Meet the GreenBuzz Volunteers: Marie Froehlicher!

Meet the GreenBuzz Zurich Volunteer Team!

We are proud to have a great and diverse team of sustainability professionals supporting our activities with their expert knowledge.

Meet one of our newest team members, Marie Froehlicher, our Topic Lead for Social Sustainability. Marie works in ESG Research at S&P Global, specialising in diversity and inclusion. At Greenbuzz, she focuses on social sustainability topics.

Why did you choose to join the GreenBuzz Zurich team and what role do you play within the organisation?

I chose to join GreenBuzz Zurich because I think that they organise great and insightful events, providing the opportunity to a broad range of professionals and academics to share their knowledge and passion about sustainability topics. My first engagement was on the topic of migration and going forwards I would like to support the organisation in bringing more attention to the social side of sustainability, especially engaging on topics related to diversity and inclusion.

In your opinion, what do you see as the biggest challenge for sustainability within your industry? 

Working as part of S&P Global’s ESG Research Team, I specialise in the Textile and Retailing industries. The biggest environmental challenge I identify is linked to plastic packaging and plastic materials, from which companies will urgently need to shift away from in the coming years. From a social perspective, the issue of living wages is finally being placed at the centre of corporate agendas and will require cross-industry collaboration to ensure that fair compensation practices are adopted throughout the supply chains.

What is a positive development within your industry with regards to sustainability? 

This year we measured close to a 20% increase in company participation in the Corporate Sustainability Assessment! This means that more and more companies are recognising the importance of sustainability and taking proactive steps to address the gaps in their ESG performance. Hopefully, this engagement with corporates and shareholders will result in better corporate responsibility practices and enable better accountability of companies’ impact and externalities.