Four questions for Thea Kreutzburg, who joined corsus in November 2022 as Senior Consultant:

What did you do before you joined corsus?

Before corsus, I worked as a research assistant at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). I wrote my doctoral thesis in the field of vascular medicine with the topic Prognosis Score in Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease based on health insurance data. Many risk factors of vascular diseases are associated with lifestyle especially diet. Therefore, I wanted to combine my interest in sustainable nutrition, which is good for our health as well as for our planet, with my professional work.

corsus advises on sustainability. What do you associate with sustainability?

For me personally, sustainability means saving resources and sharing with others, because we all share one planet. Ever since I was a child, it was clear to me that consumer goods consume resources and have to be produced and transported by other people for me at great expense. People I will never meet, but whose lives I influence through my consumption. Living sustainably therefore also means taking social responsibility for other people, animals and the environment. The fact that we own an average of 10,000 things in a German household that we do not use and thus do not value shows the immense potential. All changes in the private sphere are important, but a transformation of our economy can only happen together with politics and business.

Is there a topic that is particularly close to your heart?

A change in the reality of our lives is coming, there is no doubt about that. The question is how well we will adapt to it or remain stuck in old thought patterns. That’s why it’s the children in particular who we should teach as early as possible about a sustainable lifestyle and appreciation of the environment and all living things. Adaptability is the key. It is very important to me to show them new possibilities, to question habits, to find solutions on their own and to inspire others.

What are you currently working on at corsus?

I’ve been working on the CLIF project since November and I’m working with the team to make life cycle assessments more modifiable and assessment results more robust. The more meaningful an accounting result and the more transparent the underlying model, the better. New methodological approaches can also be used to include other aspects such as health aspects of food, which I find very exciting. First of all, I am working on the life cycle assessment of wine production in South Africa.