Environmental Scientist to Sustainability Founder: Why Simon Lunn Quit the 9-5

Simon finished Uni and landed the graduate job. He spent five years in an office writing reports, falling behind on deliverables, and collecting a couple of performance warnings. He stopped feeling like he was any good at work. A nine to five office job really didn’t suit him, and that’s not a character flaw it was just a reality. So he quit with no plan and no job, and flew to Sweden. What happened next is the story. A Masters in sustainability, a stack of spreadsheets sent over from Sydney each night, and a working day that suited him. It turned out the thing he was bad at in the office was the thing he was brilliant at when he worked his own way. Now he runs a sustainability consultancy that uses AI to look at the contents of a skip bin and work out what’s in it. In this episode, Jane Butler talks with Simon Lunn, who went from environmental scientist to sustainability tech founder. He Talks about his dream job that didn’t exist, why waste is really a data problem, and the hard parts of working for yourself. If you’re a student heading toward a graduate role and quietly wondering whether an office job is really for you, this one is for you. In this video, I cover: ✅ Why Simon picked environmental science and the cash his dad left on the fridge ✅ The dream of working outdoors versus the reality of contaminated land consulting ✅ Why five years of office report writing left him feeling bad at his job ✅ Quitting with no plan and moving to Sweden ✅ How working remotely, in short focused bursts, finally suited him ✅ Why sustainability is hard to define and even harder to measure ✅ How he built an app and an AI tool to track what’s inside a skip bin ✅ The hard parts and the freedoms of running your own business ✅ His advice for graduates who don’t want to just jump into a graduate role Chapter Timestamps: 0:38 - Why environmental science 2:29 - When the office work wasn’t working 3:30 - Quitting for Sweden 4:22 - Finding a way of working that suited him 7:07 - Why data matters in sustainability 9:12 - Building the app and starting "Traste" 11:01 - Skip bins, photos and AI 13:28 - The hard parts of running a business 15:15 - Technology and the future of recycling 16:54 - Where AI takes the business next 19:04 - Skills that will matter in the AI era 19:44 - What’s exciting about the future of waste and sustainability About the Channel: The 20 Minute Career provides real-world career insights through honest conversations with professionals. We help students and job seekers understand the true nature of different jobs to make better career decisions. Subscribe for new episodes every Wednesday. Connect with us: 🔗 Everything in one place: https://linktr.ee/the20minutecareer 📲 Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @the20minutecareer The 20 Minute Career — Real People, Real Jobs, Honest Conversations. #EnvironmentalScience #Sustainability #WasteManagement #AIinSustainability #ClimateTech #CareerChange #CareerAdvice #StudentCareers #The20MinuteCareer #FutureOfWork