Sareh Forouzesh graduated from City in December 2012 with an MSc in Energy and Environmental Technology and Economics. She was a student Environmental Champion during 2011-12 and was awarded Student Environmental Champion of the Year 2012 for all her excellent work.
Where are you working now, what is your current position and what does your job involve?
I started my job at Eco-Age in February 2013. Eco-Age is a brand consultancy that enables brands to achieve growth through sustainability. Our consultancy services cover supply chain engineering, management systems, and sustainable procurement, amongst other. I work within the Fashion, Film and Retail department as an Account Executive, managing projects and providing consultation services to clients. These services include helping our clients develop and implement management systems, organising and running employee engagement events and developing communication materials such as reports, posters, internal newsletters, etc. For our clients in the fashion industry, I undertake research to identify raw materials, fibres and fabrics that are made according to the highest environmental and ethical standards and make appropriate recommendations to our clients.
Were there any particular highlights that you experienced as an Environmental Champion at City?
Being an Environmental champion at City was quite a memorable experience and helped me make the most out of my days at the university and feel at home. I very much enjoyed meeting and working with other Environmental Champions.
By being part of the Environmental Champion Network, I also found out about a short-term research opportunity which I got involved in. It was my first stepping stone towards building my professional network in London and was instrumental in helping me finding my current job. In June 2013, I received the Student Environmental Champion of the Year Award which was an amazing experience.
How did your experience as an Environmental Champion at City help prepare you for your current position?
Working as an Environmental Champion, I gained some first-hand knowledge of delivering environmental strategies and management systems in big organisations. As Environmental Champions, we undertook surveys on different departments as part of the Green Impact programme. This was my first experience in doing surveys and prepared me for undertaking similar surveys at clients’ sites. In addition the Green City Week and all its exciting programmes have always been a source of inspiration, when delivering similar events and engagement campaigns for our clients.
I also completed my master’s dissertation on behaviour change programmes in organisations and specifically the Green Impact programme. Working to discover whether they can impact people’s behaviours at home and what role this behaviour change can play in the UK’s transition into a low carbon economy. For this dissertation I interviewed numerous Environmental Champions. Dawn White, City University’s Environmental Officer was also instrumental in completion of my dissertation.
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