Tamara Giltsoff on Noticing Things

After a healthy serving of homemade quiche and potato salad, the Figs gathered with full stomachs ready for their minds to be fed. And what better way to sate this appetite than with a talk from sustainability expert Tamara Giltsoff?

Hailed as one of the “35 Outstanding Businesswomen Under the Age of 35”, Tamara talked us through her early career as a designer at a national newspaper, before she went on to earn an MA in design, strategy and innovation and become a brand consultant in the dot com era. A collaboration with Boots to map the future of children’s health, (or as it turned out, to market vitamins to children), left Tamara frustrated and drove her hunger for smarter solutions to social challenges.

Completing an MSc in Sustainability and Business Practice, Tamara went on to become a sustainable business strategist with a focus on innovation and new business models. Or as she put it: noticing things.

She advocates a change of thinking. A shift beyond corporate social responsibility towards creative, sustainable ideas that make business sense. Big businesses must go from selling you products to enabling platforms that help solve big issues.

A few jaws dropped around the table as she told us that humanity is currently using three planets’ worth of resources, but she sees light at the end of the tunnel. According to Tamara, a paradigm shift in global philosophical thinking takes around 70 years and we’re around 40 years into the current movement towards a sustainable corporate culture. Roll on 2041.

Read more about Tamara’s work and philosophy at tamaragiltsoff.com

















And what can we do? Well we are brand people, we can push businesses to think about how they need to change their ways, beyond "corporate social responsibility", to creative ideas that make business sense. We can start small; we can start the conversation and we can ignite change. We can notice where the change is already happening and build new opportunities and value from this. Things don’t ever change over night, so we need to find a pocket of opportunity, prove that it works, and then let it filter throughout the business. We will help others unlock the passion we have to drive valuable innovation and tackle big challenges. 



Read more about Tamara’s work and philosopy here tamaragiltsoff.com and get in on sustainability.

Tamara is encouraging a challenge of thinking. Sustainability meets strategic marketing for new opportunities. Big businesses must go from selling you products to enable platforms to help solve issues.