02 September 2024 – How did you first hear about the Club of Rome and why did you join it?
The Club of Rome is unique and different from other nonprofit organisations because it looks at things holistically. I believe, to address the complex challenges we are facing – some call it a polycrisis – systems thinking is at the heart of identifying solutions. And applying it in the right way can help open new doors, to look at the problem from novel perspectives. That’s the most significant learning from my 20-year association with the organisation. In the early 2000s I met Professor Raoul Weiler, then a member of the Club of Rome Executive Committee, at an event I was organising. This inspired me to join Think Tank 30, then the youth arm of The Club of Rome. Later, from 2005 until 2008, I served as the Club of Rome’s Deputy Secretary General and became an associate member after that.
What is your vision for the future and how do you contribute towards making it a reality?
Every day we are inundated with negative reports of all kinds. I believe we need to create more positive visions of the future and positive narratives. Storytelling is an important way to do that.
I co-founded Purpose Driven Innovation Ecosystem (PDIE), a company that enables sustainable ecosystems and advises green startups. We assist promising entrepreneurs with the identification of funding sources, primarily investors, with the goal of co-creating a better tomorrow. Focus areas include important verticals such as decarbonisation, biodiversity loss, circular economy, green smart cities, and others.
We also put on supporting events such as the Future of Climate Summit during Climate Week NYC, and more recently, an event on Sustainability and AI in Davos during the World Economic Forum. Such events provide great opportunities to identify relevant stakeholders to the start-ups we’ve been working with. We’ve supported and nominated a few of the finalists and winners of the esteemed Earthshot Prize, which supports innovators to tackle the greatest environmental challenges we face.
Along with PDIE, I’m proud of the work being done by Arts and Nature Social Club (ANSC), a non-profit I co-founded and am the programme chair of. Its mission is to create empathy for nature and to perceive ourselves as an integral part of it. In line with the goal to connect the arts, science and entrepreneurship with a sustainability perspective, ANSC hosts high-level salon events with a diverse range of decision makers and opinion formers, showcasing more sustainable pathways and positive future narratives. Hereby, the arts serve as a vehicle to highlight the opportunities – financial and otherwise – that more sustainable lifestyles offer. This helps our audience to understand and experience sustainability from another angle.
What role do young people play in creating a positive future?
Young people are essential in redefining our perspective on a liveable future. Look at the huge impact that Fridays for Future has had around the globe. But it is not only young people’s voices that matter; young people convincing their parents to go along to their demonstrations also has a huge impact. Parents that may not have thought about sustainability before get to learn more about today’s challenges and empathise with the vision and experiences of young people. Young people’s voices are critical and their collaboration with older generations is what really makes a difference.
What do you believe is most crucial to help business leaders young and old convey their sustainability efforts to different audiences?
I believe mentorship is essential and this often implies older people working together with younger people. It’s not just mentorship from one side to the other, there’s a lot both sides can learn from each other, including historical knowledge and novel viewpoints.
I hope that through my own mentorship work I can make a difference at multiple levels such as with more mature scientists or young professionals building up their own businesses. The essence of my approach is to encourage cross-learning from different disciplines and ask the right questions to help teams explore different aspects of creating a successful solution or technology.
Where do you think we can draw the most inspiration to reduce our impact on the planet – in terms of technological innovation or traditional and indigenous knowledge?
First, I think it’s very important to draw inspiration from very different sources. Technology is great and I think it can make a difference. But we must think about the solution from a systemic perspective. Because often if you come up with a solution, it may solve one problem, but if you’re not careful, it can create multiple other problems. Addressing the issue from different angles is crucial. For example, there’s a lot of wisdom that comes with indigenous insights. Indigenous leaders share unique knowledge that predate their own lives and goes back many generations. This is so important when considering complex and vital areas such as guardianship of the Amazon.
Multistakeholder dialogues are crucial to help us come up with solutions that address issues from various perspectives. An example for a potential trade-off may be the displacement of indigenous people resulting from the exploitation of natural resources, such as lithium, that are a necessary ingredient for the energy transition and thereby drive green innovation. Both perspectives have the potential to cross-fertilise and inspire each other. As a result, in the medium to long term, answers will hopefully address challenges in a more holistic and consequently more effective way.
What does sustainability mean to you – is it self-defined or is there a common goal?
There are important aspects of sustainability which are universal that we all need to adopt. For instance, we should all adhere to the resolutions of Conference of Party (COP) meetings, both for climate and biodiversity. At the same time, there are also very personal aspects about sustainability. I think that we should listen to ourselves deep inside and figure out what sustainability really means to us and how we can live a more sustainable life. Areas such as philosophy and the humanities aren’t mentioned often in the context of sustainable development, but I think they can nurture our souls and allow us to contribute more to our collective wellbeing as a result.
Ultimately, I believe that sustainability should always be about a more positive future.
