After completing a master’s degree in sustainable energy technology, I was initially attracted to Vanderlande after reading about the Blueveyor concept, the first cradle-to-cradle circular conveyor in the market. During my interviews, I learned that there were various sustainable initiatives throughout the company, and an energy and enthusiasm for these, which encouraged me to join.
I’m a member of Vanderlande’s Global Sustainability Office, which was created to develop a framework and provide cohesiveness to the company’s various activities, so they could have greater impact. Now we are integrating all our stakeholders and involving different parts of the business to professionalise our capabilities and align our sustainability initiatives with international standards. These are becoming much more tangible.
I want the company to professionalise sustainability as part of the business. I don’t see Vanderlande having a business strategy with sustainability on the side. For me, doing business sustainably is meant to be a normal part of business life – and one of my professional goals is to help Vanderlande achieve this.
First and foremost, I enjoy working for Vanderlande because of my team: they are amazing, extremely nice, helpful, and brilliant. I also enjoy working in a company with over 7,500 people, as it means it can be an engine to spark and drive transformation in society. Within intelligent logistics, not many companies have strong sustainability strategies. By having this in place, Vanderlande can encourage its competitors and the entire marketplace to follow suit.
I’m inspired by how small changes can lead to a great impact. For example, the crates we use for our automated case picking solution for the warehousing market are now made partly from post-consumer plastics. Sales of these crates have already reduced emissions of carbon by over a million kilograms of CO2
The people at Vanderlande are also an inspiration. One of the company slogans is: “a belief in people”. Not every company has a culture like this. It encourages people to drive their own projects, you can really own topics and pitch to change things.
I didn’t know what to expect when I started working at Vanderlande, it was my first experience working in another country as I’m originally from Colombia. I’ve learned how to communicate with people in different departments, at various seniority levels, and from different cultures, as well as how to bring them on board – I’ve learnt a lot from experiencing such diversity.
In my role, I have three major responsibilities: firstly, to collaborate with the engineering disciplines – like electrical and mechanical engineering, integration and IT – to come to a functional solution that fulfils the customer’s requirements.
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