From Australia to France and then the United States, the path this Senior Manager of Sustainability has taken winds around the world.
“When I did my classes 15 years ago, I remember questioning if this term ‘sustainability’ was even going to be around in 20 years,” shared Neil Beckingham, previous grad student of sustainability and current Senior Manager of Sustainability at The Mosaic Company.
Despite his earlier doubts, Neil’s current work at Mosaic is a testament that the term is here to stay.
Starting as a geology undergrad student in Australia, Neil had no idea he’d eventually work in sustainability in the United States. Today, his work ranges from data collection and reporting to special projects and partnership building. He sat down with Net Impact to share his career path, offer wisdom crucial to anyone considering a career in sustainability, and give a glimpse into his work at Mosaic. The following are excerpts from our conversation.
How has your educational background and early career led you to where you are now?
I’m fairly ancient, so back when I was doing science, sustainability didn’t exist as an [undergraduate] study option. And it certainly wasn’t anything that I was thinking about back then. My degree was in geology. I worked both in the underground and exploration mining environments.
But I sort of realized about halfway through that I could see what the senior guys were doing, and that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. During that time, I went back to university. I did a graduate diploma in environmental science and switched across to environmental consulting.
In my career, the area that I learned the most in was in consulting, and that was because it was trial-by-fire. You were juggling 20-30 projects at once. Because I was at a small company, I was everything. I had to put on my law hat; I had to put on my project manager hat; I had to put on my environmental scientist hat. It depended on what type of day it was.
What drew you to sustainability, and what keeps you engaged?
I think because I liked being able to affect change… I think the ability to move the needle on issues is important to me. I think in the role of a sustainability manager, you can do that.
I think, also, it’s never a dull moment. You’re able to deal with such a diversity of projects and because it’s all about continuous improvement, there’s no end. You’re never going to get a perfect system or a perfect operation. There’s always going to be an area where you can improve. I like that kind of challenging environment for sure.
What project are you working on that you’re really excited about?
Mosaic is doing a joint venture with a Saudi Arabian company called Ma’aden. As part of that joint venture, there’s a research and development facility that they’re building from scratch in Saudi Arabia.
So I am working as a liaison between Mosaic and Ma’aden from the Mosaic side of the fence on that R&D facility… We’re making sure it’s going to optimize process and make sure efficiency is as good as can be... We’re also looking at co-products again - two in particular - gypsum and fluorides. We’re looking at how to recycle and reuse those rather than make them into a waste. And what’s exciting for me is that if we can have some wins over there with that facility, we can potentially bring some of those wins back to the U.S.
You started your career in Australia and now you’re based in the United States. How have you been able to take your skills and expertise across borders?
I have worked all over the world. I have worked in Japan, France, Chile, Borneo, all over Australia and the U.S. And one thing that has been really good is that basically the principles of environmental science are the same wherever you are. Regulations will be different, but it’s nice to know that you have a career that’s 100% portable.
Is there a set path for someone who wants to work in sustainability?
You’ll find that in sustainability, there are no two sustainability professionals that have the same background because it’s such a broad area. I know maybe I’m jumping the gun a bit here, but I’d certainly say that for anyone thinking about a career in sustainability, I would recommend getting a base degree in something…
I think it’s a little dangerous that some colleges or universities are offering a straight degree in sustainability. Sustainability is so broad that I really feel that those people are coming out with too generalized of a set of topics.
How do you know what is the “right” company to join in a sustainability capacity?
I wouldn’t have joined Mosaic if I didn’t think there was a commitment to sustainability at the CEO level because you can get stuck into just a reporting person if you’re in a company that’s just doing it for the sake of they have to do it.
I wouldn’t be too frightened if the understanding of sustainability is not that great within the organization… Sustainability is one of those terms that’s kind of hard to pin down and everyone has a different understanding of it. I wouldn’t be too frightened if you have a tall task ahead of you. I think in most companies that’s the case. And it’s probably a good thing.
Do you have a favorite memory from working at Mosaic?
One of the nice things that happened to me working here was about a year ago now. I was walking down the stairwell, and I got stopped by somebody that just started with Mosaic. They relayed to me that they had previously not had a good opinion of Mosaic, but they had sat in on a sustainability external presentation I’d given, and they had heard some pretty cool stuff and did a bit more research. They totally changed their mindset on Mosaic. So much so that they actually wanted to work for Mosaic and ended up working in our reclamation division. They are very pro-Mosaic now, so that was a really cool thing to know that we can change perceptions.
