about us
Expertise meets passion
We are experts from different fields that meet on the common ground of sustainability. With the unbeatable combination of sustainability solutions and cognitive psychology, we help you to make change work.
It was one of those long evenings. We sat together, talking for hours. Sustainability thrills both of us. We agreed on many things, argued around some others. Susanne mentioned the film ‘Don´t look up’, which is a satire on the current global reaction to the climate change situation. Why do people not respond to logic?
Why – in the face of the nearer coming wall – do we seem unable to hit the breaks of the bus but instead quarrel about who is allowed to sit in the front seats?
Why – when on the sinking Titanic, we start rearranging deck chairs?
Why – when all the knowledge is around – we still are not able to do the right things?
Laura started to explain the psychological defense mechanisms that apply in such cases and our discussion that day became beyond interesting. We figured that while this kind of irrationallity is totally normal, there is also a way to bypass it. This is how MAKECHANGEWORK was born.
Laura Sommer PhD
Hi. I am Laura, a passionate sustainability consultant with a decade of experience in motivating environmentally friendly behaviour. In my work with LKSommer I use a combination of BeSci and creative communication to help businesses and organisations design environments that inspire people to take action for a healthier planet.
I was not always working on the applied side of behavior change, but originally started off with doing research on the infamous “intention-action gap”. In my PhD I investigated whether environmental art can bridge this gap, by using emotions instead of information, to connect with the audience. As part of my research, I became the first curator of the “Pollution Pods” by Michael Pinsky – an immersive art installation, that lets people experience the air pollution from five different metropoles around the world.
My conclusion: Art can definitely create a special connection to climate change, but it does not remove the structural and psychological barriers that stand in people’s way to truly live sustainably.
This is the reason why I am happy to push sustainability forward with applied tools from behavioral science. As a member of GAABS (Global Association of Applied Behavioural Scientists) I am standing for safeguarding and maintaining the quality and standards of applied behavioural sciences, as well as promoting the disciplines insights and applications.
Susanne Volz
Hello. I am Susanne. I´m a notorious explorer. I always want to know what´s behind the next hill. About 22 years ago, I started out in the field of economic law and moved on as environmental researcher and policy adviser. After doing LCAs and studies on industrial environmental protection issues on EU level for many years, I now focus on Circular Economy, Climate and financing sustainability.
As consultant and researcher, as ecocircle concept I help businesses to develop circular products, business models and strategies.
Passionate about sharing my knowledge, I provide educational programs and workshops to build sustainability and circular competence for board and staff members, authority employees and students across many sectors, fields and experience levels. By now, I developed and facilitated about 300 training programmes.
Oh, and I also love dogs. I´m a founding member and first chairperson of www.adoptadog.de. We support a shelter in croatia that fosters 600 dogs and that does a lot of practical and political animal protection work.
Click the button to learn more about me.
lets make our work count
Our Mission & Values
We are sustainability professionals like you. We know your obstacles, we know your struggles. We face them, too.
We also know that we have to increase the speed of the sustainability transformation. We win together or we loose together. That´s why we are inviting you to join the quest.
Can we speed up the transformation? Can we – at least and in face of all the other practical obstacles – overcome cognitive barriers and push for change?
We came up with a valid process. But this is just the first step. The beginning of a – hopefully joint – journey. Our intention is to improve with every step we take; to co-create with you, to lever yours and our impact for sustainability. To make change work.