Growing, Exploring and My First Conference
A few months ago, I wrote a Blog post about how important it has been to me to be working for a conscious company (if you haven't seen the post, please feel free to read it here). This is Part Two in my story as a new employee at Akamai, where I am sharing my journey on growing in my career, seizing learning opportunities, and attending my first conference - GreenBiz20!
In mid-February, Akamai's Sustainability team had the opportunity to attend GreenBiz20 - an annual conference of more than 1,500 sustainability leaders, from global businesses, government, academia, and NGOs - to explore the latest sustainable business trends, share ideas, and form valuable connections. As a part of the Sustainability team, I was lucky enough to attend and experience a work conference for the first time.
As with any conference, networking was a key part of my experience. I made an effort to connect with different industry experts - from policy and renewable procurement professionals to marketing and communications gurus. Each brought interesting experiences and perspectives to my understanding of Sustainability, which is helping me to better understand the industry and how I can make an impact in my role at Akamai. From these conversations, I gathered a few key take-aways about corporate sustainability and I wanted to share these learnings with you:
Policy: To work to net-zero emissions, corporations need to work together to produce a wide-range of policies at the federal, state, and local level that accelerate a low-carbon future.
Communications: Partnership and transparency is key in sustainability communications. It is essential to share success and failures - both internally and externally - to improve the industry as a whole.
Community Investment: Encouraging employees to take collective, environmental action is essential to moving the needle on climate change.
This brings me to the second reason I'm writing this Blog post : these learnings wouldn't have been nearly as meaningful if I wasn't given the opportunity to bring them to life here at Akamai. By investing in my participation in GreenBiz, Akamai and the Sustainability team has empowered me to learn from the best and brightest in global Sustainability, which will help not only my work but our business to be more successful. I'm so grateful that Akamai has invested in my professional development, especially as someone new to the company - because Akamai knows that as I grow, the program grows with me; a win-win-win for the company, for me, and for the greater environment.
In my original Blog I wrote on the importance of working for a conscious company and this recent experience is a perfect example of why I'm feeling so lucky to work at Akamai. By sponsoring my education and development through this conference, it is clear that Akamai cares about more than just the bottom line - they care about employees as people and look to support them, holistically. That's just one of the many reasons why Akamai is the place for me.
Thank you for taking the time to read my Blog post! To learn more about Akamai's Sustainability program, please visit our website or reach out to the team at sustainability@akamai.com.
--
Bridget Meuse is Product Marketing Specialist at Akamai, working with the Sustainability team on integrating environmental messaging into our product value.
