This led me to my second internship after graduating, within the water team of the non-profit CDP, where I found out what businesses were doing to address the global issues of water scarcity and pollution. After this, I knew I wanted to propel change in the industry through my career. Sustainability consultancy provided such opportunities, as you work with different businesses to implement programmes to continually enhance their sustainability performance, and so my life as a sustainability consultant began.
It was during this internship at CDP where I gained a further understanding of how my behaviour as a consumer had significant consequences for people and planet. Everyone in the office was watching Cowspiracy, after which I swiftly changed my eating habits, and later The True Cost movie, which was such an eye-opening film for me.
I’d enjoyed fashion from a young age. I remember cutting up and ‘customising’ my mum’s old dresses (sorry again, mum), begging my parents to buy me a copy of French Vogue every time we crossed the Channel and forcing my family to watch any catwalk we came across. As a teenager I was your typical fast-fashion-loving customer; craving trends, buying way more than I needed and spending the majority of my disposal income on clothing (having secured a job in a clothes store at the age of 15 predominantly so that I could buy clothes!). I certainly didn’t think about the true cost of my clothing. The True Cost movie transformed my thinking and enabled me to begin joining the dots to the people behind the products I bought, something I hadn’t thought about much before. I read and watched more and more on the topic, which has been a fierce passion ever since.