The great thing about my job in sustainability is …….the amount of influence I can have. I can have an impact right across the place where I work. Even though I work alone or in a small team I can make changes which can affect millions of people’s lives. That’s why I look forward to my work every day.
Does that sound familiar? Or does this fit the bill better?
The frustrating thing about my job in sustainability is ……..the way I get side-lined and the sustainability agenda is seen as an add-on rather than an essential. I might get to talk to some people in the company who are keen to see change, but getting through to the budget holders and making significant change happen is almost impossible. When I do get in front of the right people it seems that what I say doesn’t make sense to them. It’s as if they are living on a different planet (one that isn’t going through climate change and where no-one is subject to modern slavery for example). They don’t seem to trust me and my skills and I don’t seem to be able to persuade them of the importance of what I’m saying. That’s why it’s hard to keep going and I sometimes dread going to work, because I can already imagine the brick wall I’m going to meet.
If that second paragraph fits you better, why are you still there? Well, you care don’t you? about climate change, about exploitation, about the future and you have to pay the bills and a bad job is better than no job (just to paraphrase a well-used phrase!). It doesn’t make it any easier though, does it, facing those challenges and confrontations, having those difficult conversations?
It doesn’t have to be like that, I’ve designed the Dynamic Sustainability Solution to enable sustainability professionals to love their jobs because they are achieving great outcomes without hitting brick walls. If that sounds interesting drop me an email (contact details at the top of the page) and I’ll send you an outline of how it works – just say if you are interested in the solution I’ve designed for individuals or for the solution for teams.