Celebrating International Women's Day with Lauren McCarthy
16 Mar 2026Lauren McCarthy, Sustainability Manager on the Therme project, details her path into the industry, and the importance of sustainability in construction
So, I'm Megan. I'm an engineer at SRM and I've been here for five years now. I worked
my way up from a trainee engineer to a graduate and now I'm a package engineer
and started off doing some work experience on a music concert hall and then I moved on to
building some apartment blocks. And I got involved with everything, from the ground up, so I did the
drainage, the foundations, the concrete frame, and then I held to the actual apartment fit out so I
was doing joinery, painting, dry lining. And then the project I'm on now is a hotel, so slightly
different from apartments. And it's one block, which is about double the height of the previous
ones I was building. That's really exciting and I'm doing something completely different
again. I'm doing the facade. So I'm dealing with scaffolding, mass climbers, balconies window,
cladding, and I'm generally responsible for activities on site, quality, time management,
solving design problems and health and safety. No two days are the same, which is actually why
I really love my job.. I can have a plan for the day and then five minutes into the morning,
it's probably the same for everyone, but the plan can be completely out the window. But, typically,
I spend my time between being out on site and then coming back into the office to make a phone call
or send an email or sometimes to mark up a drawing. Usually, the days where I can be
spending hours and hours out on site are the ones where it's raining really heavily and
so I have like a really nice stylish high this waterproof jacket and matching trousers for that.
Other days, I've got meetings. Today, I've had a lot of meetings all afternoon. And meetings
can be completely different sometimes. You know you're resolving some conflicts and other times,
so today for example, everyone's just been sharing a packet of biscuits and having a laugh, so
every day is completely different but it's good fun and you just need to be ready to adapt.
Something that sticks out as a career highlight, we'll say, is I was part of a topping out ceremony
and it's a building tradition. McAlpine do it when you reach the highest point of the build. It's
good luck so put a yew tree, an evergreen yew tree branch, and you nail it to a post on the the roof,
on the highest point of whatever you're building. And because I was relatively young and new,
I got given a part to play. So I was actually up on stage where this awards ceremony was
taking place and this yew tree branch that had been nailed to a post fell on my head.
My real proudest moment is probably this time last year when I went to Barcelona to represent Sir
Robert McAlpine on a factory visit to the glass factory. I'm really proud of that because I
knew nothing about glass and, believe it or not, there's so much to know about glass. I fancy
myself as a bit of a glass expert now. I find it really interesting even though it sounds really
geeky. Glass is so interesting when you start learning about it, so I'm really proud of that.
Over this next year, something that I'm hoping to achieve is a new sort of project that I've
started, aside from my day-to-day role, which is a scholarship with the Worshipful Company of
Constructors. It's a sustainability scholarship and it's something I'm really interested in.
I'm basically looking at how construction and developments can increase biodiversity on site.
I think it's the perfect time to do a project like this because in the lockdown a lot of people spent
time outdoors and people, you know, took much more notice and appreciated wildlife a bit more.
I think, in cities, why not try and bring wildlife back into cities and these big
developments would do it and there's a real opportunity. So, I'm excited about that and I'm
hoping that this is going to be a good year for me, achieving something innovative towards that.
As a female, I think, the only thing that I experience really is that you could be
underestimated a little bit. I find that I work really hard and I've achieved so much in the
five years I've been in construction. But I still sometimes can't help but feel that people look at
me as quite young and inexperienced. My real worry is that it might mean I miss out on opportunities
to progress. I'm really ambitious and I know what I want so sometimes that can be a bit
frustrating. But my advice would be not to look at whether someone's male or female
and not to compare people because like a female in the same position as a male might perform the
role completely differently. But that's the brilliant thing. Diversity and individuality
is what brings strength to a team and it's a people industry, it's all about teamwork so...
