“You don’t need to be a manager to be a leader,” says Julia Ivanov, a Senior TS Chemist and sustainability advocate for AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry’s Personal Care division. This was one of the many lessons Julia learned while participating in AkzoNobel’s Leadership on the Edge (LOTE) program.

As part of the LOTE program, Julia and eleven other employees of AkzoNobel embarked on Robert Swan’s Inspire Antarctic Expedition. The focus of the expedition was leadership by example, specifically as it relates to having a positive impact on the environment.

Even in the most remote corner of the world, the effect of mankind on the world can be seen, as the expedition’s first task was to help clean up the Bellinghausen research station. Working non-stop, the team learned about sustainability, defined by Gro Harlem Brundtland as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

Upon her return from the expedition, Julia was one of several people charged with the formidable task of helping the Personal Care division of AkzoNobel Surface Chemistry lead the way to a more sustainable future.

For her project, named CO₂ntrol, Julia has been working to determine the carbon footprint of the company and its employees and has begun to formulate a proposal for reducing waste and wasted energy.

Julia’s current target is company travel. Using trains instead of airplanes, switching to hybrid company cars and encouraging employees to use public transportation are just a few of the ways the division may be able to reduce its overall CO2 emissions.

In addition to her normal workload, Julia continues to visit AkzoNobel sites to give talks on what she has learned from LOTE and Robert Swan’s expedition, hoping to recruit “change agents”, or people who will help spread the word on sustainability with the same enthusiasm.

For more information, please visit the following:
AkzoNobel’s Mission Antarctica website:
http://missionantarctica.akzonobel.com/
Julia’s blog:
http://julia-ivanov.blogspot.com/
Robert Swan’s organization 2041:
http://expedition.2041.com/2009/