Today’s trip to Alice PR was incredibly engaging and solidified the type of work I want to do after graduating. Throughout my many different attempts at choosing a career path, one thing has remained consistent: I want to help people. With its clientele primarily consisting of non-profits, Alice PR does exactly that.

As someone who is not in PR, this meeting was very insightful. My main takeaway from our speakers was the importance of giving back to people. Over the past few years, Alice PR has held two main events that revolved around doing so: Alice Asks and Alice Academy for Activists. Alice Asks was an event series meant to give access to expert speakers, covering topics such as “AI: A Force of Good or Evil?”. Alice Academy for Activists was a three day bootcamp for aspiring activists in Dublin, free of charge. In giving back to people, you are practice corporate social responsibility, a main topic of our class.

I also learned that the best social media practice for non-profits simply comes down to resources. Being that I want to go into social media, this was very important to me. Although I am actively learning, I tend to struggle with messaging, but this point helped me remember that sometimes you have to look at who is around you. There is power in human testimonials.

We spent some time doing a group activity where we had to create an advocacy campaign for our given issue. I learned a lot about what an advocacy campaign can look like, but I’d love to learn more about how they come to fruition.

Today we had, in my opinion, our most intimidating business visit yet. As we walked in and received our visitor passes and walked into the conference room, I had no idea what to expect, but I walked out feeling more inspired than ever to integrate sustainability into my future career.

Paul started off the presentation by discussing three lenses to sustainability: how it works for property lending, how to give advice, and our role as corporate. My main takeaway from Paul was the importance of working with customers. He explained that it’s like trying to pace another runner in competitive running. In other words, you have to work alongside your customers rather than being more sustainable and expecting them to simply follow.

Katie continued the discussion by explaining Clearbody Clear Stream’s approach to corporate sustainability. She explained to us double materiality. This essentially means that corporations must decide what is important to them, as well as what is important to the planet and society.

John brought the meeting to a close by discussing Allied Irish Bank’s future sustainability goals. I found out the importance of supporting a better society at entry level and how to do so.

I found it fascinating how strong sustainability initiatives are in Ireland compared to the United States, yet how Ireland is considered to be behind compared to the rest of Europe in terms of sustainability. I also found it interesting how strongly corporate sustainability is enforced in Ireland.

I’d like to learn more about how I can bring this newfound knowledge of corporate sustainability into my career, as this visit helped me understand how businesses integrate it rather than just what it is.