Introduction

Annemiek Asschert graduated as a geologist from the University of Utrecht. Currently she works as a geoscientist at EBN and serves as the Deputy Program Manager Advice and Innovation. Recently she has made the shift from focus on the oil and gas industry to the energy transition.

Transitioning with EBN

I started my career at Fugro, an engineering company, working mostly for the fossil Exploration and Production industry, e.g. soil investigation for platforms and moved to EBN to work as a geoscientist. Within EBN I started working within E&P (Exploration & Production) and slowly transitioned towards the sustainable energy domain.. When I started at EBN there was hardly any mention at all about sustainable energy, but currently the focus is shifting, as it is in society.

In a way, my professional transition is similar to that of my employer and I embrace this shift.

A new business model globally

As we are starting to realize that there is no other way than moving towards more sustainable energy sources, we will need new business models. I think now it is still OK to work in the oil & gas sector, because we can’t at once replace the molecules in our energy system by electricity. Local production of natural gas is preferred for the time being because importing natural gas is less sustainable than producing it locally. In the near future these molecules will partly be replaced by electricity, and partly by green molecules like hydrogen, but natural gas production cannot be completely abandoned overnight.

The situation is different in every country. In some countries like the Netherlands, we can afford to work intensively on developing and using sustainable technologies and lowering oil and gas usage, but this is not the case everywhere. Therefore we should assist other countries with new technologies to accelerate the whole process towards a cleaner energy system.

essay about diversity in Energy

Personally I am working in an organization undergoing a transition towards renewables, in line with my professional transition. In my early career, I rarely experienced issues with gender balance; I have always been able to achieve what I wanted. However, now as a middle manager in a transitioning environment, I am becoming more aware of the  gender imbalance and the challenges that come with that. I have explored and I have explored the issue deeper by writing an essay on it. At the start of STEM careers, the numbers are balanced, but clearly we are losing this balance in the higher corporate levels. As this is such a persistent imbalance, we should constantly be aware of our biases and avoid tunnel vision.  

Shaping inclusive teams

There is a lot of debate regarding the outlines and implementation of the energy transition. I think it will aid the energy transition when we approach it with and open and diverse view, and with that gaining broader support from society.

However, it is not easy to build and maintain a diverse workforce but it starts by becoming aware of your own bias and take it from there to improve diversity in the energy transition.

The toolbox of diversity 

I came across the community of 75inQ when I was working on an essay on Diverse leadership in the energy transition. The networking meetings are very interesting and relevant for this topic, so I enthusiastically joined the community.

This community can help everyone to achieve the awareness of the need for diversity in the energy transition. The tools that 75inQ hands out can help anyone to spread the word!