Work That's Worth It
You are rich in hours—around 90,000 of them! For many of you, repeating the professional paths of your parents is not appealing. Particularly because their career choices often lacked purpose and put our planet in danger. Or they devoted their lives to a great cause, but money was scarce. You are craving a broader definition of “success” and need inspiration and role models to show you a different way. That much is clear.
Thankfully many young professionals like you want careers that provide income along with impact. More importantly, you are looking for work worth your valuable time, allowing you to be part of something bigger. However, finding real examples across various industries to achieve this balance is challenging. Fortunately, the Work That’s Worth It podcast connects those dots for you.
Each episode features an inspiring ‘Disruptor for Good’ who has transformed their career hours into a powerful force for positive change. Join host Georgi Enthoven for casual, insightful interviews featuring extraordinary role models from around the globe. The hand-picked guests demonstrate how they aligned their ambitious contributions to the world with matching compensation. They will show you that it is possible to combine a worthwhile contribution with meaningful compensation by investing in yourself and making intentional choices.
Whether you're a recent graduate or an ambitious young professional eager to make a difference, Work That’s Worth It offers a roadmap to turn your career into a vehicle for personal growth and a positive impact. Don’t wait for your ‘second act’ in your career. Tune in now to unlock your potential and start creating the change you wish to see in the world from the get-go.
Work That's Worth It
S1E31: Fashion Sustainability Is an Oxymoron (But She's Fighting for It Anyway)
What if everything you've been told about sustainable fashion is actually impossible? Dr. Christina Dean, who's been fighting this battle for 20 years, doesn't sugarcoat the truth: fashion and sustainability are fundamentally at odds, yet she's built two organizations dedicated to proving change is possible.
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In this raw conversation, Christina shares the brutal financial reality of building a social enterprise (spoiler: she couldn't pay her kids' school fees from this work), why she thinks starting your own nonprofit is usually a mistake. Plus, her strategy for real change: getting into the boardrooms of the 20 fashion giants that control 97% of the industry.
If you've ever wondered whether sustainable fashion is just marketing hype or want to understand what it really takes to create systemic change in a $2 trillion industry, this episode will give you the unvarnished truth from someone who's been in the trenches for two decades.
Key points:
- The global fashion industry is dominated by just 20 fashion brands and groups that control 97% of total revenue, while hundreds of thousands of SMEs share the remaining 3%.
- Fashion and sustainability are fundamentally at odds - fashion encourages buying more while sustainability requires consuming less.
- Consumer behavior research is misleading - people say they care about sustainability but don't act on it when purchasing, even after major disasters like Rana Plaza.
- Christina's Art Collective specializes in recycling complex luxury materials with distinctive prints, logos, and IP that carry high brand reputational risk.
- Building sustainable change requires significant financial cushioning - Christina couldn't pay her children's school fees from her sustainability work alone after 20 years.
- The best advice is often NOT to start your own organization - some of the greatest change makers work unnamed inside the biggest, "dirtiest" companies.
- Luxury brands are ideal partners because they have the most to lose from reputation damage and can absorb recycling costs relative to their brand value.
- Real systemic change requires reaching the highest levels - getting all CEOs of the top 20 fashion companies "in a room" to solve problems collectively.
- Christina's next goal is influencing policy through industry associations and eventually joining fashion company boards.
- The complexity of the fashion sustainability problem has kept Christina engaged and fascinated for 20 years - her father advised choosing something "so monumentally huge you'll never get there."
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