Cora de Groot, Sustainability and CO2 Coordinator
“It’s great to work as a proper team at Mourik. The working climate is open and supportive"
Even though Cora is only 22 years old, her CV is impressive. She did Commercial Business Administration studies and the Top Class programme at University of Applied Sciences Utrecht at the same time, and together with other excellent students she did her minor in Switzerland. Cora was valedictorian. This difficult term does not signify a philosophy of life or a diet. It simply means that she was the best student of her year, with no less than three distinctions: highest average mark and with honours, best graduation thesis, and Top Class graduate. It is therefore no surprise that Mourik gave her 9 out of 10 for her graduation project about achieving, implementing and maintaining the CO2 Performance Ladder up to and including level 5 in business operations.
Cora is now a versatile CSR talent at Mourik Infra: active promotion of CO2 reduction, EMVI plans for sustainability and stakeholder management, and a wide variety of certifications are some of her duties. She is furthermore the youngest and only female representative at the Central College of Experts of the CO2 Performance Ladder on behalf of the association of construction and infra companies Bouwend Nederland, and a member of the bitumen works section Bitumen Werken. These efforts do not go unnoticed. In 2014 Cora was nominated for Duurzame Jonge 100!, a list of one hundred young professionals initiating sustainability innovations.
“The term 'pioneering business practices' often makes people think of internationalization and of expanding your market on a worldwide scale, but I think pioneering business practices start at a much earlier stage. Look beyond your own boundaries! A company can do this by involving the supply chain and the branch of industry in its business operations and by innovating together. They are some of our daily activities here at Mourik, and I am fortunate they are a major part of my work. As a sustainability coordinator, I try to influence the impact of what we do, and turn it into sustainable alternatives and solutions. And that is something I really can't do on my own," Cora adds enthusiastically. “It is an intensive process with colleagues, customers, industry peers, supply chain partners, experts but also end users and stakeholders.
Good examples are the initiatives we set up with a number of our suppliers and subcontractors which regularly work for us and deliver goods to us. The objective of these initiatives is to arrive at joint sustainable alternatives, to raise awareness about CO2 emissions, and to investigate the options for reducing them. This collaboration is instructive and enriching for all parties. The goal is to look non-stop for the best way to run a company with the three Ps of People, Planet and Profit in balance, and with the most sustainable end result. That is what motivates me!"
