Insights from industry leaders, Volume 5: Dr Rima Trofimovaite, Head of Measurement at Planet Mark.
Dr Rima Trofimovaite is Head of Measurement at Planet Mark, a market leading sustainability certification platform for organisations committed to improvement towards net zero. Having gained her Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Rima’s career has transitioned through renewable energy research, consulting to certification, enabling businesses to be recognised for their action towards reducing their emissions and reducing their footprint. In this week’s series Rima shares the wisdom she’s collected from her career so far.
What advice would you give someone starting their career?
Start with a clear vision that is aligned with your values and something that you’re passionate about. Sustainability is so broad so it’s good to pick an area you’re really interested in like renewables, technology or policy and make a plan around that. Having a clear plan will always help and picking milestones along that journey that you can achieve to know you’re still heading in the right direction. It’s so easy to get lost in this space when the skills are so transferrable and every business is looking for people to join their teams.
One thing that I would always recommend is having a mentor, someone to share your goals with and your plan. It’s great if they are someone you look up to in the space so they can guide you but it can also just help to have someone to share your goals with and to be accountable to. Be relentless if you want something, have clarity on what it is and run at it All this being said, just don’t worry, your plan can change, things can get thrown in your way that you can’t plan for. Use your plan as a guideline but have the flexibility and confidence to change path too.
What do you want to see more of this year in the sustainability sector?
Setting net zero targets and sticking to them. Businesses need to have a clear target and stick to it, that starts from knowing what needs to go into it and what net zero actually requires. It took people a long time to mobilise but now we need a strategy.
Do you think the UK will hit it’s net zero target?
No, if we will not start taking immediate action. There is still so far to go in terms of decarbonising like aviation and the grid. A real issue is the infrastructure in place at the moment like the supply chains are at mercy or outsiders meeting their targets like reducing scope 3 emissions which makes it so much more complex.
What do you think is the biggest roadblock to hit the net zero target?
Data is a huge issue, especially for areas like supply chain decarbonisation. Quantification and getting the right data to report on is a huge issue for a lot of businesses. Actions can only be as good as the data influencing them so we need to improve quantification and data to improve the actions we take off. Another real issue is then finding the finance and capital to factor sustainability in because it is ultimately a cost centre for a lot of business.
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MORE SUSTAINABILITY SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEWS
You can read last weeks interview with, Fiona Ball, Group Director at Sky here.
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