My career shift from retail to sustainability
Written by Alexandra Garcia, Globechain’s Sustainability Strategy Manager
My experience in business development and working in international roles over the last 12 years has driven my personal belief that businesses can be sustainable and reduce their impact on the environment while still being profitable and creating jobs. This realisation did not come easy, and as many professionals are going through the same journey now during covid-19, I feel the need to share my own hoping that I can inspire many others (or at least try) to apply their knowledge and skills to do business for good.
I started my career working for a multinational Chinese retailer for almost ten years. I was able to see first-hand the evolution of mass production and excessive consumerism in Latin America, home to some of the major textile manufacturing centres such as Peru and Colombia (that export over US$2000 million of clothing a year mainly to the US and Europe1).
During the first six years of my career, I worked with all types of business, from small family businesses to medium-large corporates. I had the opportunity to support their growth in different regions and the generation of employment by giving them access to low-cost raw materials. Of course, at that time, we were all less informed of the negative impact we were creating on the environment, and like most businesses, we were pushed to focus on maximising profits.
After visiting China and learning from their production lines, I realised that the success of becoming the factory of the world came with a higher cost to their environment and population, and I couldn’t stop wondering, is it worth being so rich when you don’t even have good air to breath?
So yes, I needed a change. With the desire of increasing my knowledge of international business, I decided to do an MBA in the UK. Lucky me, when I informed my boss of my decision, they decided to offer me a position in their offices in London. This is how I was introduced to the e-commerce industry.
China has transformed the world economy by giving us access to a seemingly infinite number of goods at the lowest prices, and when you add the internet to the equation, we are all only a click away from anything we could want to buy. Because of this, consumerism is not just alive and well, it is growing. And so is waste, carbon emission and deforestation. I realised I was not making things better if anything I was contributing to making them worse, so I made a stop and promised to myself that I was not going back. I decided to use my knowledge and experience to do business for good.
My first step was to find a job that allowed me to move towards sustainability. And again, lucky me, it only took one job application (almost as it was meant to be!). At my current role in Globechain, I am able to channel and use my strong passion for helping businesses to move towards being more sustainable. Businesses need urgent solutions that can help them to reduce their impact on the environment and make a difference in their communities, and I can help them achieve both.
I feel fortunate to be able to do this with my daily work. Working in diverse industries, I was able to gain an in-depth knowledge of their operations; now, I feel the responsibility of using this information to help with the transformation of supply chains towards sustainability. I strongly believe that we all can place biodiversity and the environment at the heart of all businesses. There has not been a more critical time than now.
