every sprint is a miniature experiment.
I form a hypothesis, test it, observe the results, then iterate. I’m constantly learning – reading blogs, listening to podcasts, comparing theory to real-world dynamics.
My research background really prepared me for a role where there are controlled and uncontrolled variables. People join the team; dynamics shift. A tool stops working; we pivot. And when challenges arise, as they naturally do, I aim to approach them scientifically rather than personally. It makes it far less draining and means that I can stay curious, observant, and open to adapting.
Another of the rescued hedgehogs.
WHY CIREVO
Cirevo’s values deeply resonated with me: namely, the flexibility of the work, systems thinking, and joined-up purpose with the founders and teams we support.
I’m proudest of the work we’re doing with Trendle – a project that empowers tailors, seamstresses, and clothing alternation specialists – mostly women, who are often underpaid and undervalued – to run efficient, sustainable businesses rooted in repair, reuse, and skill-sharing. With the right framing, we can stitch those solutions into our future.
I used to think that the right research, published in the right place, would be enough. It isn’t.
The challenge now is translation: making good ideas understandable and applicable. That’s where tech comes in, not as the message, but as the medium.
I’m driven by the belief that meaningful change starts with connection: between people, systems, and the past and future. I’ve learned that you don’t have to choose between idealistic and useful. You can be both; you can care and be strategic. You can rescue a hedgehog, and you can also build tools that empower people.
That’s what I love most about my work now. I get to bring my whole self – the scientist, storyteller, strategist, and soft-hearted animal rescuer – to something that feels bigger than me.
“I used to think that the right research, published in the right place, would be enough. It isn’t. The challenge now is translation: making good ideas understandable and applicable.”
MORE ABOUT CIREVO
Cirevo designs and builds digital tools for a regenerative future.
We’re a multidisciplinary team of software engineers, data scientists, and environmental experts who thrive in complexity. From idea to delivery, we partner with climate innovators, circular economy ventures, and mission-driven teams to turn big, systems-led challenges into practical, scalable technology.
Our work is grounded in science, shaped by real-world context, and built to last.
If you have a sustainable and regenerative technology project that you’d like help with, please get in touch today.
LUCY’S READING LIST
Silent Spring, Rachel Carson
It’s Not That Radical, Michaela Loach
Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth
Own This, R. Trebor Scholz
Scrum, Jeff Sutherland
Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke
There is No Planet B, Mike Berners-Lee
No More Fairy-Tales: Stories to Save our Planet, D. Baden et al.
Loved Clothes Last, Orsola de Castro
