In this Team Spotlight, we spend 5 minutes with our Senior Sustainability Specialist, Rosie Dodd, hearing about what sustainability means to her.
Why did you choose a career in sustainability?
I chose a career in sustainability when I was 4 years old, sitting on the floor of my mum’s office pretending I was in the exotic photographs in National Geographic magazines from the 1990’s pulled out of dusty drawers while she finished her working day.
I chose a career in sustainability again when I was 7 years old helping my dad plant tomatoes by sticking my small thumb in the soil and carefully dropping a seed in the hole, and feeling the magic of watching the seedlings grow.
I chose a career in sustainability when I was 10 years old and there weren’t any vegetarian options in my primary school yet and so I worked through the same bland, dry baked potato every day because my mum offered me the choice not to eat meat and I took it.
I chose a career in sustainability when I was 14 years old and discovered the WWF Earth Hour and sat religiously in the dark for the day and spent the rest of the year turning switches off at the walls and reprimanding my family for leaving the lights on.
I chose a career in sustainability when I was 22 years old and heard a whale sing during a research trip in the Pacific Island for the first time and recognised how privileged I was to have such an experience – and that others should be able to have similar experiences of joy too.
I choose a career in sustainability every day because I care deeply for the living world and it inspires me every day. I continue to push the boundaries of my career in sustainability because simply caring for the living world is not enough and I can do more than that – so I want to. For people and planet both.
What do you like most about your work?
I feel a deep sense of joy when I feel like I have enabled others – individuals or organisations - to make impactful change or even thrive and grow through decisions that make them more sustainable.
I also love thinking about new ways to answer new questions and challenges companies can face. The problem-solving is its own fun challenge for me. Modelling the climate benefit of companies changing their business models, electrifying transport or improving resource efficiency all provide their own doses of inspiration.
Is there a book or podcast you would like to recommend and why?
I listen to plenty of sustainability-oriented podcasts which are basically my homework e.g. Nature, Planet, Profit; GARP Climate Risk Podcast; GreenCollar Good Future Podcast. These podcasts all provide solid updates on new technologies, innovations and conversations happening in the sector from different perspectives. All worth a listen!
On books, I would recommend Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. This is the first of a trilogy of books written by a fantastic author raised by scientists with an incredibly perceptive take on the modern world, globalisation, and the fragility of our highly globalised, highly centralised social system. This book is utopian and dystopian at the same time, which Atwood has used to help the reader think about the very real features of our modern world more clearly by removing them from reality a little bit. These books also serve as a reminder of the importance of human connection, and connection with nature. Things go a bit awry when we lose that.