January 21, 2026 • 10 mins
Catherine joins us this week to talk us through what the role involves, how she got there despite studying ancient history at university, and the key skills that make her successful in the job.
Read more from Catherine: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/case-studies/sustainability-analyst-catherine-barker/
Explore being a sustainability consultant: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/sustainability-consultant
How to get a job in sustainability: https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/environment-and-agriculture/how-to-get-a-job-in-sustainability/
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to Future You.
The podcast brought to youby graduate careers experts prospects.
I'm your host, Emily Slade,and in this episode I speak to Catherine,
who works as a sustainability analyst.
So I'm Catherine, and I'm a sustainability analyst.
So what does sustainability analyst mean?
Really good question.
I, I basically do
(00:22):
a lot of analyzing of data,which sounds really big and really scary.
But realisticallyI am in charge of calculating,
gathering all the data needed to calculatethe carbon emissions of the company.
It's like we havea lot of legal requirements we need to do.
So we need to submit all of our carbonemissions to different sort
(00:44):
of questionnaires and through our supplychain, things like that.
So it's kind of fulfilling not completing
all of the, requirementsthat are required legally.
And also those numberswill go into our sustainability report
So it's kind of collecting all of thatdata.
Kind of working through convertingall of our activity into carbon emissions.
(01:07):
Also writing a sustainabilityreport as well.
So that's not only our carbon emissions,although that is a big part of it.
We also Matt
E so sustainableDevelopment Goals in our activity
and how we're contributingto those as well.
Also within that report wherehighlighting things we've done well,
but we'll say things
(01:27):
and kind of the changes
that have happened with our emissionsand our sustainability I also,
I'm kind of involved in different projectswithin the team.
Again, a lot of my specificrole is around the carbon data.
And so one of the projectsI'm doing is looking at the common data
we have and seeing if there's thingswe can do in future to reduce that,
(01:50):
or to evenjust see what we can do with that data.
So lots of working with data and numbers,which I never thought I would
ever end up doing.
Yeah, it was actually really interesting.
And yeah, I think it's great.Yeah, amazing.
And so when we talking about collectingwhere it's like the travel
that the company does.
Yeah, it's like just sort of any activitythat would.
(02:12):
Yeah.
So anything we have data for will collect
and we'll hopefully be able to convert itto carbon emissions.
So business activityso there's different scope.
So I'm going to too much.
But scope one and twoyou've got your kind of the gas
that the company usesthe electricity that we use.
(02:32):
But our scope oneand two is only specifically
for our Bristol office,because that's the only one that we own.
Everything else is in our scope.
Three so the rented offices,including London, that one's rented.
So that's in scope for emissionsor purchased goods and services.
Yeah. All that business travel,
commuting, still got quite a
(02:53):
bit of commuting,even though a lot of people work
from home,the work from home emissions as well.
We're able to kind of calculatewith estimations as well.
So there's lots of different things based.
If we have that data,we have the activity.
We will try to convert that to emissionsthrough like carbon,
emission conversions that are on line.
And for you, so Defra,it's the government, the UK government
(03:17):
basically supply those conversion factorsso we can convert it into carbon.
Yeah. Amazing.
So did you always think you were goingto be working with numbers.
Oh no it's your attorney. Absolutely. No.
Oh my goodness.
I was thinking about this the other dayactually because I always rate.
So I really struggled with maths.
Isn't it a school that was justI think it was a mixture of
(03:40):
I wasn't very confident in maths and thenthe teachers weren't really encouraging.
Okay.
But they.
Yeah,I just really struggled with maths. I
had kind of that option at GCSE.
I don't know if you had the same,but we had to choose
between geography and history.
Yes. So we had to drop one.
And I think we've been doing the tutorsat the time and I just loved the tutor.
(04:04):
So I was like, oh, what?
I'm going to continue doing historybecause I love this part of history.
And yeah, so geography was just offmy radar from like year ten.
So maths, geography,the kind of things you might think
you would need to do this job.
Yeah, I just, I have been doing exerciselike what, 30 for 50.
