In pole position in your field: our colleague Rutger

Rutger always wanted to make a social contribution. Rutger: ‘I studied Criminology. How can you prevent and fight crime? I started with that motivation. The study was very academic, and far removed from practice. That's why I switched to the private sector.’ At Rabobank, Rutger first discovered the power of organisations embracing sustainable business. ‘It opened my eyes. Organisations can really make an impact on sustainability and play a key role between the government and individuals.’ 

After Rabobank, Rutger started working at Conclusion Consulting. Rutger: ‘It didn't take me long to get back to sustainability. In my second year, I set up our internal sustainability programme. That went almost naturally. Sustainability is a theme that resonates well with our people. Then I also started investigating what issues customers have and what we can do for them. A good time, because sustainability - partly due to laws and regulations - is becoming an increasingly important topic for our clients.’ What tips does Rutger have for organisations? ‘If you want to do it right, you have to make it an integral part of your strategy and carefully cascade it throughout your organisation, so that employees can and want to contribute to it in a focused way.’

Rutger has found the sweet spot in his field. ‘I always found strategy and business administration interesting. I was able to add sustainability to that. Something I am intrinsically motivated in, especially now that I have children. The more I learn about the subject, and about what's coming at us if we don't change, the more motivated I am to make an impact.’

How do you ensure that sustainability does not remain just an ambition on paper at organisations?

Rutger: ‘Much is written, talked and published about sustainability, but little is put into practice. I want to pioneer with my team, bump my nose and learn a lot. We are already doing this at the Ministry of Defence and at Stedin, for example. That is pioneering together with the customer. With a multidisciplinary team of eight colleagues, we help customers design and implement pragmatic sustainability strategies, enabled by IT and data. It has become my primary goal to help companies be environmentally and socially responsible. If they do that well, they can also create value from it. Making the link to the strategic benefits for organisations, that's what I'm good at.’