An Ending and A Beginning

An Ending and A Beginning

After the completion of the ReTraCE training programme, I have taken up a position as a Senior Waste Policy Advisor within the Government of Alberta (Canada). The new role certainly links and is a continuation of my PhD research work within the ReTraCE project, where I focused on “Potential environmental implications of the Circular Economy and Bioeconomy transition in different industrial and non-industrial sectors”. In this role I will focus on managing and implementing policies related to waste management and reduction in the Alberta province in Canada. This role is closely related to the principles of the circular economy, which aims to reduce waste and minimize the use of natural resources by reusing and recycling materials. 

The Alberta Government recently launched a new Extended Producer Responsibility regulation which aims to shift the cost responsibility of managing waste and recycling from local governments and Alberta residents to producers. In this new role I will be specifically responsible of providing policy advice on this newly regulated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system and providing project management leadership to four (4) other complex multi-stakeholder recycling and stewardship programs in the province. 

The skills and knowledge gained while within the ReTraCE project, such as understanding the principles of circular economy, waste reduction, resource efficiency, and sustainable production made me the best candidate for the role to allow the province to drive positive change and promote sustainable waste management practices. Also, due to my LCA modelling soft skills gained while doing my PhD, I recently and officially became a part of the team of consultants at EarthShift Global as a Senior Sustainability Analyst. EarthShift Global is an American based LCA and Sustainability software and training consulting firm and we focus on empowering organizations to confidently make impactful and fact-based decisions that profitably shift their organizational and sustainability performance.

I am very grateful to the experiences gained while working within the ReTraCE project and some of the publications that I managed to do while doing my PhD have obviously contributed to giving me an added advantage in the marketplace, easily becoming a good fit to both policy and the consulting industry. I still enjoy being in academia, but I already figured that it is possible to be the intermediary among policymakers, industry and academia, a situation that I am currently enjoying right now.

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