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Natasha Chorlton

Natasha
Chorlton

Sweden
I feel lucky to have been on a smaller campus with most of us living in Southwell. I made friends for life and even met my now husband!

More about Natasha

We caught up with Environmental Science graduate, Natasha to talk about her time at NTU and how things have been going.

“I originally started my degree in Wildlife Conservation and I thought that Brackenhurst had a lot to offer, especially the animal unit. It gave me confidence that I would get a lot of practical experience. When I later switched to Environmental Science, I still felt like the campus could also then offer everything I needed.”

“University is really what you make it, how much you want to get out of it depends on how much effort you put in. It taught me to be more analytical of the information I was reading and how to manage my studies combined with work, getting industry experience and having fun!”

“Looking back, I feel lucky to have been on a smaller campus with most of us living in Southwell. I made friends for life and even met my now husband! The small community feel meant that we had a lot of fun together and moving from Sweden with everything being new and not knowing anyone I think that helped.”

“I had always wanted to help companies with their sustainability work, but I didn’t know which roles were available in corporate sustainability. It took me some time to figure out which area of sustainability interested me the most, as it’s very broad. I started my career in Ecology and eventually landed in the packaging industry where sustainability was rapidly growing in importance.”

“In my current role, most days are different. We are a new sustainability team in a specialty fibre manufacturing company. During the first few months, we have been focusing on building the sustainability strategy and setting our priorities. I manage circular economy and end of life, which means that I work with the business to find the value of our products for both our customers and for society. This involves, for example, looking at new circular ways to work by using more recycled materials, reducing operational waste and how we communicate the value of our products. I am currently working with colleagues to map the end of life (recyclable, compostable etc.) of our products and develop an overview of what environmental claims we can or can’t make.”

“The biggest challenge I have faced is to understand and accept that it takes longer than you think to build your career. I felt so frustrated that I wasn’t having any luck getting an entry level position in corporate sustainability. It took me nearly 4 years working in internal sales for a company before I finally got the chance to work with sustainability for them. I can still get that feeling but I have more trust in the process now!”

“My long-term work goal and dream is to be head of sustainability for a company and manage a team. A personal goal is to be able to travel round Europe for a longer period of time with my husband and our dog, Fred.”

“If I had a time machine, I would tell myself to not worry so much about the future and enjoy the moment more. I felt a lot of pressure to have it all figured out by the time I left uni but it’s really not the case, you have time to try and find out what it is that you enjoy.”

“My advice for NTU students would be to get your LinkedIn profile ready and make sure your CV is up to scratch (you don’t want to miss an opportunity due to a spelling mistake!). Have fun and take the opportunities when they come round, all experience is valuable and shows that you have real life experience combined with your studies.”

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