Global Environmental Sustainability IP Review

Whilst at GSK I was an industrial placement student in the central sustainability team, which had recently changed its name from the Centre of Excellence sustainability team. This department is part of the pharma (Rx) business unit, although the role involved communicating and working with all three business units. As a central sustainability team IP, I was involved in the movement to get GSK on target to reach its sustainability 2030 goals in carbon, water, climate and biodiversity. There are two IP’s in the department (including myself) focusing on different sustainability areas depending on our managers specialisations. I primarily worked on waste and water projects whereas the other IP student focused on eco design and sourcing for biodiversity. Through my role I lead projects, had meetings with external organisations to form partnerships and develop mitigatory projects as well as analyse GSK’s data to identify gaps and ways to improve data collection on a global level and at the level of the three separate business units.

Yes, I was often in charge of leading projects or co-managing.

Working within a team of likeminded, passionate individuals who work very hard to help the company achieve their sustainability goals is something I’m very lucky to have been a part of and the team’s friendliness has really allowed me to be myself and thrive in the working environment. Since communication skills are key for this job role, I was constantly challenged with presenting to large audiences, those of high positions and conversing with external companies. This developed my confidence in public speaking and vocalising my opinion even when it challenged other opinions, as viewing things from a different perspective often resulted in good discussion. My technical skills have massively increased since most of my placement involved working from home. I use Microsoft excel, word, PowerPoint, and teams every day of the week and have taught myself how to use new software such as PowerBi as well as GSK specific database software.

I completed an extensive amount of online training and my manager was always there to answer any further questions I had.

Very welcoming and patient

I loved it - highly recommend!

Yes