Richard Kenny

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2024.

Rich is the Managing Director at Interact, an environmental consultancy utilising circular economy machine learning software, and Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Engineering at London South Bank University (LSBU). His research and development foci are hardware energy efficiency and the environmental and economic impacts of IT hardware during creation, use and disposal.

Rich is a firm believer in the circular economy and sustainable solutions for IT hardware. He has contributed to the UK's Industrial Strategy, European Legislation (EcoDesign Directive, EU taxonomy on Energy Efficiency) and his research has been published in internationally renowned academic journals (IEEE, Elsevier), conferences (LCM, ICAC, GECOST) and anthologies.

How did you get into IT?

I bought and sold my first server when I was 11 years old. I used to build PCs for friends and schoolmates really young and then I used to go to auctions and buy old 386 and 486 machines and upgrade and resell them to small businesses. It took 15 more years before i started doing it as a job though!

What do you consider your greatest IT achievement of the last 12 months?

The development of our machine learning solution to now be the only one on the market that can provide all environmental reporting on datacentre impact at the hardware level. This is the culmination of five years of intense research and allows us to analyse and report on all vital components of IT sustainability: Scope 2 and 3 carbon, water use and critical raw materials. We've won multiple awards for this technology, such as National Tech Awards' ESG Product of the Year, and Data Centre World's Sustainability Product of the Year.

How do you ensure diversity is taken into account in your IT recruitment?

We have clear targets on diversity for hiring, specifically around core management and decision making. Gender diversity is especially important in machine learning and AI, and it's one of the nine core KPIs that align to our United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We track it quarterly and publish our annual reporting specifically against senior management representation. We also blind sift CVs at first pass to make them fully anonymised to prevent any accidental bias.

Which technology are you currently most excited by, and why?

The technologies that most excite me are focused on solving sustainability challenges, but particularly those focused on biodiversity and natural habitats. AI and pattern recognition for locating pollinators, optimising land use and protecting native species is very exciting and necessary!

What would an outsider find the most surprising part of your job?

The limited knowledge that most businesses have of their environmental and social impact. Many people would expect companies to have a clear understanding of their impacts, but knowledge is very limited in this area. It means often companies don't know what to do and just get their heads turned by shiny new tech and marketing promises.

What's your secret talent?

Probably that I was once a competitive regional strongman and powerlifter.

What makes you laugh?

Pretty much anything my little boy says and does. He's got the best sense of humour in the world and I just spend all my time with him laughing and smiling.