Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim has been an advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples and the protection of the environment for over 15 years. She is leading a community-based organisation in Chad, AFPAT, which is active in most international Sustainable Development Goal areas, including climate change, biodiversity, desertification, health & education.
Bren Smith, GreenWave executive director and owner of Thimble Island Ocean Farm, pioneered the development of restorative 3D Ocean Farming. A lifelong commercial fisherman, he was named one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s “25 People Shaping the Future” and is author of Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures as a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer.”
Twitter: @GreenWaveOrg
Dr Karve is the Director of Samuchit Enviro Tech, a social enterprise promoting sustainable products and services. She is a member of the Executive Board of Clean Energy Access Network, an India-wide society for decentralised renewable energy technologies, and the National Facilitator of the Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change.
Dymphna is the CEO of the Clean Cooking Alliance, bringing 25+ years of experience in global development, energy, and climate initiatives. She has worked and lived in China, India, and Kenya, and engaged with island nations in the Caribbean and the Indian and Pacific Oceans to support their transition to renewable energy.
Twitter: @DymphnaVDL
From covering the extremes of war and the worst human tragedies for a decade and now chronicling the best of humanity working to protect nature and critically endangered species, award-winning National Geographic photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale has come face-to-face not just with conflict and violence but with surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit.
Owner and director of the Klima2020 company working with climate communication and investment in green business. Founder of the UN Environment centre GRID-Arendal in Norway. Former Director at the UN Environment headquarters in Nairobi with the IPCC secretariat as part of the portfolio.
Twitter: @tveitdal
Alex career has always been dedicated to the solar industry: He worked as a Product Manager at Solarwatt AG, before moving to Canada and becoming Managing Director at Soventix Canada Inc., a global solar project developer. In 2016, he founded the Greentech Startup Zolar together with his Co-founder and friend Gregor Loukidis. His vision: Changing the world’s energy generation to 100% renewable.
Christian Breyer’s major expertise is the integrated research of technological and economic characteristics of renewable energy systems specialising in energy system modelling for 100% renewable energy, on a local but also global scale. He worked previously for Reiner Lemoine Institut and Hanwha Q Cells. He is chairman for renewable energy at the Energy Watch Group and reviewer for the IPCC.
Twitter:@ChristianOnRE
After 10 years of professional experience as a technical expert for financial software vendors. Gilbert set up Fermat, a risk management financial software house acquired in 2008 by the rating agency Moody’s. To date, Gilbert owns/is a shareholder of a dozen of companies operating in various domains, including EasyMile.
Andrew Nisker has made over six feature-length environmentally focused documentaries that have been broadcast on the worlds leading media outlets including CBC, Netflix, TF1 and Sundance Channel. After twenty years of filmmaking, he continues to find and tell stories that inspire viewers to take action on climate change.
Twitter: @andrewnisker
Ajaita is the Founder/CEO of Frontier Markets, a company providing access to affordable clean energy solutions to low-income households in India by building a network of rural entrepreneurs. She also serves on the board of Frontier Innovations Foundation, a non-profit focused on last-mile distribution support for clean energy companies.
Twitter: @Ajaita_Shah
Eugene is a Malawian born Dronepreneur who’s passionate about robotics and using drones to solve problems in developing countries. He is Co-founder of MamaBird, an emerging drone logistics company focused on health care deliveries in Africa.
Twitter: @eugenemaseya
Fernando Laposse is a London based Mexican designer, specialising in transforming natural materials that are often considered waste into refined design pieces, allowing their historical and cultural connotations to take center stage. His works address topics such as sustainability, the loss of biodiversity, community disenfranchisement and the politics of food.
Instagram: @FernandoLaposse
Good On You is a fashion-tech startup that helps shoppers know the impact of fashion and buy better. With over 15 years experience in corporate social responsibility, Sandra has been concerned with sustainability and supply chain issues in big business for a long time. She started Good On You because she believes there’s a huge opportunity to the use power of people’s choices to create a fairer and more sustainable future.
Nithya Ramanathan is the CEO and Co-founder of Nexleaf Analytics. She leads Nexleaf’s efforts to preserve human life and protect our planet through the design of sensor technologies, data analytics generation, and advocacy for data-driven solutions to global challenges.
