At the University of Salford, sustainability is more than a topic; it’s a culture, a mindset, and a pathway into impactful careers. Few alumni embody this as powerfully as Deborah Essel Anane, an MSc Procurement, Logistics and Supply Chain Management graduate whose journey blends academic depth, entrepreneurial momentum, and a remarkable commitment to ethical and inclusive supply chains. Though she has just submitted her dissertation and awaits her official graduation, she is already reshaping conversations around sustainable procurement and the future of work.
Studying at Salford: The Foundation of a Sustainable Mindset
Deborah’s connection with Salford is both academic and practical. While she currently lives in London, she has engaged with Launch @Salford, the University of Salford’s entrepreneurship development programme. She describes her time with Salford as both energizing and grounding, providing a valuable environment to refine her thinking while shaping a venture designed to enhance visibility across value chains and underpin more resilient, interconnected supply systems.
Her studies at Salford transformed the way she views procurement, sustainability, and the relationship between businesses and society. Modules such as Digital Transformation and Supply Chain Management pushed her to consider the ethical implications of automation: what happens to workers displaced by technology, how organisations can upskill staff rather than lay them off, and how digital systems must still respect human dignity. In Sustainable and Ethical Supply Chains, she developed a deeper appreciation for the practical tensions organisations face when balancing commercial pressure with environmental and social responsibility, through concepts such as People, Planet, and Profit. In the Managing Projects and Operations in Complex Environments module, Deborah recalls developing a systems-thinking approach to supply chains, learning to manage operations and projects as interconnected global systems shaped by uncertainty, competing objectives, and cross-border complexity.
For Deborah, these modules were not abstract; they shaped how she thinks, works, and understands the world. She describes them as the backbone of her sustainability journey.
Seeing Sustainability Everywhere: A Campus That Practises What It Teaches
One of the most striking things for Deborah was how sustainability showed up across University life. She noticed it in the reminders in lecture halls about switching off lights, in the visible waste segregation facilities, and in accommodation guidance on reducing water use. These everyday nudges strengthened her belief that Salford does not just preach sustainability, it lives it.
She also appreciated the regular emails from the Sustainability Team, which she says help students stay informed about events, workshops, and activities on campus. For her, it created a sense of community and shared purpose.
Going Beyond the Curriculum: Real-World Experiences That Shaped Her Career Direction
Deborah’s sustainability journey didn’t stop at lectures. She actively participated in the Green Careers Mission, a multi-university initiative in which her team developed a sustainability plan for Thomas Kneale & Co. Ltd, an organisation that had already begun integrating greener practices toward responsible production and consumption, but was encountering internal staff resistance to change. Deborah found this challenge particularly compelling because it mirrored real-world industry conditions and reinforced a critical insight developed through her studies that sustainability is not solely a technical exercise, but a cultural, behavioural, and emotional process. It also further deepened her systems-thinking approach and understanding of how to achieve successful transformation for sustainability.
Deborah later had the opportunity to present her team’s work from the Green Careers Mission at the Greater Manchester Green Summit, a major regional event bringing together policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and employers seeking sustainability-literate graduates. She describes the summit as chaotic, vibrant, and deeply educational. Engaging with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and with different priorities reshaped Deborah’s understanding of employer expectations, workforce transformation, and regional sustainability ambitions.
She also recalls participating in a sustainability walk whilst at university, describing it as another moment where she felt genuinely connected to a broader Salford community striving toward positive, collective change.
From Dissertation to Venture Design: Designing Safe, Circular and Trustworthy Supply Chains
While completing her dissertation, Deborah became increasingly aware of a structural weakness in global beauty and personal-care supply chains: sustainability commitments often break down when chemical integrity, traceability, and end-of-life accountability are weak.
This insight became the foundation for McEDANZ, a BeautyTech-driven supply-chain ecosystem developed through Launch @Salford, designed to strengthen chemical verification, traceability, and circular value creation across global beauty supply networks. McEDANZ is built on systems thinking. Rather than treating procurement, sustainability, compliance, digitalisation, and waste management as separate challenges, the platform integrates them into a single operating model.
