Tell us about your career. Throughout my 20-year career, I have worked predominantly in the food-processing and logistics sectors, including KeepCup, Murray Goulburn, Australia Post and Don KRC.
Most of my roles have been focused on developing and implementing sustainability strategy from initial risk and opportunity assessment, target setting and action identification right through to branding for customer and media comms. Although I have experience in all aspects of sustainability, my technical strengths are in environmental management, ISO systems, legislative compliance and regulatory and non-regulatory sustainability reporting.
I joined Bunzl in 2020 after a six-month stint teaching sustainability at Monash University. I really value education and have completed undergraduate degrees in Environmental Management and Journalism and have a Masters in Corporate Sustainability.
Tell us about your role at Bunzl? I lead sustainability innovation across our supply chain; working with our sourcing and sales teams to support our customers to meet their sustainability objectives. In most cases, customers are seeking ways to reduce waste to landfill or reduce single-use plastics but really, they could be looking to achieve many different things.
One key focus of my role is to empower our sales team to transition their customers to more sustainable alternatives – the sales teams are the ones out there working with our customers directly, and they need to have access to the latest sustainability related information and tools.
Describe your professional career working within sustainability. What keeps you inspired and motivated? Sustainability is a constantly evolving space. Consumer trends, government legislation, as well as the actual social or environmental issues we face, all impact what the priorities are. I’ve found this ever-evolving space incredibly rewarding. I love learning and problem solving so thrive when faced with a challenge.
Over the years I’ve seen a significant change in the way people view sustainability – when I first started working in this space I was sometimes met with ridicule; jokes about being a ‘greenie’ were common. Fast forward to 2020, and now living more sustainably is seen as common sense – something which I always believed. It’s wonderful to be part of a growing movement where we are more conscientious about the way we treat each other and the environment.
How has your previous experience been of benefit in your current role? The years spent in food processing at Murray Goulburn and Don KRC, as well Australia Post really stand out for me. Having worked in those organisations enables me to understand our customers’ perspective – in particular, their procurement practices and their sustainability goals.
I also did some masters level teaching at Monash last year and that has helped me to appreciate the breadth of information out there on sustainability and how to condense that into bite size bits.
What has been one or two highlights in your career? Working at Bunzl is fast becoming one of my career highlights. In the short time I’ve been here, I’m thrilled to see sustainability being recognised not only as key to our business success but the right thing to do as well. Some businesses see sustainability as a tick box exercise, something they have to do, but that’s not who Bunzl are. Doing the right thing for our customers, the environment and the people we interact with is embedded into our culture – it is this that is a high point for me.
Contact Felicity with your requirements: felicity.kelly@bunzl.com.au