Twitter: @NithyaRamanath1
Meike is passionate about fighting poverty. During a 20-plus year career spanning five continents, she has helped large numbers of people gain access to energy, water and sanitation services. Previously she held various leadership positions during her 16 years at the World Bank. Earlier she worked for the Global Water Partnership and Doctors Without Borders.
Twitter: @MeikeVanGin
Som has been working to establish Carbon Masters as leading carbon management experts in India. He has evaluated several low carbon technology solutions that will help Indian companies to reduce their carbon emissions and save costs. He is currently working with a major Telecom Infrastructure provider to reduce their diesel consumption and carbon footprint.
eTrash2Cash is a social enterprise that helps low income people in Nigeria exchange all their wastes for cash incentives.
Sigrid is a communications specialist with over seven years’ experience in various industries including e-commerce, technology, business, travel, and public affairs. She helps shape external perception for listed companies, smaller startups, consultancies and government institutions alike.
Ruth’s business management experience extends over 20 years. She manages finance and oversees strategic development at XDI, which provides investment grade analysis of physical climate risk.
Giuseppe has been responsible for the coordination of EU-funded research projects at the European Consulting Brussels in Belgium, and has worked as an external consultant for the RAI – Radio Televisione Italiana in a project for digital literacy. Since 2015 he has been part of the PUSH Innovation Lab as a Strategist and Project Manager.
Yisha He is the Chairwoman of the Board of the UNISUN Energy Group. She also co-founded “Women in Renewables Asia” as a women’s self-help development platform to drive gender diversity across the renewable energy sector, while creating greater value and encouraging social innovation by diversifying the sector’s industrial development.
Alexandra Wandel is Executive Director of the World Future Council. Previously, she worked for Friends of the Earth Europe in Brussels, Ecopeace Middle East in Cairo and East Jerusalem and Greenpeace in Hamburg. As the spokesperson of Women for Peace and Ecology, she co-hosted the first International Women’s Forum parallel to the UN Climate COP 1 in Berlin.
Twitter: @WandelAlexa
Eyong Blaise Okie is an international award-winning freelance multimedia journalist. He has produced content for numerous international organizations and TV networks including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Deutsche Welle, Africa 24, BEIN Sports, the Washington Post and CNN.
Sharon is an award-winning multimedia journalist. Based in Botswana, she contributes for Thomson Reuters Foundation news, Xinhua News Agency, SOPA Images, Botswana Guardian Newspaper and more. She is a fellow of 2019 Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, Climate Tracker COP24, Wits Africa-China Reporting Project and a Chairperson of the Botswana Society for Human Development.
Twitter: @SharonTshipa
Edelsin is a participant of BYkids, an organization that mentors teens around the world to tell their stories through film and share the realities of global inequality and injustice on the world stage, to share her life story and fight against the climate crisis with the world.
In the last 16 years working in the energy sector, Kofi has designed and implemented a number of energy efficiency projects. Mr Agyarko also served as a member of the UNEP-GEF lighting and refrigerating task force put together in 2015 to develop policy guidelines for accelerating the global adoption of quality, energy efficient lighting and refrigerating appliances.
CCEEE is organisation that works collaboratively with experts in energy efficiency to initiate Energy Efficiency China, a research project designed to summarise and analyse important issues related to energy efficiency in China. Her organisation provides policymakers with technical assistance and feasible policy recommendations with the research results.
Justin is an artist, designer, and translator based in Berlin, Germany since 2001. For many years he worked with art galleries, travel and tourism companies, and internet start-ups. In 2012, he shifted his professional focus almost exclusively to artistic and culinary projects in the vegan and travel communities.
Servane Mouazan is an innovation entrepreneur and activist, passionate about co-designing human-centred practices and impactful strategies with socially conscious organisations in private and public sectors. Through her company Ogunte, she has spent 20 years amplifying the work of women in social enterprises and campaigning for an inclusive gender lens.