(04:24):
So a lot of my educational journey
was kind of it followed a certain path
because I'd chosen like historyand English and things like that.
So I ended up
at college andI was doing sort of the inverse English
literature,classical civilization photography.
(04:45):
So the mix and then,
yeah, ended up doing ancient historyat university.
Again, just kind of because thoughyou're kind of limited
to what you can study at uni,
finding on what A-levels you've done,but then the A-levels
you do are really dependent on the GCSEsyou choose.
And you're like child,you know, no idea what you want to do.
(05:06):
So it was kind of
yeah, it was justmaths wasn't really a thing in that.
But it wasn'tuntil I say my last role in Jyske,
where I was using Excel a lot more becauseExcel seemed really alien to me as well.
So I had to use it for that long.
But it can do so much I think with
(05:30):
this analyst roleand with looking at data, it's not just
I think I had a seeing it was a lot ofwhen you say like carbon calculation
and lots of just addingand tones and things, but there's a lot of
and the methodologiesavailable are quite structured.
So it's kind of nice to be like,
well, I need to do this and this,and that would give me this.
(05:51):
it's just really shading as well,
like reworks of my mindto be kind of focusing on it that way.
So you basically don't need to domaths to do a job like this.
A lot of it, I think you couldlearn on the job as well.
I think done somethingI used to be really scared
of, like, oh,there's no way I can do that.
But actually the reality is everythingI've done anyway, you just learn so much.
(06:14):
Yes. When you're actually doing it.
So yeah, I think that's been really good.
So my yeah, my educational background isnot maybe typical of what I'm doing now.
Yeah.
And Pletelyso what made you move into sustainability.
so the job before the one at now woods
a junior I specialist and same company.
(06:35):
And within that roleI was doing a lot of research
my eyes environmental impact,
which was really interestingand I really enjoyed doing that.
And I got to spend a lot of time
kind of researching, writing blogs,just reading a lot about it.
And I was quite alarmed at the kind ofthe numbers that were coming out.
And I think it was interesting doing that,because
(06:59):
especiallyworking at a technology company,
we can't we don't want to demonize AIbecause it can be really useful.
It was more about
what can we
do to be as responsible as possible,but I'm using it basically.
Because what like about things, it'snot necessarily going anywhere.
So I was doing a lot of work with that,and I remember thinking, oh,
(07:23):
I wish that I could just do somethinglike this full time.
This would be great.
But oh, I probably can't do thatbecause my like, work experience
or the, kind of subjectsI'd done evening or whatever.
So but I'd always thought like,oh, you know, I'll keep an eye
on the internal jobs, this thing.
Hey, something comes up and then, I saw
(07:45):
the gallery was in the job I'm in now,so I have her on LinkedIn,
and I saw that she had found a new job,and I thought, oh, interesting.
Like, I don't remember seeing thatthey were they'd advertise for that yet.
So, I just hadkept my eye on the internal role.
Something came up and there's just kind ofwent for it, basically.
(08:06):
So yeah, I think doing the workaround the environmental impacts
open my eyes to kind of the widersustainability issues and things as well.
And, you know,I've always been interested
in my club lifeand animals and nature as well.
So it kind of made sense for me,And it makes it makes you feel like you're
making a difference. Yeah, exactly.
(08:27):
It's really nice to kind of feellike you have a purpose,
and I hadn't really thought about ittoo much before because
honestly, I just, I think untilnow I've always just been
I don't know what I want to door I've been really unsure.
Whereas this is the first jobI got at the age
33, finally, where I'm like,oh, this is great.
(08:49):
I'm really enjoying this. This is great.
This is what I meant to do.
So it can take a long time.
So yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
So do you get a say in the problemsolving aspect of the role
where you collect all the dataand then once it's collected,
you can figure out what to do with itand how to cut carbon emissions
and that sort of thing.So do you get a say in the.
(09:11):
Yes, although it's kind of aa long term process.
So I think something I've learned as wellis that the change
just takes a lot of time.
So kind of the more data we can collect
over the years, we'll get a better idea.
And then hopefully in the future
(09:31):
we'll be able to use that data to show
if we kind of tweak this or if we do this
slightly differently, then,I mean, it's only brief.
not right now.
