In light of Earth Day, we took the opportunity to hand the mic over to some of our own employees who are making an impact not only during work hours but outside of the office too!
NICE. April 22, 2022 Earth Day is an annual event that encourages individuals to demonstrate and promote environmental awareness. It also is a day that forces us to look at our own actions and assess how they directly impact our planet. So we thought, what better way to celebrate Earth Day than to shine the spotlight on some of our very own employees at Vulog who are making an impact outside of working hours! Are you ready to get inspired on how you can make an impact?
Cezara, Global Shapers’ President & Curator
Customer Success Manager, Cezara Suman, works directly with customers to ensure they get everything they need to achieve their goals, but she also is Global Shapers’ Curator/President in the Hub of Nice. The organization consists of a diverse group of young individuals driving action and positive change across the French Riviera. In each city, teams of Global Shapers self-organize to create projects that address the needs of their community. Cezara’s Hub in Nice focuses on areas of Climate & Environment, Education, Health, and Civic participation.
Her most recent project, “Corks for Cancer,” has been Cezara’s favorite project yet. The project involves collecting bottle corks for France Cancer, which they sell to local enterprises and are then recycled. Additionally, the funds raised from collecting the corks are given to labs to research cancer. It’s a fulfilling project that considers the environment and also aims to improve the health of society. What’s more, Pankaj, Vulog’s Project Manager, works side by side with Cezara on this project and is the leading man behind it!
Cezara’s passion and commitment to making a positive impact have allowed Global Shapers to significantly reduce waste in the French region, especially as she and the community participate in and co-organize World Clean-up Day every year! The one held in the Nice Métropole area in 2021 resulted in 750kg of waste and 70k cigarette butts collected. And on the digital side, Cezara and the team also joined the Cyber World Clean-up Day movement, where the hub cleaned 210 GB of data, which means 12.26 MWh of energy saved – that is the equivalent of 5.83 tons of CO2!
Making it into the finals with an incredible social enterprise idea at the Social Impact Award Romania in 2016 influenced Cezara to join Global Shapers in Nice, as Global Shapers Bucharest Hub organized the competition. Fast-forward to today, Cezara is now the Curator and President of the Global Shapers Hub in Nice! She has been an active volunteer in various organizations since she was 13, so joining the Global Shapers community was like second nature.
I don’t really know what life is like not volunteering. And I’m not ready to try that anytime soon!
Cezara Suman
Customer Success Manager, Vulog
Antoine, Sustainable Product Entrepreneur
Product Owner, Antoine Russegger, may constantly develop new and innovative features through Research & Development to ensure Vulog’s product is always on track, but the mastermind also happens to be the Co-Founder and Product Lead of not just one but two start-ups focused on sustainability. The first is Omnilid, a product that essentially redesigned and reconceptualized disposable lids for takeaway drinks. The product also packaged premium drinks on the go conveniently, hygienically – and of course, sustainably – by using recycled and recyclable material. Antoine’s passion for minimizing harmful waste was the driving factor behind this inventive product.
Following this fulfilling project, Antoine kept up with focusing on sustainability. He was still driven by making a positive impact in his work, hence his commitment to starting Hiventi, a start-up that delivers fresh, homemade, and locally-sourced meals to students’ doors. Not only did he want to focus on providing sustainably sourced food to students, but he wanted to promote a healthier lifestyle for them and encourage better food choices.
Still focused on making an environmental difference, I even helped improve the packaging of the food, to not result in so much wastage. I wanted to create a healthy ecosystem through this project.
Antoine Russegger
Product Owner, Vulog
Antoine’s eyes were opened to learning about the environment, sustainability, and where things came from during his time at university. He also developed his interest in product, which ultimately influenced his decision to kick-start these incredible start-ups. Over time his passion for sustainability and product enabled him to find himself at Vulog, where he can combine the two – you will never catch Antoine putting the incorrect rubbish in Vulog’s bins!
Marion, Diving Expert & Coral Reef Protector
International Business Development Manager, Marion Pecher, is on the ball for managing a diverse range of clients across the globe, organizing workshops to meet partners’ needs better, and developing partnership strategies; however, her expertise goes beyond mobility. She is also a marine life expert following her year abroad in Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia!
