Lea is our Standards Topic Manager. Her work aims to improve the alignment of the ecoinvent database with relevant standards, guidelines, and their methodological requirements. She monitors the evolving standards and guidelines landscape, prioritizes and coordinates conformance efforts, and strengthens communication with external stakeholders.
In this post, Lea shares her insights from her five years of working with ecoinvent.
I am ecoinvent’s Standards Topic Manager, which means I am working towards the goal of making the ecoinvent database more user-friendly for all kinds of different standards and guidelines. Right now, I am mostly focused on carbon accounting standards. This includes monitoring what’s going on in the standards landscape, distilling the essence of old and new methodologies, and collaborating cross-functionally within the ecoinvent team. At the end of the day, it’s also mostly sitting in front of my laptop and thinking really hard in a hopefully structured way.
Sustainability, the magic word of the century.
Simply put, it means to live and work and do business and use resources in a way that future generations could do the same. To enable a good life for current and future generations everywhere on our beautiful planet Earth. (This, of course, with keeping in mind that some degree of change is inevitable).
Working at ecoinvent has strengthened my perspective that ‘it depends’. It depends on the questions you’re asking, the data you have available, what methods you apply, what impacts you’re considering, and what decisions you’re looking to make. Depending on all of that and more, what is actually sustainable can look pretty different. This complexity is what makes it interesting, frustrating, and rewarding.
Hands down, three things: the mission, the people, and the flexibility. I like to think that with my daily work, I can make a teeny tiny contribution to a more sustainable world. I get to work together with super smart and friendly people who share the same vision. Last but not least, remote work gives me the luxury to live in my beautiful hometown, Bern, while commuting to vibrant Zurich once a week—the best of both worlds!
I have been wearing very different hats in my time at ecoinvent. Starting out as a Data Analyst, I was quickly absorbed into the Sales team where I was doing inbound sales and key account management (even though we didn’t call it that at the time 😊). I even had a brief stint as a maternity cover Team Lead. After that, it was time to move back into the Database team in my current position as Standards Topic Manager.
Attending a conference is always inspiring and interesting, filling me up with lots of new insights and connections.
Besides that, it was interesting to watch our team meetings become bigger and bigger and more diverse—ecoinvent has grown a lot in the past five years!
Lots of moments with colleagues sharing knowledge, jokes, or food—the ecoinvent kitchen table is usually stacked with goodies from all over the world!
If Lea’s ecoinvent story inspires you, check out our careers page for more information about our current job openings.