Only you can make the change
by Nikola Tosic, 30 September 2019
Geoplast is a brainchild of product designer and CEO Mirco Pegoraro. His parents owned a plastics recycling business and one day, in his 20s, he asked: ‘Why don’t we make something out of this plastic?’ And he made the most unusual choice – he decided to make products which improve sustainability in the construction industry.
Today, my job as a Geoplast CMO is to motivate construction stakeholders to use Geoplast products. I was given a luxury that my goals are not dominated by revenue. This allows me to focus on making an actual change in the construction industry – a change for which the entire world is screaming every day – sustainability and resilience.
However, in spite of having the support of media, science, celebrities, politicians, and basically everyone I meet, it seems incredibly difficult to make the real change. According to media, the world is about to radically change tomorrow, but the reality is nowhere close. We are stuck in long discussions about changing a small part of one project. Even the most dedicated professionals move very little in implementing new sustainable technologies, while global construction production is rapidly increasing without any sustainability guarantees whatsoever.
After years at this job, my conclusion is that there are no conspiracies, but only hard work of talking to every stakeholder and helping them make the change themselves. Each new stakeholder is a new battle to be won. And each new stakeholder is a possible block to change. The media and popular opinions unfortunately do not help. Media does not represent the real change, it only hides the lack of change. It tricks all of us, including me, that something important happened, while nothing happened.
There are more non-sustainable buildings made than ever before and unless each of us makes an effort to make a small change towards sustainability, this trend will not be reversed. This is on all of us, people who work in the construction industry, to make this change. No media, no celebrities, no politicians. But architects, engineers, investors, builders, and some marketers as well.
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