I personally maybe don't have that,kind of impact
to change everything,but the work I'm doing will lead to that.
And actually,so. Yeah. Really cool. Yeah. Brilliant.
(09:52):
So what myths would you like to debunkabout working in sustainability?
And I think definitely
you need to have done it's geography or,
science or somethingaround the environment at university.
A lot of people
I now realize, who work in sustainabilitydon't have that background.
And there's a lot of kind of differentskills you can bring to the role.
(10:15):
And like I said,you can learn on the job as well.
So I think that's definitely one,although I would say there's
probablybecause things change all the time.
There may be, you know,if you're lucky enough to decide
when you are younger that sustainability,something you want to work in,
then there may be degreesnow that you can do which can
(10:37):
lead into the role a little bit moreBut you don't need to do that.
There's just.
You don't need to do that.
You just have to work really hard.
You have to learn a lot and keep learning,that it's worth it.
And if you really enjoy it, it's.
Yeah, all the learning is worth it.
And it doesn't feel too much like learningbecause you're just reading.
(10:58):
What's that defined? Interesting.
Another myth would probably bethat you have to be
like 100% sustainableto work and sustain this.
Otherwise you're a hypocrite or whatever,no one is 100% sustainable.
It's impossible to do that.
you know,you can only do the best that you can,
the resources you have and the moneyyou have, because a lot unfortunately,
(11:20):
at the moment, to be as sustainableas you can, it's really expensive.
Like the,what are they called, the refill shops.
It's a great they're fantastic.
And I rewrite what they're doing, but,
I've tried toshop there for a lot of different things,
and it does add up,so it's just not affordable for everyone.
(11:41):
So you just can't expect everyoneto be really sustainable.
Just. Yeah,like I said, do the best that you can.
And I feel like you can't work in the roleand be judgmental of other people.
For sustainability,it just doesn't really work that way.
You have to be really understandingand, and meet people where they're at.
(12:01):
so, yeah, the myth would bethat you don't have to be perfect
and sustainabilitywise to, to do the job for sure.
unfortunately, the society we're in.
We just can't do that much now.
We can only makeour own individual choices.
But a lot of the work is inis as at the top.
Yeah.
And so at least when you're workingin sustainability, you are working towards
(12:26):
that kind of systemic changeSo you're making a difference that way.
Is there any progression within the rolesort of where wife
work in the worldgo to? That's a good question.
I feel like maybebecause I've only been in that
for like five months,I haven't felt that far ahead.
But I think sustainabilityis just changing all the time.
(12:46):
So I don't evenI mean, I'd probably do it, but
I don't know if this particular jobor the jobs that we are doing,
sustainabilitymaybe even existed like 30 years ago.
There might in some form of a bit.
But so I think at the moment
probably just like a more senior analyst.
(13:07):
But who knows, like what the jokesare gonna be like even in like five years,
where the UK is trying to reach net zeroand there's so much to do.
I think about the sustainabilityroles are getting more popular
and more becoming available.
So who knows what the futureholds on this day.
But I think there's, there'sthere's a lot work to be done.
(13:29):
So So I suppose having studiedlike ancient history English,
do you feel a little bit of impostersyndrome within the role?
How do you deal with that all the time?
How do I do that?
I feel like it depends day by day.
Some days it feels really loud in my headwhere it's like, you can't do this.
(13:50):
You can't.You don't know what you're doing.
And it's literally just a case ofyou have to push through.
It can be really hard some days, but
you're here for a reason.
Like you'rethe person that IAG has seen your CV.
And like,as long as you're not lying and it's fine.
And it's just a case of,yeah, just you need to keep going because
(14:14):
otherwise what you'll do sweat,achieve anything.
And I think the more you try,the more you learn,
the more confident you get over time.
And also realizing that by everyone feelsthe same as well,
like even people at the top will.
I mean, I don't know about the top top,
but definitely kind of the senior, SoCI've spoken to.
(14:34):
They feel foster syndrome a lot,and they just have to get by
and just have to keep going basically.