Drawing on her research into digitalisation and automation across the UK, Africa, and the EU, Deborah identified how fragmented trade routes, transit hubs, and uneven enforcement create opportunities for chemical fraud, which undermines not only consumer safety, but also environmental responsibility and trust in sustainability claims. Through McEDANZ, Deborah addresses these risks and by aligning verification, traceability, and circular design, McEDANZ reflects a sustainability model that is both preventative and regenerative.
Deborah has come to view sustainability, ethics, and trade integrity as mutually reinforcing and McEDANZ represents her effort to help build a future where safe chemistry, transparent trade, and circular value creation are designed into beauty supply chains rather than assumed.
A Changed Life: The Personal Transformation Sustainability Sparked
Before coming to Salford, Deborah describes herself humorously as a “Gen Z soft life” girl, someone who always preferred convenience and private rides. But her studies have made her rethink her habits. Today, she chooses shared rides over private ones, walks whenever possible, and pays attention to the carbon footprints of products she purchases.
She even thinks differently about simple items like lightbulbs and plastics, now understanding that everyday choices, not just grand gestures, shape environmental outcomes. Sustainability has moved from being theoretical to becoming part of her lifestyle.
Future Vision: Designed Integrity, Ethical Digitalisation, and Inclusive Growth in the Age of Automation and Workforce Disruption
Looking ahead, Deborah believes beauty supply chains are entering a fundamental shift, moving away from fragmented, compliance‑led approaches toward systems with integrity built in from the start. Sustainability is increasingly about transparency across the entire value chain, and the ability to prove how materials are transformed, reused, or recovered over time.
At the same time, Deborah is conscious that this shift is happening alongside rapid digitalisation and automation. Deborah is particularly concerned about how automation and algorithmic decision-making can marginalise smaller firms and displace labour.
Many SMEs simply do not have the infrastructure, skills, or resources to keep up with increasingly complex digital systems, leading to a digital divide in who can take part in digitally enabled supply chains. For her, ethical digitalisation is not about resisting technology, but about how it is designed, who it is designed for and who they end up serving in practice. Efficiency that excludes people, she argues, is simply shifting cost elsewhere. Deborah sees McEDANZ as one attempt to work in that direction.
Her interest in global discussions on chemicals, waste, and pollution including her upcoming participation in a UN Summit in Geneva, comes from wanting to understand how international rules, cooperation, and governance actually influence what happens on the ground. Ultimately, Deborah wants to contribute to a beauty and chemicals sector where resilience, consumer protection, environmental responsibility and SME participation are not add-ons, but part of how supply chains are built in the first place.
A Moment of Connection: The People Who Inspired Her Most
One of the most touching moments in her interview came when she was asked who inspires her to be sustainable. With sincerity and warmth, she said, “It was you”, referring to Neva, the sustainability team representative interviewing her. She recalled seeing her frequently around the university, leading sustainability activities with humour and enthusiasm, making sustainability feel approachable, lively, and human. It is a reminder that role models can appear quietly, simply by living their values with authenticity.
Advice for Students: Using Procurement as a Bridge for Better Futures
Deborah’s advice to current and future students is profound. She urges those in procurement and supply chain fields to recognise their potential to drive real change. To her, procurement is not just a business function; it is a bridge between policy and practice, between SME capability and digital transformation, and between sustainability goals and everyday operations. She encourages students to upskill, stay curious, pay attention to sustainability newsletters, and value the opportunities Salford provides.
Her message is clear: if students embrace sustainability, they will not only improve their employability but also strengthen their ability to make meaningful, lasting impact.
A Salford Alumna on the Rise: Leading the Future of Sustainable Supply Chains
Deborah Essel Anane represents the kind of alumni Salford takes pride in, thoughtful, ambitious, values-driven, and unafraid to confront the challenges of a rapidly changing world. Her journey shows how sustainability can shape careers, transform personal perspectives, and inspire global ambition.
Written by Saadan Hussain, MSc Sustainability student and Student Education for Sustainable Development Champion.