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The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022: #RedefiningPower - Catherine Weetman, Founder, ReThink Global, United Kingdom
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"We can show the importance and value of ‘caring’: – for our communities, for our living planet, and our things, as well as caring for ourselves and our friends and family. By being caring citizens and changemakers, instead of just captive consumers, we can change the system from the inside." - Catherine Weetman, Founder, ReThink Global
Catherine Weetman helps businesses thrive by using fair, regenerative and circular approaches that are better for people, planet and profit. Catherine is the author of the award-winning A Circular Economy Handbook*, published by Kogan Page, and host of the Circular Economy Podcast.
She founded Rethink Global in 2013, to help organizations explore how circular and regenerative approaches create value whilst shrinking their footprints. She helps clients to clarify what to do (and why), convince stakeholders, and make a solid business case.
Catherine qualified as an Industrial Engineer and began her career in garment manufacturing, before moving onto logistics solution design, project and risk management, business intelligence and supply chain consulting, including senior roles with Tesco, Kellogg's and DHL Supply Chain. In 2010, wanting to help businesses be part of the solution, supporting a future-fit approach to climate, resources and ecosystem restoration, she began to focus on sustainability and the circular economy.
She is a Fellow of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT), The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), and has a Master’s degree from Cranfield University.
Q: What is the importance of women's leadership in today's society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, Climate, and Conflict, and their deadly consequences?
We can show the importance and value of ‘caring’: – for our communities, for our living planet, and our things, as well as caring for ourselves and our friends and family. By being caring citizens and changemakers, instead of just captive consumers, we can change the system from the inside.
Q: What role do you believe women in leadership positions have to play in helping companies and brands transition towards sustainability and circularity, and why is this important?
We can set the direction of travel, encouraging companies to forge a purpose beyond profit, making sure the ‘why’ of the business is to create a better future for everyone. We can do this by leading through considered actions, by being open to new perspectives, by focusing on how our choices now will impact future generations. We must look at decisions through the lens of future generations, to ensure we are creating a better world for them, not stealing their future.
Q: What can be done to improve women’s participation in corporate and leadership positions? How do we achieve this?
Whatever level we are at, whatever skills, knowledge and experience we have, we can all be the change. We can demonstrate our leadership potential by showing that we care, that we believe businesses succeed in the long-term by doing the right things for people and planet, and by bringing that to life with our actions. I’d like to thank the many amazing women in sustainability who I’ve learned so much from, especially the inspiring guests I’ve interviewed for the Circular Economy Podcast (more than half of all the guests have been female).
Q: What does this award mean to you and what significance does it hold to you personally and/or professionally, and your company?
My aim is to help people use fair, circular and regenerative approaches to build a better world, so it’s a huge honor to be part of The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s mission to celebrate the power of female work to create change and help make the world a better place. I believe that businesses can thrive by having a purpose beyond profit, and we can all help create a better world by being caring, conscious citizens. All of us - men and women - can tap into our feminine qualities, to find ways of challenging the ‘pull of the status quo’ and to change the system from within.
*Governments, businesses and think-tanks see the circular economy as the way forward. Now in its second edition, A Circular Economy Handbook is a guided tour through the concepts and the practicalities. A unique framework systematically explores the range of circular interventions, including product and supply chain design, material choice and supporting business models. Learn more.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022
The SustainabilityX® Magazine proudly announced the release of The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s inaugural Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2022 on Oct 4th, 2022, an inaugural annual list celebrating the powerful work of women in sustainability leadership around the world.
The non-profit digital magazine’s Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ high-level, invite-only program graciously sponsored by the award-winning Canadian construction and engineering firm Belnor Engineering Inc., recognizes achievements of the world’s powerful, groundbreaking female sustainability leaders who’re bridging the gender gap by breaking barriers, shattering traditional stereotypes, and taking the world of sustainability by storm. This campaign is in line with the magazine’s third pillar of sustainability upon which SustainabilityX® is based: social inclusion, which involves marginalized populations and vulnerable communities such as women, persons with disabilities, unemployed youth, LGBTQ+, the elderly, and BIPOC minorities.
“As both a female and one of Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 In Sustainability Leadership myself, I know how important this is,” says Supriya Verma, founder of The SustainabilityX® Magazine. “The number of women in positions of leadership – from business to politics – are relatively few. With society plagued by the triple crises of COVID, climate, conflict, and their deadly consequences, how can the world advance and achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals without having women in decision-making positions at major organizations, political parties, and academic institutions?”
In The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s quest to ‘redefine power’, this is the first international power-list bringing together women around the world involved in sustainability celebrating the power of their work – not their position. This list brings together a diverse group of accomplished women across business, entertainment, academia, law, politics, and beyond ranging from some of the world's leading companies, to independent unsung heroes with one thing in common: using their power with purpose –the power to create change and influence lives to make the world a better place. After all, that's what sustainability is all about. The meaning, or ‘the power’ of one’s work matters, not one’s position in a corporate hierarchy, particularly during this crucial era.
View the full list: The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards 2022
About The SustainabilityX® Magazine
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue. Founded on May 8, 2016 and inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals by Canada’s Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world’s most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is based upon the four pillars of sustainability: Environmental Stewardship which emphasizes improved environmental health, Economic Prosperity which emphasizes economic growth without the element of capitalism, Social Inclusion which emphasizes EDI for BIPOC and LGBTQ communities and marginalized, vulnerable populations, and Just Governance which emphasizes the equal rule of law via responsible political leadership to create fair systems for all. Identifying the diverse factors involved in sustainability, how they interact and how the disciplines are interconnected will help accelerate local, national, and international sustainability goals – in simpler words, aligning with The SustainabilityX® Magazine’s mission of bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue for a sustainable future. Whether you have a background in science, engineering, business, law, politics, media and entertainment, or beyond, your voice matters.
Show your support for independent, high-impact publications by becoming a subscribing member and help power international conversations that matter.
The SustainabilityX® Magazine is a proud member of the Sustainable Journalism Partnership, serves as a cause-based media partner for various events such as Circular City Week New York, and officially delivers remarks at international conferences such as UNESCO’s annual World Press Freedom Day Conference. SustainabilityX® is a brand of the non-profit social business SPSX Group.
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