When Signe Rasmussen began the practical training, Sustainable Business Change Manager, she was determined to do one thing: She wanted to find a new path, both personally and professionally.
Because even though Signe Rasmussen had already spent 7 years in the wind turbine industry, something was missing.
“Although it was an exciting period in an industry characterized by growth, innovation and change, personal sustainability was at times difficult. So when I started looking around for new pastures, I looked for a ‘clear purpose’ and a function with meaning,” says Signe Rasmussen.
A CSR career center with values and purpose
For Signe, the benefit of the training was more than new knowledge, strategic approaches and tools. It also paved the way for personal work clarification – and subsequently Signe’s next career step.
With inspiration from a “CSR house” model that graphically shows how a company’s vision, mission, business areas and CSR efforts are connected, Signe creatively prepared a corresponding version for her own “CSR career house”.
“The model represents a house whose foundation is my mission and my values. The interior of the house is my soft and hard skills. The roof represents my purpose and my vision,” explains Signe Rasmussen, who has thus converted her CV into a “sustainable business model“, as she calls it.
See Signe’s personal CSR career house here
Circular solutions at Carl Hansen & Søn
With personal values and goals in place, after the certification, it became easier to find the right job, and Signe Rasmussen works today at the iconic furniture manufacturer Carl Hansen & Søn, which is known for its Wegner design classics.
Here, Signe works as a Quality Compliance Specialist, where she uses her learning and some of the many tools from the education to put CSR efforts into a system so that both small and large initiatives can be started.
One project that Signe Rasmussen is particularly proud of so far is the company’s partnership with the social economy company Narv.
“Here, leather scraps from our production of designer furniture are to be recycled into new products to be sold in Carl Hansen & Søn’s flagship stores around the world,” elaborates Signe, who continues to use her personal “CSR career house” as a compass.
I would like to help close the circular cycle and talk about why we should buy good quality and recycle instead of buying cheap and throwing away too much. I generally think that waste sorting is an exciting area because this is where the challenges and opportunities are when it comes to using the earth’s resources better, concludes Signe.
Signe’s 3 pieces of advice for other CSR change agents:
Tip #1: Understand the business – your business must also be financially sustainable, so you must learn to “speak business”.
Tip #2: Be patient – it takes time to turn around a supertanker, and big changes can take a long time. So remember to note the small victories along the way.
Tip #3: Use structure and systems – they are a prerequisite for growth and for being able to deliver a professional result to customers with high demands. In my time, I have experienced firsthand how it has been able to convert a stubborn engineer or two. 😉
Read more:
Signe’s CSR career house
Carl Hansen & Søn
The partnership with the social economy company Narv
The Sustainable Business Change Manager Online certificate programme is provided by TANIA ELLIS – The Social Business Company®, a leading Scandinavian-based speaking, consulting and training company. The programme is supported by B Corp Movement in the Nordics and endorsed by Henley Business School Denmark. Sign up to our Academy newsletter to learn more about our training opportunities.
Learn more at www.sustainablebusinesschangemanager.com
