Zoe Le Grand

Background

I provide strategy advice to businesses and public sector organizations to help them make their products and services more successful by being more sustainable.

Studying history and social sciences fired up my passion for social justice. I enjoyed learning about how society works and how it has overcome problems in the past and it inspired me to take a forward look at what the major challenges might be for the future. My first job was in housing and it was fascinating to discover the relationship between the human need for shelter, comfort and opportunity and the need to keep this within environmental boundaries. I moved into the sustainability team and travelled round the country visiting extraordinary sustainable buildings – some were made out of tires and entirely off grid, others were terrible 60s buildings that were given a green makeover and had become hugely energy efficient and fantastic places to work. I had the opportunity to meet lots of people in the private and public sectors who were committed to keeping their staff happy and safe and producing the very best and most efficient buildings. This gave me an understanding of the opportunity in the built environment industry but I was hungry to know more- where was the cutting edge in sustainable business practice? Who was really pushing the boundaries? How can we move sustainable business practice from the niche to the mainstream? So I came to Forum to learn more from other sectors and to work together with organizations to find the solutions which can deliver better public services and more effective products without costing the earth.

Dream Forum project:
I’d like to work with a business or public sector organization that sees the opportunity to completely rethink the way they do business to make it more environmentally friendly and contribute to a fairer world. To achieve this they’d have to bring together everyone they worked with - their suppliers, their customers, government, NGOs – to discover the solutions together.

What floats your boat outside of work
I’m currently studying for a part-time masters in Business Strategy and the Environment which is fascinating but takes up most of my time. When I haven’t got my head in the books, I like to have long, meandering debates with friends about politics, discover new music and comedy, and make the most of what this brilliant city has to offer.

Twitter: zlegrand
Linkedin: zoelegrand