Mali works in retail. Engineer by education. She has worked as a sustainability professional for one year and is in her late thirties.
”The textile industry has huge challenges and desperately needs change. I wanted to be a part of that change”
“I went for an environmentally oriented engineering education. But the environmental focus did not continue into the working life,” Mali says. After her studies, she got a job as a planner for bike roads. Which I think sounds environmental indeed, but Mali disagrees. “Building bike roads has a very positive impact for the environment. Many people find it too dangerous and difficult to use bikes as a transport means without bike roads. But my role was strictly about planning. The idea came from the politicians and the assignment was contracted by the city.” Mali wanted to be the one with the ideas. So she started a second hand children clothing shop. “The textile industry has huge environmental and social challenges in the value chain and desperately needs change. I wanted to be a part of that change.”
Before starting her own business, Mali interviewed four second-hand shop owners to learn from their experiences. They all advised her not to do as they had done, that it was not economically viable, but she still did. Now, Mali is one year into the retail experience. “I am still convinced that running a second-hand shop contributes to a sustainable transition. I am, however, also convinced that my contribution is so small that I achieve near to nothing.” Mali is disappointed about the lack of interest from costumers. “There are few who want to buy second-hand clothes, and the ones who do are people that are already environmentally conscious.” Mali had hoped that her shop would inspire people to develop a more sustainable lifestyle. But she feels that she has to be very careful not to step on people’s toes and be perceived as a “moral apostle”. On the homepage of her shop, she has listed “environment” at the very bottom of all the second-hand advantages, after “economy” and “fewer chemicals”.
I ask Mali if she thinks that a different concept could be more successful. “Scale is needed,” she replies. Mali always wanted something bigger, with a large selection, and additional functions such as a repair-café. And a location closer to other shops. “But you don’t get investment funding for second-hand stores,” Mali sighs. “You also have to go all in to succeed,” she continues. “I need more courage but it is difficult when I am on my own. When you have colleagues who can share the journey and exchange ideas with you you can achieve so much more.”
Mali is quite pessimistic when it comes to her view of humanity. “You can only motivate people with economic incentives,” she says. For that reason, she believes that politics, through its subsidizing power, is the platform where sustainability professionals can have most impact. “Industry is also important,” she continues. “That is where the money for politics comes from.” If Mali could have redone her university studies, she would have gone for a technical environmental oriented engineering degree instead of a focus on infrastructure planning. She believes she could have had much more sustainability contribution in an industry producing for example windmills. “But my dream job is to work with environmental education. To teach children. Then again, there is so much information available and people still do nothing.”
I sense a lot of frustration in Mali. She is deeply engaged in sustainability, but the ways she really wants to work with the theme – through meeting locals face to face in her second-hand shop or through teaching – do not resonate with what she truly believes has a sustainability contribution. She does not believe that human nature is capable of sacrificing a high living standard to save the planet. But she still has hope that change will come. “Hope lies in necessity. At one point, nature will force us to pull the emergency brake. And when that time comes, I don’t think it will be too late. I think there will still be something left to save.”
Meaningful sustainability jobs 