Marion’s main focus was the conservation and preservation of the marine ecosystem, particularly regarding the Great Barrier Reef. She completed her traineeship in marine biology, allowing her to educate tourists about reef restoration and snorkeled with them to show the beautiful reef. During this time, she became super acquainted with humpback whales, educating tourists on how they live in the ocean. She also worked as a divemaster and would collect waste found in the ocean with other fellow divers, which minimized a significant amount of harmful waste in the precious reef.
Marion thrived in educating others on how living ecosystems work together and how important it is to protect our marine life to have a more sustainable future – and, of course, continue to appreciate mother nature’s beauty!
I really love fish and the ocean, so that’s what motivated me to have lessons for diving, practical and theoretical, to dive with people who have never seen the ocean before and educate them on how important the marine ecosystem is to our daily lives.
Marion Pecher
International Business Manager, Vulog
Finding a job at a company like Vulog that aligns with her sustainability values was already a bonus, but what’s more, working in Nice allows Marion to continue to be involved in conserving our precious marine life in any way she can.
Pankaj, Community Builder & Plogger
Project Manager Pankaj Pulikkul certainly excels at managing multiple projects, onboarding new customers, and maintaining close relationships with partners. Yet outside of work, he is an active member of Global Shapers, working alongside Vulog’s own Cezara! The community is comprised of young people driving dialogue, action, and environmental change. Global Shapers strongly believe in a world where young people are crucial to policy-making, solution building, and ever-lasting change.
Pankaj was drawn to Global Shapers as it is local: he believes it’s essential to make efforts towards saving the environment first on a local level, as one’s small actions can make an immediate and lasting impact. He is involved in many projects that revolve around saving the planet, including ‘plogging’ – a combination of jogging and picking up waste on the beaches of Nice. Plogging is very important for Pankaj and the Global Shapers community, especially doing it together as a team.
Pankaj is also the leading man behind “Corks for Cancer” alongside Cezara and the Global Shapers community. It is a great project that encourages recycling as well as assists France Cancer to raise funds for cancer research.
Pankaj thoroughly enjoys the Global Shapers’ spirit, especially as he is surrounded by like-minded individuals who also want to make a difference on our planet, improve mental health and overall well-being, a true passion of his.
Being a part of Global Shapers really doesn’t feel like a second job at all, it’s a fun hobby!
Pankaj Pulikkul
Project Manager, Vulog
Alexandra, Sustainable Traveler & Mission Founder
Chief Marketing Officer Alexandra Lougovoy may be the creative brain behind Vulog’s overall communication, brand, and marketing strategy, yet she also founded a sustainable tourism project in Peru, Mission Andamarca.
Alexandra’s passion for sustainable tourism, conserving art, culture, and heritage influenced her commitment to the project, including restoring the “El Camino Inca” and conserving the Incas irrigation systems and agricultural cultivation. Restoring this historic trail not only preserves it for longer in the future but also allows the people of Andamarca to walk through and carry out their daily rituals – improving mobility!
Alexandra’s efforts allowed Mission Andamarca to raise funds to establish microcredits for the village and push sustainable tourism through hostels. The funds also contributed to helping the village maintain their art and textiles, allowing them to carry on their sustainable way of living for future generations.
I always had a passion for sustainable travel, respecting and conserving art and culture, especially as cultural heritage can enable us to build resilience for change to come and lead us to a more sustainable future.
Alexandra Lougovoy
Chief Marketing Officer, Vulog
Alexandra was the initial driver behind this project, which continues to thrive today. Each year, groups of students in France across different schools travel to Peru to keep the project alive and conserve the Peruvian heritage.
Investing in our planet
This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest in Our Planet”, mainly as we come to a crossroads with our planet’s future: now is the time to act to see change. Our very own employees striving toward a cleaner, greener, and electrified future both in and outside of work are undoubtedly making a difference to preserve and protect our planet. The small act of taking a shared bike or shared car to work instead of your gas guzzler can go a long way, or perhaps taking your own coffee cup to work instead of purchasing a paper cup you will throw away in 5 minutes. Our employees demonstrate your efforts have no size – they can be big or small!
Vulog is the world’s leading tech mobility provider: we are committed to building a greener future, one city at a time. Want to know more? Check our About Us page to find out more about our sustainability actions!
