Sustainability: From scientific concept to transformative driver

From a young age, I knew I wanted to make a positive impact on the world. I took a Masters in Bioscience Engineering, specialising in environmental technology. And when I graduated, my interest in the circular economy took me to a role at waste and material management company, Indaver.

Indaver is a European leader in sustainable waste and materials management. It recovers valuable materials and clean energy while safely removing harmful substances. Through more than 40 years of innovation, it supports a cleaner, more resilient society – and contributes to the circular economy across multiple European countries.

I currently work in the sustainability team, where my work is closely aligned with Indaver’s mission of leading the field in sustainable waste management. I focus on environmental data – and my role involves improving data quality, communicating transparently about emissions and measuring the environmental impact of our processes and products.

Although I have a strong scientific background, I wanted to better understand how sustainability could drive business performance. My company partners with Vlerick on a number of executive programmes - so when I learned about the Transforming to Sustainable Business programme, it felt like the natural next step in my development.

Strategic tools and insights

My goal was to build on my existing sustainability knowledge with specific insights into sustainable business practice. But the programme gave me so much more. As an engineer, I’ve always looked at sustainability through a pragmatic lens – but now I understand the importance of communication and managing both internal and external stakeholders. The programme also explored strategy development, alternative business models, marketing and pricing.

Discussions with classmates from diverse functions, sectors and backgrounds were particularly valuable. It was interesting to see that completely different organisations can face similar challenges. The ideas, experiences and best practice we shared were truly inspirational.

Real-world impact

The programme starts with a definition of your organisation’s status quo. By the end, we had so many ideas about how we could change this to become even more future-proof through sustainability. It was deeply inspiring – as was the critical perspective and challenge from faculty and classmates.

My project involved making complex data more accessible and manageable for all stakeholders. By improving communication about performance data, I believe I can now make sustainability a more concrete focus in my organisation.

Embedding a sustainability mindset

Now I’ve completed the programme, my mission is to embed a sustainability mindset even more deeply across Indaver. I’m more confident about discussing our sustainability strategy – and why it matters – with colleagues and other stakeholders.