Hi, I'm Alexandra.
In business school, I pictured a digital future. Polished dashboards. Perfectly aligned metrics. Me, saving the planet one spreadsheet at a time.
When I started as a sustainability coordinator at VIBAe, I was ready to be a hero. I pictured myself marching in, uncovering terrible habits, dramatically slashing our emissions. A thick Sustainability Report. Massive Before and After charts. My name under the win.
There was one tiny problem. VIBAe was already doing it right.
THE HUNT FOR SOMETHING TO FIX
The more I dug, the clearer it got. There was no green makeover waiting for me to push through, because this company was already born with its roots in the ground. Comfort and ecological responsibility weren't a department I'd be building. They were the entire point, long before I showed up.
So my job isn't big or flashy. It's quieter. Finding the 1% improvements nobody's looking for. Making the good work visible. Building the data to prove it.
Less dramatic graphs than the ones in my head. More pride than I expected.
THE OLD WAYS AND THE NEW
We're moving onto a new reporting platform, Impact OS. Getting our Porto suppliers on board is its own adventure. Language barriers, digital onboarding, figuring out which metrics actually matter.
My daily obstacles are less data modeling, more squinting at someone's beautiful, unreadable handwriting, wondering if my Google Translated Portuguese just asked about leather weight, or accidentally asked how much a pastel de nata weighs.
To our artisans in Porto, the plastic binders work. Tangible. Familiar. I don't blame them. But I keep wondering how much easier this would be if everything lived on one shared platform.
Lately I sit with my Excel sheets, half seriously asking myself if I should just fly to Portugal and show people the portal in person. Funny question. Also completely, beautifully human.
Because sustainability work isn't really about perfect numbers. It's about people. Bridging Helsinki spreadsheets and handcrafted Portuguese reality, one very patient conversation at a time.
We're figuring it out together. Respecting the old ways, moving gently toward the new.
