Student Spotlight: A Quest for Sustainability
IE University is filled with dozens of unknown, unexpected and often impressive stories about students with remarkable talents and their ambitious projects. In an interview with The Stork, Clara Bütow, a 5th-year BBA and BIR student from Germany, talks about her quest for sustainability, which culminated in Clara creating a podcasts website with a focus on sustainable businesses.
"I grew up with six different trash cans at home."
Clara, a , was raised in an environment where a great emphasis was placed on recycling, leading her to develop an interest in sustainability as of a young age. Whilst still in high school, Clara attended IE’s Junior advisory board program, which was designed for students in their junior year. This five-day program allowed students to familiarize themselves with IE and attend a range of workshops. One of the workshops Clara attended was about social entrepreneurship, which introduced her to the concept of business with a purpose by combining the creation of profit with the creation of benefits for the planet.
This experience was truly fascinating to her and led her to pursue a dual degree in International relations and Business Administration at IE. She felt that this degree was perfect in allowing her to obtain a more in-depth understanding of how the world works, as well as how to create economic value. Both these degrees complemented each other and with the additional experience gained through internships, she became more geared towards sustainable business practices.
As the summer of 2017 began, Clara didn't have any internships lined up, or any concrete plans for the summer. She took this opportunity to take a step back and think about what she wanted to do in the future. This led her to discover she wanted to take a more active role in sustainability, communicate her passion, and share with people how to make a difference for the environment.
She began her project through podcasts in German, setting up a website and compounding a list of people that had the same interest in sustainability and wished to share their message. Shortly after she began publishing podcasts and gained thousands of listeners, which worked as encouragement towards her cause. After interviewing a woman who founded a zero-waste shop, she was inspired to pursue a 30 day challenge without plastic upon her return to Madrid. In fact, she was able to learn that achieving a plastic free life was about small adjustments rather than drastic changes in one's life.
"It's all about rethinking what you do every single day and trying to make little changes that all add up to a big impact!"
If you have a passion for sustainability, making the planet a little better and combining that with entrepreneurial ideas, Clara is looking to build a team for her project. She is also one of the head volunteers of the organisation called "MakeSense" in Madrid, which focuses on social entrepreneurship and organises one to two events per month around the theme of sustainability, which any one is welcome to attend.
I also invite you to discover her website www.impactrevolution.de and her Instagram @impact_revolution, where you can find all the information about her project and involvement in promoting sustainability. In the week of January 22nd Clara will be re-launching her podcasts in English, which include interviews with amazing activists, such as Job Greenfield and Dhruv Boruah (IE alumni), as well as the CEO of Triodos Bank, Mikel Garcia-Prieto. You can find then in the following link: itunes.apple.com/es/podcast/impact-revolution/id1257543799?l=en&mt=2
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