Bridging the gap

Talk is cheap if it’s words without action. But talking (and listening) can also be the crucial first step towards achieving great things. Meet Ellinor Grape, Senior Product Manager at Envirotainer, who knows the power of teamwork to meet customer demands and help shrink carbon footprints.

If you’ve ever been part of a great team effort, then you’ll know the secret ingredient is by aligning the whole team towards a clear goal or strategy. For Ellinor Grape, it’s her job to be that channel, making sure important information and ideas get where they need to go.

Making the impossible possible

Ellinor explains, “At least 80% of my job is about teamwork and – talking with people, asking questions, and working together.” Ellinor’s job is to bridge the gap between R&D at Envirotainer and the customer, making sure customers get great container solutions to answer their needs and make the impossible possible. 

There’s no trick. She’s not a Container Whisperer who can magically sense the right solution. No, just like a magician in real life, it’s about doing the work. She does this by speaking to the sales team and listening to customers and their needs. “After we identify these customer demands, my next thought is ‘How do we turn this into a product?’” This is where Ellinor’s engineering background comes to the fore as she works with her R&D colleagues to solve the technical puzzle of building the best solution for the customer.

This is probably her favorite part of the job: “I really like the feeling of transforming a demand into a product. Then going back to the customer and … Ta da!”

Finding a natural balance

There’s one demand that customers increasingly have: sustainability. Ellinor explains, “More and more we’re getting detailed, qualified questions from customers about sustainability like ‘What’s the exact calculation of your CO2 footprint … what’s included and what isn’t?’ Or ‘How can you make our own figures better?’”

So, how do Ellinor and her colleagues deliver on that? Firstly, it’s important to reduce the footprint of the transports themselves. As Ellinor says, “You want a solution optimized for shipping in an airplane, packing as much as you can and getting the most out of each solution – we don’t want to ship air.” Secondly, by keeping the pharma safe and at the exact right temperature. Temperature out of range means scrapping the shipment and starting again. Which then means more CO2 emissions, not to mention delays for patients in need.

Sustainability is close to her heart and at the core of Envirotainer too. “There’s a real commitment here – I talk about sustainability to someone at least once every day,” says Ellinor. And she couldn’t be happier about that: “Sustainability is really important to me, and I want to work at a company which thinks that too.”

Whether it’s solving customer challenges while meeting strict regulations or delivering solutions that are better for the environment, the key is teamwork. Because as Ellinor knows only too well, we can only do the impossible and find a natural balance if we work together.

Facts panel

Name: Ellinor Grape
Job: Senior Product Manager, Envirotainer
Family: Husband, 2 small but fast-growing kids
Hobbies: Skiing, sailing and acrobatic yoga

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Discover Envirotainer’s Sustainability Strategy – and how we work towards 7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.