Everyday professional: Svenja Gergeleit

Svenja Gergeleit: "I plant ideas"

22.01.2024 — "I plant ideas," says Svenja Gergeleit about herself. As a senior project manager, she is responsible for green and outdoor maintenance at Dussmann Facility Management. The tree nursery businesswoman has been with Dussmann since 2014 - and still enjoys her work every day. The lively 49-year-old is also closely connected to nature in her private life.

Mrs Gergeleit, you have been involved in green and outdoor maintenance practically all your life ...

Oh yes. My parents had a tree nursery. So it made sense for me to train as a tree nursery businesswoman. I then took over my parents' business at the age of 22 and ran it for 15 years. It was hard work - but also a really great and important experience. So green and outdoor maintenance has always been my hobbyhorse.

What does a typical working day look like for you?

There is no such thing, but there are of course recurring tasks. First of all, I have a lot of classic green-grey* topics - for example, I make recommendations to the purchasing department about work clothing and garden tools or test new products. I write procedure manuals and give training courses. I'm the first point of contact for the operational team in green maintenance when there are practical questions or problems. I also liaise with the regions and their customers. And I provide technical support to the sales team with questions about offers and property takeovers.

And I take care of the digitalisation of the division; I implemented our tree register in 2016. Put simply, this is a digital directory of all the trees at our Dussmann clients.

What do you like about working at Dussmann? What drives you?

I plant ideas! That perhaps best sums up what drives me. I'm the green aunt at Dussmann, my team sometimes affectionately calls me the "Green Queen". Sustainability is an incredibly important topic for me - both professionally and privately. And that's what I like about Dussmann, because I can incorporate these topics into my work. When I'm working on a facility management contract for an industrial plant, I try to inspire clients with sustainable ideas. These facilities could also be designed by the client to be close to nature, for example by greening the roofs of large halls. If the customer realises such an idea, we are very happy to take over the green maintenance of the hall roof.

It's fascinating: the roof is insulated in a natural way, less heating is required in winter and less air conditioning in summer. This reduces the customer's energy costs. A nice side effect of a green roof: many insects find a sheltered place here. Or we renaturalise existing fallow land and create a habitat for hedgehogs and moles - or simply a shady oasis for people to take a break.  

I know that it is often difficult to implement, because this added value for nature initially costs the customer more. But it is feasible - and I would like to contribute to this change in thinking. Bit by bit.

Would you like to tell us something about the private Svenja Gergeleit?

Of course. I have two children, live near Hamburg and see the horses from the stable opposite every morning when I get up. I live privately in a small oasis - and I even share it with other people. I rent out small garden plots for urban gardening. A wide variety of people come together here, socialise and learn from each other. I want them to understand what kind of work is involved in growing vegetables and to realise, for example, why good vegetables from the region cost a little more.

One last question for you as a passionate green gardener: What is your favourite garden plant?

Don't laugh: My absolute favourite tree is the Japanese cake tree. It looks so beautifully delicate and smells so deliciously of cinnamon and gingerbread. And in autumn it gets these intense red leaves. It's simply enchanting.

Thank you so much for talking to us, Svenja Gergeleit!

_{*Green-grey refers to the entire area of outdoor facility maintenance. Green stands for the maintenance of all existing green areas of a customer's property, for example lawns, flower beds or trees. Grey refers to the maintenance of sealed surfaces such as car parks, roads or pavements.}