Gender equality in careers in business is the only acceptable way for a sustainable business future
Vesna Baur is the recipient of the Flower of Success for a Fearless Woman Award for 2020 in the category of ecological innovations. Her business – charcoal production for special applications (like animal feed additives) – produces renewable heat energy and at the same time, it removes CO2 from the air, thus ensuring carbon-negative energy production. Charcoal in animal feed reduces the need for antibiotics and her newest charcoal product results in an increase in milk production between 5% and 25 %.
Although COVID occupies media space on a daily basis, there is a much bigger problem ahead that will put our civilization to the test in the years to come. We are talking about greenhouse warming. We can already see the effects of climate change in dying coral reefs and having the 10 hottest years since industrialized times. Although we have to deal with the COVID daily, global warming is vicious because it’s creeping up on us very slowly and we can only feel the effects over time. That’s why it is difficult to comprehend and we don’t feel the need for immediate action. As far as the damage that global warming produces in monetary terms, it will cost us much more than what the COVID pandemic is costing us now. Just think about the dislocation of millions of people or the loss of cultivation land.
In our country, where environmental problems are not widely discussed in the media, and where women rights and gender equality are lagging behind developed countries from Central Europe, it is a remarkable achievement to be awarded an ecological award from the Association of Business Women of Serbia.
Two major aspects are important for a professional women business association. A successful and visible career cannot be built without a solid network. The role of the Association of Business Women of Serbia, which provides valuable opportunities, reliable support and continuous promotion of women entrepreneurs, is of great importance.
But also these are women who inspire us with their achievements, and when the Association awards someone it awards recognition. It’s the choreographed interaction between being an award recipient and the desire for being respected that brings out the best in people and eventually leads to success.
Gender equality in careers in business is the only acceptable way for a sustainable business future. In economic affairs, we cannot ignore that half of the world’s population is female.
“Removing barriers and breaking down prejudices in women’s entrepreneurship is an ongoing movement”
Through personal examples, women can be encouraged to start their own business, implement their ideas, make themselves heard or change career. Because everything is possible.
Coming back to Vesna… She is the fourth woman from the Nadežda Petrović Women’s Business Association from Čačak who is the recipient of the Flower of Success for a Fearless Woman Award. She’s immensely proud of the award, while she also honours a tradition. The combination of the above-mentioned circumstances has resulted in motivation and persistency.
In terms of Vesna’s charcoal product for dairy cows, this poses a next challenge for her, i.e. she needs to explain to Serbian farmers that they have been doing things wrong in the past. Reasonable arguments alone are not enough, even if they can improve productivity and do something essential and important for the environment…