Recently I heard from my old translation lecturer from Leeds University – which was a lovely blast from the past! She came across me on Twitter and it turns out she now works just down the road from me, at Warwick University.
She asked if I’d come and talk to the MA Translation students about how to build sustainability into your business model. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance! Not least because one of my goals from my Carbon Literacy Project training was to get in touch with universities to see if I could talk to budding writers and translators about sustainability.
While my business name is “The Ethical Copywriter”, I started out my career exclusively as a German to English translator – and still do select translation projects. So it was great to have the chance to speak to the next generation of translators about ethics and sustainability within the industry.
Ethics in translation
Translation throws up a whole new set of ethics questions, like:
- You encounter greenwashing in a text you’re translating. What do you do? Translate the text as is? Translate the text more loosely to avoid greenwashing? Ask the client to change the source text?
- How can you make a translation more accessible and inclusive without changing the meaning of the source text?
I posed these questions to the students and it led to some really interesting and fruitful discussions. We spoke about pushing back with clients and agencies to make texts more ethical. And about deciding where your personal boundaries are regarding ethics.
Picking sustainable clients
I also spoke to the students about things to consider when choosing which clients to work with. As well as whether it’s a good idea to niche – and how to go about it.
I brought up questions like:
- Does this client or agency have a positive impact on the environment and society? A negative impact? Or just a neutral impact?
- Do you want to niche with a certain industry, e.g. engineering or medicine? Or a certain type of business? E.g. small businesses or product-based businesses?
Ethical and sustainable business practices
And of course, I talked about how you can build sustainable and ethical practices into your business.
I gave examples of ways you can reduce your carbon footprint:
- Use green energy in your home, or choose a co-working space that uses green energy
- Opt for green website and email hosting
- Have a fossil-free business bank account, e.g. Triodos, Starling, Monzo
- Choose a green pension
- Make personal green choices
And ways to go further and make a positive impact:
- Donating part of your profits to a good cause
- Donating your skills – e.g. mentoring those with reduced access to education and training
- Creating ripples within your industry by talking about important issues and pushing back on unethical practices
It was a great turnout for the talk and such a lovely, engaged bunch of students, who asked really interesting and thoughtful questions. And it was lovely to chat with some of them afterwards about their future plans and aspirations.
