Nina Verduin, who joined sustainable RSM as a committee member during her bachelor studies, has been responsible for overseeing the activities of all seven committees since the start of the first term. The team's most recent addition, Nathalie Dezoteux, is co-ordinating communications around a range of projects and events, including overseeing the committees' social media accounts. She is leading their outreach and awareness campaign through Sustainability News, Facebook and Twitter, with the goal of giving sustainable RSM a broader connection to all stakeholders of RSM.
Joy Johannsen is RSM’s Sustainability Co-ordinator. She said: “RSM has great respect for students who take on responsibilities that help us to be a force for positive change. Students who get involved in these projects not only drive important outcomes for the school but gain experience working with stakeholders to take a clear objective and complete a project within a year. Students develop their professional skills and gain experience working in a professional environment.”
Nina coordinated the important 15 February workshop “Business Leadership for Gender Equality” with facilitator, Professor Dianne Bevelander. The next major event being organised by the sustainable RSM initiative is the high-profile RSM Sustainability Forum (5th anniversary edition) on Friday, 31 March. The Forum is a student generated and implemented event that members of the sustainable RSM Forum Planning and Communications committee present. Nina and Nathalie are involved in promoting via social media and on their news channels.
Both Nina and Nathalie have long held an interest in the area of sustainability and have demonstrated this through a variety of activities. Nina, who was born in Tanzania and grew up in the Netherlands, previously explored the social aspect of sustainability during a semester abroad at Queen's University Canada, where she studied Strategies of Social Enterprise. After completing her BSc IBA at RSM, she completed a six-month internship at the Dutch Development bank FMO examining the different aspects involved in sustainable banking.
Nathalie, who grew up in Berlin with German and French parents, joined the Erasmus Sustainability Hub during her BSc in Communications and Media at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she wrote the first Sustainability Report making recommendations for improving campus sustainability. Nathalie spent a semester at Science Po Paris, where she took courses in subjects related to climate change. Her most recent interest is in sustainable mobility and how to make it more socially inclusive.