So I'm hoping over time my confidencewaiting for you and that imposter
syndrome will go.
But it isjust trying to be nice to yourself
and just say like,just try like trying to get better.
It kind of squashing the perfectionism
(14:55):
because I think that can really it,it makes it so much harder
if you're just trying to be perfectall the time.
And in something like sustainability,you can't really be
you can't achieve perfection necessary.
So that's, that's helped over time.
But yeah, I definitely feel it Yeah.
What advice would you give for someonelooking to get into a similar role?
Oh, I would say, kind of do your research,
(15:18):
so maybe try and learnthe basics of sustainability.
If it's somethingkind of completely new to you.
So have a lookat the Sustainable Development Goals.
We, read about what? Sustainability.
I mean,do you listen to podcasts about it?
Watch YouTube videos.
There's probablyTed talks about it as well.
(15:39):
And justyeah, try and learn as much as you can.
And then I guess just
if you can start, kind of bring
sustainability into your current rolequite a bit like I did as an AI team.
If not,maybe try and do some that sort of work.
Or if you can volunteer in sustainabilityroles or for charities, things like that.
(16:04):
But there's so much information out there
that I honestly wish that I had kindof looked at before I joined the role.
But the reality is it,you know, you're working full time.
It can be really hard to try and learnsomething else at the same time.
But yeah,there's so much information out there.
Just read around it learnsmuch as you can, but don't feel that
you need to know everythinggoing into the role, because a lot
(16:27):
you will just learn on the joband that's okay, and that's fine.
Yeah. go for it as well.
Like, cheesy as it sounds like.
Yeah.
I think you'll be surprisedthat what you can can do a slowly.
Was there any way that you can thinkall that I haven't mentioned?
I guess I'm kind of touched on like,the careers guidance stuff at school
and, like, if you're not,
(16:47):
if you don't feel you're gettinga lot from careers guidance,
start worry about it.
Because all the careers guidancethat I got throughout
my entire life was just being meetingrubbished. Yes.
I don't know what it's like now.
Maybe it's different, but yeah, at school,at college, at university, it was just
all trying to put you in a boxall the time, like, oh, you like history?
(17:08):
Maybe you could teach. And that was it.
Or I think I did like one of those tests
in secondary schooland that said, oh, you should be like
just like be like inception or something,which is fine.
Like I actually think I would really loveVayner is up to next, to be honest.
But it's just like putting youin boxes to that.
(17:28):
I mean, it's just it's not helpful.
And so, yeah, I would sayif you're getting really terrible
careers advice, just just push through,try and find what you like.
If you don't, if you don't findwhat you like until your 30s, that's okay.
30s, 50s.
So a lot of people go at this whole lifenot enjoying the job.
So I satisfy and like,I think you'll find something eventually.
(17:51):
Yeah,I think that's very important to say.
Like,if you're not sure, you're better off
just picking up, drop as much useand knowing what you don't want to do.
And that's the reason knowing what you do.
Oh do I got exactlylike I've been through most random
jobs and ever, Yeah, like you say,learn what you don't want to do.
I don't want to work in a callcenter ever again.
But I learned a lot about myself,and I feel like it's.
(18:15):
I don't know, I must I have to havelearned something from that otherwise.
Yeah.
And don't let setbacks,like, stop you necessarily.
I know Covid came around.I was made redundant.
It sucked.
It was what, like 27 I think at the timeand which is reading pulse.
But it felt like yeah I gotI have to start from scratch now.
(18:38):
And that was really scary.
But you just have to keep going.
You know, I just,
I kind of worked in a call center,and then I hated us so much.
But then I was able to find something elsethat I didn't hate so much
and then kind of workmy way back, eventually.
So I think this istake a lot of time, but, it's worth it.
(18:58):
Niantic. Yeah. Yeah.
Brilliant. Well,thank you so much for your time today.
Again is Thanks againto Catherine for their time.
For more information on getting intosustainability as a career path.
You can head to prospects. Contact UK.
You can also head to our YouTube
channel at FutureYou Pod to watch the full interview.
If you enjoyed the episode,we'd love to hear from you.
