Leaping Towards a Sustainable Future
PREFACE – Venisa CHU, a graduate of HKUST’s MBA program in Consulting and Strategy (2012), discusses how she discovered sustainability as her true calling through the program.
L’Occitane’s shea butter hand creams and the Immortelle skincare range are some of the world’s favorite natural products. For the past two years, Venisa Chu has been spearheading sustainability for the brand in the Asia Pacific region. “We didn’t explicitly talk about sustainability through our communications in earlier years. But we realize that being more transparent about our goals and challenges are vital to professionalise our sustainability approach,” Venisa shares at the group’s regional office in Hong Kong.
As the Regional Sustainability Director of Asia Pacific for the L’Occitane Group, Venisa oversees sustainability strategies across nine diverse markets, aligning APAC with the group’s global sustainability vision. Having started her career in the technology industry, discover how Venisa found her true calling in sustainability through HKUST’s MBA program.
Discovering a New Career Path
“I’ve always been drawn to sustainability without knowing it,” Venisa says, recalling her student years, where she volunteered for causes that resonated with her. With a background in electrical engineering, Venisa embarked on a diverse career journey across various industries, spanning North America and Asia. Yet, her career choices consistently prioritized driving positive societal change.
With nearly five years of corporate experience, Venisa enrolled into HKUST’s MBA program – a choice driven by her curiosity of business decision-making processes. However, the true epiphany occurred while exploring her career options during her MBA. Through business case study discussions in class and participating in case competitions, she realized sustainability was a great career option for her combined skills. “It’s like general management. You need to know how each corporate function works to propose relevant sustainability actions for each of them.”
Localizing Sustainability Strategies for APAC Markets
In APAC, L’Occitane’s sustainability strategy centers around waste reduction and localized recycling partnerships to promote a circular economy. “Our sustainability targets are built into our business KPIs. It’s not an ancillary effort and goes to show how seriously we take it. But we also take it in pride,” Venisa says.
However, managing sustainability across APAC poses a significant challenge due to varying sustainability landscapes. While some markets adhere to strict policies, allowing L’Occitane to align and reinforce their own strategies, less regulated markets require external partnerships to help execute the brand’s sustainability goals. “We can’t hit sustainability goals alone and must work together with our suppliers and customers. The key to sustainability is collective engagement and collaboration,” she says.
Furthermore, Venisa leads a two-year global project to secure L’Occitane’s first B-Corp certification. The certification process has been a herculean yet essential goal, having to capture data from each part of the value chain, improving internal policies and raising awareness within the group, “Getting certified has become a thorough internal examination as to whether we’re doing what we said we could do and how we can show it to the public. It’s a big milestone for us,” Venisa shares.
Nothing is Too Difficult
Reflecting on her career leaps, Venisa credits her supportive network as crucial to her growth. In sustainability, where existing solutions often don’t align with specific roles or companies, mentorship plays a crucial role in innovation and resourcefulness. Throughout her career, Venisa’s mentors have consistently encouraged her to remain open-minded and explore new opportunities.
During her MBA, Venisa purposefully embraced new experiences by joining various student clubs. She also attended finance classes to gain a better understanding of various business functions, even though finance wasn’t her forte. “My mentors gave me the confidence to attempt the seemingly impossible,” she says. “In sustainability, you have to think like that in order to make bold steps.”
