Sharing knowledge and inspiration via the UM Sustainability Community

The UM Sustainability Community will be officially launched during the UM Star Show, which is planned for June this year. Alumna Carolin Gorzelitz is the president of the Executive Committee of this community. This is a good time to get to know her.

German alumna Carolin Gorzelitz—Caro to her friends—lives in Paris, where she is pursuing a master's programme in Sustainable Finance at Kedge Business School. Her LinkedIn profile says, "With two masters in the field of development economics and sustainable finance, I strive for a career that supports the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations." This is a statement befitting the president of the UM Sustainability Community.

Strategic theme
In late 2020, Carolin reached out to the Alumni Office to ask if something was being done about climate change that involves alumni. The timing was right. The Alumni Office was thinking about setting up alumni circles around specific themes, in addition to the existing alumni circles that are organised by location. Policy Advisor Jeroen Warnier explains, "The new Alumni Relations strategic plan provides for the creation of communities at different levels, including on the basis of themes. Sustainability is one of Maastricht University's most important strategic themes, so it makes sense to bring together our 85,000 alumni with our more than 22,000 students and thousands of staff around this issue." 

There are also positive developments across the university. More and more attention is being given to sustainability. Anja van Bogaert, coordinator of Sustainable UM2030, shares: "For example, we are developing a platform to connect the many sustainability experts and projects within UM and with the region. This will bring the community together and inspire and encourage the acceleration of the necessary transition to a sustainable world.”

Exchange of ideas
When Carolin Gorzelitz reached out to the Alumni Office, she was not yet aware of the above developments. She had just completed her Master of Science in Economics & Strategy in Emerging Markets. During the master's programme, she also took an elective course in Sustainable and Responsible Investments. She was exploring the possibilities for the future. All around her, climate change and sustainability were increasingly the topic of discussion. She felt there was a sense of urgency, not only in herself but also in other alumni that she spoke with during the Alumni Day and the Coach Café, to exchange ideas with each other on this subject.

Sustainability is a global, not a local concern. Therefore, the UM Sustainability Community will aim to connect alumni from all parts of the world. This truly international character is also something that Carolin as a president of the community embodies. She already lived abroad in four countries outside of her home country Germany including the Netherlands, the US, Portugal and now France. Initially, Carolin also wanted to explore Africa but unfortunately this was not possible due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to her it is always enriching to work with people from different nationalities and cultures as everyone has a different background and can provide different perspectives on a problem. Combatting climate change cannot be done by few countries but necessitates cooperation between developed and emerging markets.

More than just money
With a background in International Business, Carolin pursued her two first internships in the commercial sector, working for two big multinational enterprises. It was at this time where she realized that it cannot only be about money. For her, the private sector and specifically the financial industry plays a big role in the mitigation and adaption to climate change. For instance, she illustrates that if banks stop investing in fossil fuel energy, a lot will change.”

Carolin hopes that the UM Sustainability Community will connect people from all sorts of different disciplines. And not only the people in their twenties and thirties with whom she usually interacts now, but also the older generations of alumni. So that they can debate, network and learn from each other. In the same way that she learned at Maastricht—openly, and with consideration for different perspectives.