(19:19):
You can contact usat podcast@prospects.uk,
or you can leave us a reviewon Apple or Spotify.
Thank you, as always for listening andgood luck on your journey to future. You.
Hello and welcome back to Future You.
The podcast brought to youby graduate careers experts prospects.
I'm your host, Emily Slade,and in this episode I speak to Catherine,
who works as a sustainability analyst.
So I'm Catherine, and I'm a sustainability analyst.
So what does sustainability analyst mean?
Really good question.
I, I basically do
(00:22):
a lot of analyzing of data,which sounds really big and really scary.
But realisticallyI am in charge of calculating,
gathering all the data needed to calculatethe carbon emissions of the company.
It's like we havea lot of legal requirements we need to do.
So we need to submit all of our carbonemissions to different sort
(00:44):
of questionnaires and through our supplychain, things like that.
So it's kind of fulfilling not completing
all of the, requirementsthat are required legally.
And also those numberswill go into our sustainability report
So it's kind of collecting all of thatdata.
Kind of working through convertingall of our activity into carbon emissions.
(01:07):
Also writing a sustainabilityreport as well.
So that's not only our carbon emissions,although that is a big part of it.
We also Matt
E so sustainableDevelopment Goals in our activity
and how we're contributingto those as well.
Also within that report wherehighlighting things we've done well,
but we'll say things
(01:27):
and kind of the changes
that have happened with our emissionsand our sustainability I also,
I'm kind of involved in different projectswithin the team.
Again, a lot of my specificrole is around the carbon data.
And so one of the projectsI'm doing is looking at the common data
we have and seeing if there's thingswe can do in future to reduce that,
(01:50):
or to evenjust see what we can do with that data.
So lots of working with data and numbers,which I never thought I would
ever end up doing.
Yeah, it was actually really interesting.
And yeah, I think it's great.Yeah, amazing.
And so when we talking about collectingwhere it's like the travel
that the company does.
Yeah, it's like just sort of any activitythat would.
(02:12):
Yeah.
So anything we have data for will collect
and we'll hopefully be able to convert itto carbon emissions.
So business activityso there's different scope.
So I'm going to too much.
But scope one and twoyou've got your kind of the gas
that the company usesthe electricity that we use.
(02:32):
But our scope oneand two is only specifically
for our Bristol office,because that's the only one that we own.
Everything else is in our scope.
Three so the rented offices,including London, that one's rented.
So that's in scope for emissionsor purchased goods and services.
Yeah. All that business travel,
commuting, still got quite a
(02:53):
bit of commuting,even though a lot of people work
from home,the work from home emissions as well.
We're able to kind of calculatewith estimations as well.
So there's lots of different things based.
If we have that data,we have the activity.
We will try to convert that to emissionsthrough like carbon,
emission conversions that are on line.
And for you, so Defra,it's the government, the UK government
(03:17):
basically supply those conversion factorsso we can convert it into carbon.
Yeah. Amazing.
So did you always think you were goingto be working with numbers.
Oh no it's your attorney. Absolutely. No.
Oh my goodness.
I was thinking about this the other dayactually because I always rate.
So I really struggled with maths.
Isn't it a school that was justI think it was a mixture of
(03:40):
I wasn't very confident in maths and thenthe teachers weren't really encouraging.
Okay.
But they.
Yeah,I just really struggled with maths. I
had kind of that option at GCSE.
I don't know if you had the same,but we had to choose
between geography and history.
Yes. So we had to drop one.
And I think we've been doing the tutorsat the time and I just loved the tutor.
(04:04):
So I was like, oh, what?
I'm going to continue doing historybecause I love this part of history.
And yeah, so geography was just offmy radar from like year ten.
So maths, geography,the kind of things you might think
you would need to do this job.
Yeah, I just, I have been doing exerciselike what, 30 for 50.
(04:24):
So a lot of my educational journey
was kind of it followed a certain path
because I'd chosen like historyand English and things like that.
So I ended up
at college andI was doing sort of the inverse English
literature,classical civilization photography.
