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Earth Day 2022 with Ashley, Senior Enterprise Sales Manager
I have been with Qualtrics for 6 years and lead an enterprise sales team in the UK. I am married to my incredible wife, Nicola, and have a daughter, Audrey, who are both my world.
During my life I’ve been fortunate enough to travel and to have seen some of the world’s most beautiful places. I have eaten amazing food along the way. Generally, I have been able to buy anything I’ve ever wanted or needed. I always cared about the environment, but I also held the view that ‘you only live once’ and that you should take all the opportunities life presents you with. As a result, like most of the population, I have been producing more than fifteen times the average global emissions for an individual.
My life is no different to millions of other families in the developed world. However, with the birth of my daughter came a new perspective on what the future holds for all of us. She was born into a world that will change dramatically over her lifetime – in potentially catastrophic ways. This will be the result of climate change and environmental degradation if we do not change our relationship with the planet. This scared me – I felt I had contributed to something irreversible and I felt powerless to change the outcome.
After much soul searching, my wife and I decided we could have an impact, even if only in a small way. The problems are big, but big changes are the sum of many smaller changes. We decided to make more sustainable choices in our daily lives. We raise the topic with others and we support causes both within and outside of the workplace that have a positive impact on the world. We have also been teaching our daughter the reasons behind these decisions.
We started by cutting meat out of certain meals and we gradually adopted a wholly plant based diet. We haven’t flown for nearly 3 years (yes, covid made this easier) and regularly turn down opportunities that require us to fly. We also use public transport wherever possible and have changed the heating system in our new home to a more efficient one. Feeling powerless in the face of major change is not uncommon, and I never thought I’d be able to give up meat and cheese, but a series of small changes allowed me to better align my choices with my values.
We’re still a long way from being perfect and we do not always make sustainable choices – we’re renovating a house and we still own a diesel car. However, we have made changes to areas of our lives that are proven to have the biggest long term impacts on our carbon footprints and wider impact on the environment.
Qualtrics is growing, and if you're ready to find your "why" at a place like this, you can explore our open opportunities at any time by visiting our career page or by joining our talent community.
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Ashley is an alumnus of UC Santa Barbara and the University of Sheffield and started his career at Imtech. |
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