Consultant Lisa is leading the way towards a sustainable future

Lisa Roels has a specific mission: to make sustainability part of the clinical production team practices at a life sciences client. With a master’s degree in biomedical sciences, she is perfectly equipped to take on this challenge. She also recently began driving an electric company car from Pauwels Consulting, a perk that harmonizes well with her efforts to shape a more sustainable future. She talked to us about her motivation and vision for the future.

Sustainability consultant

As a sustainability consultant, I have a broad scope of responsibility. What kind of work do I do? I am generally involved in promoting sustainability awareness and introducing more sustainable processes. This starts with switching off appliances after use, thinking about our energy and water consumption, and recycling where possible. I look for ways for us to redesign processes to avoid unnecessary energy use, which is a challenge in sterile environments. In cleanrooms and laboratories, quality is subject to extremely strict requirements, which is why I also measure the effects of our sustainability efforts. Nothing should be done at the expense of quality and patient safety.

A new role for a better future

I am now working within the clinical production team. This is a team with a smaller scale production unit that makes adjustments and their effects more clearly measurable. This brings with it a number of challenges. That’s why I also give presentations to the team and to other departments to involve the various stakeholders in the sustainability projects. They need this information to be confident in the new initiatives I’m setting up, and this in turn enhances awareness. Of course, it helps that we see measurable improvements resulting from both the small and large changes that I propose. I must say that after only one year, there is a clearly noticeable difference. There is much greater awareness and I am given more and more freedom to try out new ideas.

Passionate about ecology

I have always had an interest in nature and my surroundings and have always felt a strong sense of right and wrong. I’ve often asked myself, “Why do we treat our planet like this?” What we are doing is unfair to the planet. As a scientist, I also have a strong sense of logic. There is no point in wasting and consuming raw materials for no reason. That appeals to my sense of environmental fair play and I want to open the eyes of others to the opportunities we have to do things better.

Sustainable commute

I’ve recently started driving an electric company car and I love it. I always felt a bit guilty about driving to work in a diesel car, with a daily commute between Ghent and the client for a job with a focus on sustainability! Now that I drive an electric car, I enjoy more peace of mind because I’m not emitting any exhaust gases. Add I don’t have to compromise on driving comfort. I also have solar panels that charge my car once a week, which lets me drive to the office three times, so it’s powered by green energy. And then there’s the fact that it’s a quiet, comfortable car, so the longer commute is less draining.

Sustainability in the lab

I studied biomedical sciences and earned my master’s in major immunity and infection. I then spent three years working on my doctorate at a research lab specializing in congenital immunological diseases. In the lab, I was bothered by the overall working method. There is inevitably a huge amount of waste that is produced in order to keep things sterile. For example, every day that you work in the lab, you quickly end up with a full trash bag of medical waste that needs to be incinerated. There are also a lot of energy-intensive devices running continuously, and a lot of disposable plastic and hazardous chemicals used. I was inspired to do both my master’s and doctorate in order to make the world a little bit better, but at times it seemed like I was making the problem worse from an ecological point of view. When I brought this up, I encountered resistance and people said, “This is just how the processes work.” As a scientist, I fully understand this, but the passionate ecologist in me wanted to help create a solution. So my current job is the perfect fit for me because I get to question things full-time and develop solutions for them.

Green plans for the future

I hope someone like me will be working at every company in the future, that companies realize that a Sustainability Consultant can help them be more competitive and optimize their processes. I also hope that my work here will eventually be done, because that means that the processes have been optimized and new ways of working have become business as usual. I really want to contribute to a more sustainable future, and that’s best done by sharing and implementing knowledge without lecturing. As a consultant, I can move on to the next company to continue my mission.

Consultancy

Working as a consultant lets you look inside different companies and try out different roles, especially if you have niche expertise like I do. At Pauwels Consulting, I can always count on the support to develop further. Hopefully, I’ll be able to help a lot more companies and ultimately become a true sustainability expert.