By Marian Dang, Sustainability Manager, H&M Southeast Asia –
‘’Are you going to work with trees?’’
That is the reply I could hear in my head when I imagined telling my Vietnamese parents about my job as a sustainability manager at H&M Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. While born and raised in the Netherlands, the Vietnamese culture was heavily ingrained in my upbringing. My parents were boat refugees who fled the country after the Vietnam War in the 1980s: their focus was on survival. One should work hard to become an economist, a lawyer or a doctor. Meeting the current needs without compromising the needs of future generations was not a topic at home.