(04:45):
So the mix and then,
yeah, ended up doing ancient historyat university.
Again, just kind of because thoughyou're kind of limited
to what you can study at uni,
finding on what A-levels you've done,but then the A-levels
you do are really dependent on the GCSEsyou choose.
And you're like child,you know, no idea what you want to do.
(05:06):
So it was kind of
yeah, it was justmaths wasn't really a thing in that.
But it wasn'tuntil I say my last role in Jyske,
where I was using Excel a lot more becauseExcel seemed really alien to me as well.
So I had to use it for that long.
But it can do so much I think with
(05:30):
this analyst roleand with looking at data, it's not just
I think I had a seeing it was a lot ofwhen you say like carbon calculation
and lots of just addingand tones and things, but there's a lot of
and the methodologiesavailable are quite structured.
So it's kind of nice to be like,
well, I need to do this and this,and that would give me this.
(05:51):
it's just really shading as well,
like reworks of my mindto be kind of focusing on it that way.
So you basically don't need to domaths to do a job like this.
A lot of it, I think you couldlearn on the job as well.
I think done somethingI used to be really scared
of, like, oh,there's no way I can do that.
But actually the reality is everythingI've done anyway, you just learn so much.
(06:14):
Yes. When you're actually doing it.
So yeah, I think that's been really good.
So my yeah, my educational background isnot maybe typical of what I'm doing now.
Yeah.
And Pletelyso what made you move into sustainability.
so the job before the one at now woods
a junior I specialist and same company.
(06:35):
And within that roleI was doing a lot of research
my eyes environmental impact,
which was really interestingand I really enjoyed doing that.
And I got to spend a lot of time
kind of researching, writing blogs,just reading a lot about it.
And I was quite alarmed at the kind ofthe numbers that were coming out.
And I think it was interesting doing that,because
(06:59):
especiallyworking at a technology company,
we can't we don't want to demonize AIbecause it can be really useful.
It was more about
what can we
do to be as responsible as possible,but I'm using it basically.
Because what like about things, it'snot necessarily going anywhere.
So I was doing a lot of work with that,and I remember thinking, oh,
(07:23):
I wish that I could just do somethinglike this full time.
This would be great.
But oh, I probably can't do thatbecause my like, work experience
or the, kind of subjectsI'd done evening or whatever.
So but I'd always thought like,oh, you know, I'll keep an eye
on the internal jobs, this thing.
Hey, something comes up and then, I saw
(07:45):
the gallery was in the job I'm in now,so I have her on LinkedIn,
and I saw that she had found a new job,and I thought, oh, interesting.
Like, I don't remember seeing thatthey were they'd advertise for that yet.
So, I just hadkept my eye on the internal role.
Something came up and there's just kind ofwent for it, basically.
(08:06):
So yeah, I think doing the workaround the environmental impacts
open my eyes to kind of the widersustainability issues and things as well.
And, you know,I've always been interested
in my club lifeand animals and nature as well.
So it kind of made sense for me,And it makes it makes you feel like you're
making a difference. Yeah, exactly.
(08:27):
It's really nice to kind of feellike you have a purpose,
and I hadn't really thought about ittoo much before because
honestly, I just, I think untilnow I've always just been
I don't know what I want to door I've been really unsure.
Whereas this is the first jobI got at the age
33, finally, where I'm like,oh, this is great.
(08:49):
I'm really enjoying this. This is great.
This is what I meant to do.
So it can take a long time.
So yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
So do you get a say in the problemsolving aspect of the role
where you collect all the dataand then once it's collected,
you can figure out what to do with itand how to cut carbon emissions
and that sort of thing.So do you get a say in the.
(09:11):
Yes, although it's kind of aa long term process.
So I think something I've learned as wellis that the change
just takes a lot of time.
So kind of the more data we can collect
over the years, we'll get a better idea.
And then hopefully in the future
(09:31):
we'll be able to use that data to show
if we kind of tweak this or if we do this
slightly differently, then,I mean, it's only brief.
not right now.
I personally maybe don't have that,kind of impact
to change everything,but the work I'm doing will lead to that.
