The EcoVadis team around the globe is driving the transformation of business practices with a focus on sustainability, offering careers with a purpose and impact. So, what does it mean to our teammates to be part of EcoVadis’ mission?
Hear from Celia Landesberg, Senior Account Executive - who started her career as a sustainability analyst at a small startup and is now breaking records on our Sales team, and Richard Bourne, Engagement Services Director - who started his career at EcoVadis as an intern and is now leading a business unit of over 150 employees globally to serve more than 80,000 customers.
Between the two of us, we have spent more than 15 years at EcoVadis. Having arrived at the company from different backgrounds and now working in separate teams, we have unique perspectives and experiences with impact in our careers and at the company. Whilst discussing with each other, we found plenty of common ground and uncovered ways that our individual work supports one another.
Richard to Celia
What do you think about impact in your own career? How does EcoVadis fulfill that vision?
I developed an understanding of the climate change crisis as a young girl and knew that I wanted to help people make better choices. I felt limited knowing I was only one person (despite wanting to clone myself) and never quite knew how to maximize what I could contribute. As I studied and experienced the world, I gained the most fulfillment from activities and jobs connected to multiplied impacts, where the result of my work would affect the lives of many. Studying global supply chains and completing an analysis of my own, I found the vast, global network a great place to focus. EcoVadis’s role in global supply chains is critical and well-positioned to increase as the company grows. Through our work with thousands of world leading companies, we partner with the brightest, most ambitious companies to improve the supplier performance on environmental and social practices. The result of improving thousands of companies impacts the lives of millions of workers in a variety of industries and encourages the widespread adoption of sustainable products, thereby reducing footprints.
How does the Sales team contribute to the company’s vision?
The Sales team is the beginning of the chain of impact for EcoVadis. For our clients , we are the first step in the equation to improve workers lives and the environment. The EcoVadis network model has two sides: the company requesting assessments and the company getting rated. For the Sales team, we are supporting companies in adopting EcoVadis to request their suppliers and build best in class sustainable procurement programs using our evidence-based scorecards. Many of our clients have thousands or tens of thousands of suppliers (while some are focused on a smaller portfolio) and are working to improve performance and cascade impacts and learnings down the chain. A key sign of impact and maturity in the value chain is the adoption from new industries and purchasing categories along with improved year over year results, which we publish in our Global CSR Index annually and our Network Impact Report. It’s a privilege to work with so many incredible companies and people!
Celia to Richard
You’ve been at EcoVadis for more than a decade. What keeps you coming back?
Since the very start of my career, I was in search of a company that felt like a community to which I could belong, and where I could continue to learn and to evolve. EcoVadis has been one such opportunity, where I have been encouraged to take on initiatives and supported to grow, to discover more about myself, whilst working with a diverse group of talented people. My colleagues here are refreshing and down-to-earth. There is an openness and collective willingness to make a difference in the world. I have always felt part of the growth of this company, the development of its people and the impact we as a team create on local and international business communities.
The company is growing fast and there is never a day where there is not something new to work on. It's an untiring puzzle of putting it all together that makes me excited to continue my journey here and support the people around me to achieve something greater.
How has the way you think about impact in your career evolved over time? What are you excited about for the company’s impact in the future?
In the first years, we started by helping a few hundred companies embark and progress on their sustainability journey. Today, having built a membership community of over 80,000 companies, we now have the opportunity to speak to the biggest brands in the world to create more systemic change. Impact is also about people’s full potential. By creating a flexible & meaningful team environment for employees, we encourage them to learn new skills, to challenge the status-quo and to kindle self-discovery. Within our customers’ organisations, I have observed sustainability champions sparking much needed change in their organisations as leadership starts to understand the importance of their role in sustainability. I am able to travel around my local neighbourhood at the end of the day and actually see, in the flesh, more and more brands that are now members of the EcoVadis community. I have seen, first-hand, the value of having such a diverse group of employees and customers; stemming from all walks of life and coming together to be able to challenge how we are working and living. I am very excited about engaging with more and more international organisations and cultures to trigger innovative change and embrace a more sustainable way of living.
Despite our different seats in the EcoVadis organisation chart, we aligned on a passion for the scale of the company’s impact as well as our admiration of the dedication of the sustainability and procurement professionals we work with every day. We feel fortunate to work in a place with a “practice what you preach” culture, filled with people from diverse backgrounds who aspire to change tomorrow.
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