Pablo del Hierro’s sustainable practices

Pablo del Hierro, assistant professor in history, arrived in Maastricht in January 2013 on a 6-months contract. He didn’t have to think twice when he was offered this short-term contract. “I worked as a teacher in Madrid back then and had a lousy contract. The worst case scenario for me was that I would indeed only be able to stay on for 6 months at FASoS, enjoy living in the Netherlands, and then go back to a lousy contract in Spain; there are plenty of those around there.”

Fortunately, Pablo managed to stay on at FASoS. But now during the corona pandemic, he is (temporarily) back in Spain. How come?

In the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, the level of unemployment in Spain was skyrocketing and many people left Spain to search for jobs elsewhere. Pablo’s partner decided to look for a new job in a different city in Spain instead of in a different country and she moved to Barcelona while Pablo stayed in Madrid. When Pablo was offered a job in Maastricht, he decided to take it. “We had been doing the long-distance thing for a while already, so in that sense it did not matter whether I was in Madrid or in Maastricht.” Besides that, Pablo loved to teach. He knew the ins and outs of teaching at high school, and he was eager to see what teaching at a university was like.

I wondered whether Pablo was still doing the long-distance thing after all these years. “Well yes and no, it’s a complicated story,” Pablo explains. “Usually, yes, we would be living apart, but now with the corona pandemic, I have been in Spain since October.” While being in Spain, he is able to assist his partner with her newly launched business in sustainable sports clothes, ActandBe. Pablo now spends his free time reading up on the environment, how to produce clothes in an environmentally friendly way, how to reduce a company’s carbon footprint, and so on. “Sustainability is my partner’s passion and she decided she wanted to move back to her home town to start a sustainable business – do it on a regional scale, reduce the carbon footprint and give back to society. For every order she receives, she plants a tree so now I am reading up on how to plant a tree and where, and I’m liaising with NGOs”.

“It takes a lot of time and effort to run a company like this,” Pablo explains. “If you really want to go for it and do it 100% right, all your free time goes into it.” But this is not a problem for Pablo at all. He started sharing his partner’s passion for sustainability and is inspired by his students who show so much concern for the climate. “I grew up in the ‘90s, a period in which everything was possible, everyone was optimistic, and nothing could go wrong. I ate chocolate and pastries without knowing the impact of what I was eating had on the environment. It is thanks to my students and partner that I really realised how much of an impact the way we live and eat has on planet earth. I applaud my students for marching for climate, cutting back on consuming and eating vegan. Thanks to them I have also found a passion for sustainability and I am happy to contribute to a more sustainable world via my partner’s company.”

Submit your comment

Please enter your name

Your name is required

Please enter a valid email address

An email address is required

Please enter your message

FASoS Weekly © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Designed by WPSHOWER

Powered by WordPress