And actually,so. Yeah. Really cool. Yeah. Brilliant.
(09:52):
So what myths would you like to debunkabout working in sustainability?
And I think definitely
you need to have done it's geography or,
science or somethingaround the environment at university.
A lot of people
I now realize, who work in sustainabilitydon't have that background.
And there's a lot of kind of differentskills you can bring to the role.
(10:15):
And like I said,you can learn on the job as well.
So I think that's definitely one,although I would say there's
probablybecause things change all the time.
There may be, you know,if you're lucky enough to decide
when you are younger that sustainability,something you want to work in,
then there may be degreesnow that you can do which can
(10:37):
lead into the role a little bit moreBut you don't need to do that.
There's just.
You don't need to do that.
You just have to work really hard.
You have to learn a lot and keep learning,that it's worth it.
And if you really enjoy it, it's.
Yeah, all the learning is worth it.
And it doesn't feel too much like learningbecause you're just reading.
(10:58):
What's that defined? Interesting.
Another myth would probably bethat you have to be
like 100% sustainableto work and sustain this.
Otherwise you're a hypocrite or whatever,no one is 100% sustainable.
It's impossible to do that.
you know,you can only do the best that you can,
the resources you have and the moneyyou have, because a lot unfortunately,
(11:20):
at the moment, to be as sustainableas you can, it's really expensive.
Like the,what are they called, the refill shops.
It's a great they're fantastic.
And I rewrite what they're doing, but,
I've tried toshop there for a lot of different things,
and it does add up,so it's just not affordable for everyone.
(11:41):
So you just can't expect everyoneto be really sustainable.
Just. Yeah,like I said, do the best that you can.
And I feel like you can't work in the roleand be judgmental of other people.
For sustainability,it just doesn't really work that way.
You have to be really understandingand, and meet people where they're at.
(12:01):
so, yeah, the myth would bethat you don't have to be perfect
and sustainabilitywise to, to do the job for sure.
unfortunately, the society we're in.
We just can't do that much now.
We can only makeour own individual choices.
But a lot of the work is inis as at the top.
Yeah.
And so at least when you're workingin sustainability, you are working towards
(12:26):
that kind of systemic changeSo you're making a difference that way.
Is there any progression within the rolesort of where wife
work in the worldgo to? That's a good question.
I feel like maybebecause I've only been in that
for like five months,I haven't felt that far ahead.
But I think sustainabilityis just changing all the time.
(12:46):
So I don't evenI mean, I'd probably do it, but
I don't know if this particular jobor the jobs that we are doing,
sustainabilitymaybe even existed like 30 years ago.
There might in some form of a bit.
But so I think at the moment
probably just like a more senior analyst.
(13:07):
But who knows, like what the jokesare gonna be like even in like five years,
where the UK is trying to reach net zeroand there's so much to do.
I think about the sustainabilityroles are getting more popular
and more becoming available.
So who knows what the futureholds on this day.
But I think there's, there'sthere's a lot work to be done.
(13:29):
So So I suppose having studiedlike ancient history English,
do you feel a little bit of impostersyndrome within the role?
How do you deal with that all the time?
How do I do that?
I feel like it depends day by day.
Some days it feels really loud in my headwhere it's like, you can't do this.
(13:50):
You can't.You don't know what you're doing.
And it's literally just a case ofyou have to push through.
It can be really hard some days, but
you're here for a reason.
Like you'rethe person that IAG has seen your CV.
And like,as long as you're not lying and it's fine.
And it's just a case of,yeah, just you need to keep going because
(14:14):
otherwise what you'll do sweat,achieve anything.
And I think the more you try,the more you learn,
the more confident you get over time.
And also realizing that by everyone feelsthe same as well,
like even people at the top will.
I mean, I don't know about the top top,
but definitely kind of the senior, SoCI've spoken to.
(14:34):
They feel foster syndrome a lot,and they just have to get by
and just have to keep going basically.
So I'm hoping over time my confidencewaiting for you and that imposter
syndrome will go.
But it isjust trying to be nice to yourself
and just say like,just try like trying to get better.
