Katarina Walter is now on board as the new CEO of Ecogain. Katarina has an impressive background in behavioral science, design and strategy and received the 2017 Small Company CEO of the Year award.
Welcome Katarina!
What is your first impression of Ecogain and what made you want to take on the role of CEO?
Ecogain are really competent consultants with a big heart who work for ambitious clients. All with a fantastic drive to make the world a better place. I feel like a fish in water.
I was attracted by the fact that Ecogain specializes in finding solutions that BOTH create business value AND drive development towards real sustainability. I am absolutely convinced that business development must have the dual focus if we are to manage the transition to a sustainable society. Secondly, I am attracted by the fact that Ecogain, like myself, sees the major players in the business community as crucial in the transition.
What do you think will be your biggest challenge going forward?
These first few days, it feels like I don't know all the terms and abbreviations. However, it is always like that at the beginning of a new assignment, so I feel confident that it will give itself as I get a little warm in my clothes.
Another longer-term challenge is to recruit consultants as quickly as our clients' demand increases. Biodiversity is a hot topic and the demand for sharp consultants in this area will continue to increase in the coming year as the demands and expectations of the business community increase.
What lessons do you bring from your experiences as CEO of Antrop and Wise Consulting to your role at Ecogain?
Running a growing consultancy is a craft that is very much about balance and the right pace of change. As the company grows, for example, the culture needs to evolve without losing the secure core that people recognize. It's also about finding new partnerships while nurturing existing customer relationships. In addition, you need to respond quickly to changing customer needs and develop new services without losing your existing core business. There are many aspects of running a consultancy that involve trade-offs, pace and responsiveness. I bring my experience of this balancing act. Both mistakes and successes.
Finally, a prediction for the future; what do you think we will see more of in business sustainability work in 2023?
Obviously, we will see a lot of activity by companies to report in accordance withthe Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive(CSRD) and prepare for the newEuropean Sustainability Reporting Standards(ESRS).
Linked to this, companies will have a great need to measure biodiversity and find relevant KPIs for this. Not least because companies need to prepare for the implementation of the next part of the EU's Green Taxonomy, where goal 6 "Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems" is linked to our nature.
To manage sustainability reporting, companies also need to be able to interpret biodiversity data, to understand where they themselves have the highest impact and where the greatest risks exist, both upstream and downstream in the value chain. To support this, I look forward to the frameworks that will be available for target setting,Science Based Targets for Nature(SBTN), and for risk assessment,Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures(TNFD).