Twitter: @ServaneMouazan
Koen Peters is Executive Director at GOGLA, the association for the off-grid solar energy industry. Throughout his career he has been active in various private and public sector roles, supporting sustainable and green business development, specifically renewable energy.
Twitter: @KJPPeters
Environmental activist Nguy Thi Khanh has been working for the socially just development of Vietnam and Southeast Asia for almost 20 years and received the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to push Vietnam’s energy transition.
Helen is the Chief Executive Officer of The Climate Group. In addition to leading the growing Climate Group team, Helen sits on the board of the We Mean Business Coalition and serves on the advisory board for the Global Climate Action Summit, leading the work on Healthy Energy Systems.
Twitter: @hl_clarkson
Amy Au is a Project Officer for SDSN Youth. She is currently the Digital Communications Manager of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation based in Stockholm and Geneva.
Kira Mullally is a Project Officer for SDSN Youth. She is currently a Master’s Candidate at the Graduate Institute Geneva, studying International Affairs with a focus on Environment and Sustainability.
Ndoni Mcunu is a PhD Candidate at Witwatersrand University’s, at the Global Change Institute and the Founder & CEO of Black Women in Science (BWIS), a registered non-profit organization which aims to deliver capacity development interventions that target young black women scientists and researchers.
Alexandre focuses on a societal model where humans are part of the upcoming circular economic framework, here they are considered nature – at the heart of the regeneration of the biosphere they depend upon to live – and, they are considered endlessly available energies that will aim at restoring a world at scale focused on human prosperity first thanks to material circularity.
Twitter: @AlexLemille
Fred started his career at Caltech / NASA JPL where he developed an award-winning software to study Climate Change. As an investor & serial entrepreneur, he has spent his life supporting the energy transition. BeeBryte is an AI software company which helps commercial buildings and factories to consume electricity more efficiently.
Sieun first delved into the topic of environmental migration in 2009, while researching climate change negotiations. This led to her interest and determination to work in environmental migration, and to be a voice for those forced to leave their homes due to the effects of climate change.
Next Kraftwerke GmbH is an operator of a large-scale virtual power plant (VPP) and a certified power trader on the EPEX energy exchange’s spot market. Jochen is responsible for Sales, Product Development & Technology, and has driven the company’s development towards more flexible marketing of renewable energy.
Mariama Kamara is the Founder & Director of Smiling Through Light which provides clean, reliable & sustainable energy in Sierra Leone through the sales of solar products. Her current role includes working on development projects at local, national and international levels relating to Science & Technology, HIV, Microbicides, Education and Innovation.
Twitter: @smilingmk
Carl Brockmeyer currently leads an ambitious digital transformation initiative for the industrial global player Leybold. An entrepreneur at heart and experienced ROI-driven global leader by trade, he is very familiar with the world of dynamic start-ups and young ventures as well as the needs and demands of established corporations.
Nancy E. Pfund is Founder of DBL Partners, a VC firm whose goal is to combine top-tier financial returns with meaningful social, economic and environmental returns in the regions and sectors in which it invests. DBL has helped to reveal the power of VC to promote social change and environmental improvement, and Nancy Pfund writes and speaks frequently on the field of impact investing.
Twitter: @NancyPfundDBL
As a journalist, environmental communications expert and social media manager, Lucia enjoys giving a voice to social business projects. She loves getting lost in nature, and she is a strong advocate for gender rights and sustainable projects. Passionate traveller, ocean lover and enthusiastic storyteller, she recently joined the ENERGIA team as Communications Officer.
Holger Kraft is a partner in CMS Hasche Sigle, Germany, and has been nominated as one of the six leading lawyers for energy related M&A and finance transactions by JUVE Handbuch 2018/2019. He has special expertise on M&A transactions in relation to energy projects, in particular in relation to project financed offshore and onshore wind transactions.
“We Nigerians are affecting our environment directly. All you have to do is look up to the sky and see the dense smog that hovers over Lagos on most days.”
“Our common task is to not stop being critical and demanding, and we need to be vocal, show that we are a critical mass with political ideas that need to be acknowledged.”
Our actions (or inactions) over the next few years will determine the fate of humanity. Each of us need to look at what we personally can offer up to the transition to a new sustainable economy.
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