It kind of squashing the perfectionism
(14:55):
because I think that can really it,it makes it so much harder
if you're just trying to be perfectall the time.
And in something like sustainability,you can't really be
you can't achieve perfection necessary.
So that's, that's helped over time.
But yeah, I definitely feel it Yeah.
What advice would you give for someonelooking to get into a similar role?
Oh, I would say, kind of do your research,
(15:18):
so maybe try and learnthe basics of sustainability.
If it's somethingkind of completely new to you.
So have a lookat the Sustainable Development Goals.
We, read about what? Sustainability.
I mean,do you listen to podcasts about it?
Watch YouTube videos.
There's probablyTed talks about it as well.
(15:39):
And justyeah, try and learn as much as you can.
And then I guess just
if you can start, kind of bring
sustainability into your current rolequite a bit like I did as an AI team.
If not,maybe try and do some that sort of work.
Or if you can volunteer in sustainabilityroles or for charities, things like that.
(16:04):
But there's so much information out there
that I honestly wish that I had kindof looked at before I joined the role.
But the reality is it,you know, you're working full time.
It can be really hard to try and learnsomething else at the same time.
But yeah,there's so much information out there.
Just read around it learnsmuch as you can, but don't feel that
you need to know everythinggoing into the role, because a lot
(16:27):
you will just learn on the joband that's okay, and that's fine.
Yeah. go for it as well.
Like, cheesy as it sounds like.
Yeah.
I think you'll be surprisedthat what you can can do a slowly.
Was there any way that you can thinkall that I haven't mentioned?
I guess I'm kind of touched on like,the careers guidance stuff at school
and, like, if you're not,
(16:47):
if you don't feel you're gettinga lot from careers guidance,
start worry about it.
Because all the careers guidancethat I got throughout
my entire life was just being meetingrubbished. Yes.
I don't know what it's like now.
Maybe it's different, but yeah, at school,at college, at university, it was just
all trying to put you in a boxall the time, like, oh, you like history?
(17:08):
Maybe you could teach. And that was it.
Or I think I did like one of those tests
in secondary schooland that said, oh, you should be like
just like be like inception or something,which is fine.
Like I actually think I would really loveVayner is up to next, to be honest.
But it's just like putting youin boxes to that.
(17:28):
I mean, it's just it's not helpful.
And so, yeah, I would sayif you're getting really terrible
careers advice, just just push through,try and find what you like.
If you don't, if you don't findwhat you like until your 30s, that's okay.
30s, 50s.
So a lot of people go at this whole lifenot enjoying the job.
So I satisfy and like,I think you'll find something eventually.
(17:51):
Yeah,I think that's very important to say.
Like,if you're not sure, you're better off
just picking up, drop as much useand knowing what you don't want to do.
And that's the reason knowing what you do.
Oh do I got exactlylike I've been through most random
jobs and ever, Yeah, like you say,learn what you don't want to do.
I don't want to work in a callcenter ever again.
But I learned a lot about myself,and I feel like it's.
(18:15):
I don't know, I must I have to havelearned something from that otherwise.
Yeah.
And don't let setbacks,like, stop you necessarily.
I know Covid came around.I was made redundant.
It sucked.
It was what, like 27 I think at the timeand which is reading pulse.
But it felt like yeah I gotI have to start from scratch now.
(18:38):
And that was really scary.
But you just have to keep going.
You know, I just,
I kind of worked in a call center,and then I hated us so much.
But then I was able to find something elsethat I didn't hate so much
and then kind of workmy way back, eventually.
So I think this istake a lot of time, but, it's worth it.
(18:58):
Niantic. Yeah. Yeah.
Brilliant. Well,thank you so much for your time today.
Again is Thanks againto Catherine for their time.
For more information on getting intosustainability as a career path.
You can head to prospects. Contact UK.
You can also head to our YouTube
channel at FutureYou Pod to watch the full interview.
If you enjoyed the episode,we'd love to hear from you.
(19:19):
You can contact usat podcast@prospects.uk,
or you can leave us a reviewon Apple or Spotify.
Thank you, as always for listening andgood luck on your journey to future. You.
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