Communicate

Do you have questions?

Change-makers' personal recommendations

"The Power of Communication" (TED Talk)

"How to pitch investors" (article)

“Why Crowdfund? To make your idea a reality” (TED Talk)

LinkedIn (professional networking platform)

Further inspirational resources

A good solution needs to be told in an effective manner. Learn useful tips from our change-makers about how to pitch your idea.

They say the first step is the hardest. So how about a bit of help? Lessons from experience. Lessons from activists. Lessons from entrepreneurs. Lessons from doers. So you can become one of them. These videos will give you real insight into what it takes to make a difference.

Collaborate

"Why collaboration is an individual effort" (TED Talk)

Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides (software)

“How to ask for help - and get a yes” (TED Talk)

"How to collaborate successfully" (article)

Changing the world requires more than one person - rather many hands and many brains. Learn how our change-makers recognized the power of their team

Think

"Want to be more creative? Go for a walk." (TED Talk)

"Design Thinking: Get started with Prototyping" (article)

"Three simple tips for making better decisions"  (BBC video)

"How to think, not what to think" (TED Talk)

SubjectToClimate (resource library)

Startup school by Y-Combinator

How do you turn a good idea into a great one? Which questions should one ask themself and how does one ensure they are taking the right decisions?

Dare and Do

"How to manage for collective creativity" (TED Talk)

"How to get out of your comfort zone" (blog)

"How to turn your goals into reality: An A-Z of tips" (BBC article)

"Dare to dream" (TED Talk)

The greatest idea is nothing if you never execute it - be inspired by our changemakers who got their courage up and made the first step.

Innovative technology to reduce rice waste: Rice Inc with Kisum Chan

Kisum Chan

Kisum Chan's solution: Rice Inc

Key Concepts

Takachar (India)

ReGrained

Other change-makers addressing unsustainable agriculture

Reducing rice waste on farms with innovative technology in South East Asia with Rice Inc

In 2016, Kisum graduated from the British International School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, completing both his GCSEs and the International Baccalaureate diploma before moving to the UK to study Biomedical Sciences at University College London. In 2018, Kisum and three classmates won the Hult Prize, an annual global social enterprise competition for students with a prize of $1 million, beating out 200,000 other entries. The Hult Prize victory provided the springboard for Kisum and fellow student Lincoln Lee to launch Rice Inc, a social enterprise that works with farmers to help them reduce losses of rice and increase their income.

Exchanging waste for plants: Eco Star with Fatemah Alzelzela

Fatemah Alzelzela

Fatemah Alzelzela's solution: Eco Star

RecyclePoints (Nigeria)

Adventure Clean Up Challenge (Hong Kong)

Other change-makers addressing waste pollution

Raising awareness by exchanging waste for plants in Kuwait with Eco Star

Fatemah grew up in the State of Kuwait and graduated from high school at the Maria Coptic School in Zahra before enrolling at the American University of the Middle East in Egaila. In her early twenties, Fatemah became dismayed by her country’s disdain for the environment in several respects: lack of functioning green areas; air pollution problems; and most of all, lack of recycling. In early 2019, at 22 years old, Fatemah used her own cash as start-up capital to launch Eco Star, a non-profit recycling initiative that exchanges tree seedlings and plants for rubbish from homes, restaurants, schools, and businesses. 

Planting trees, one goal at a time: Trees4Goals with Lesein Mutunkei

Lesein Mutunkei

Lesein Mutunkei's solution: Trees4Goals

Tree Global (Switzerland)

Rainforest Connection (USA)

Other change-makers addressing deforestation

Fighting deforestation in Kenya and raising awareness by planting trees, one goal at a time with Trees For Goals

Lesein grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. He is 17 years old and attends St Mary’s School, a private Roman Catholic primary and secondary school for boys. He is an avid football player at the Ligi Ndogo Soccer Club in Nairobi. Lesein understood the impact of deforestation, climate change, and plastic pollution when he was about 12 years old. At 15, he took action: he decided to combine his love of football and nature by committing to plant one tree for every goal he scored. The “Trees4Goals Initiative” was born and went public in 2018. Lesein increased his target as the enthusiasm grew; now he plants 11 trees for every goal.

A circular model for second-hand clothing: FabricAID with Omar Itani

Omar Itani

Omar Itani's solution: FabricAID

Project Cece (Netherlands)

ECOALF (Spain)

Other change-makers addressing fashion waste

Creating a sustainable and fair circular model for second-hand clothing in Lebanon with FabricAID

Omar grew up in Beirut and earned his Lebanese Baccalaureate at the Beirut Baptist School in 2013 prior to entering Beirut Arab University (BAU) to study Industrial Engineering. It was at age 21 that Omar stumbled onto the realization that his parents had been donating used clothes to a family which discarded them. After some research, he learned that there was no proper system for collecting and redistributing used clothes in Lebanon, a country where about 3 million people cannot afford first-hand clothes. In 2017, and while still a student, Omar co-founded a non-profit called FabricAID in Beirut with two partners. Their goal was to create a socially and environmentally conscious value-chain for the apparel industry in Lebanon.

Eliminating the idea of waste: TerraCycle with Tom Szaky

Tom Szaky

Tom Szaky's solution: TerraCyle

Gumdrop (Netherlands)

Enaleia (Greece)

Other change-makers addressing hard-to-recycle waste

Eliminating the idea of waste through recycling and upcycling with TerraCycle

Tom was born in Hungary and emigrated to Canada with his parents at age 4. He grew up in Toronto and attended high school at Upper Canada College, where he developed an interest in environmentalism. He entered Princeton University in 2001 where he was interested in business and entrepreneurship. Through some friends, Tom discovered that worm e xc re me nt made high- quality fertilizer for houseplants. He started TerraCycle in 2002 with “Family & Friends” (F&F) money, dropped out of Princeton to pursue his vision of “Eliminating the Idea of Waste”, and launched his first product, TerraCycle Plant Food. His breakthrough idea was using discarded plastic bottle s as the packaging, thus claiming to have “an entire product made of garbage.”

Cleaning up floating ocean plastics: The Ocean CleanUp with Boyan Slat

Boyan Slat

Boyan Slat's solution: The Ocean Cleanup

Alejandro Durán (Mexico and USA)

Make a Change World (Indonesia)

Autumn Peltier (Canada)

Other change-makers addressing water pollution

Innovative technology to clean up floating plastics from oceans and rivers with The Ocean CleanUp

Boyan Slat is a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur who creates technological solutions for global problems. He is Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. At the age of 18, Boyan devised a concept which utilizes the natural oceanic forces to passively catch and concentrate ocean plastic, through which the theoretical cleanup time could be reduced from millennia to mere decades. In February 2013, Boyan decided to pursue the idea further and founded The Ocean Cleanup.

Climate-resilient agriculture: The Cacao Project with Louise Mabulo

Louise Mabulo

Louise Mabulo's solution: The Cacao Project

Wefarm (United Kingdom and Kenya)

BioPrime Agrisolutions (India)

Other change-makers addressing agriculture adaptation

Promoting sustainable and fair agriculture in the Philippines with The Cacao Project

Louise was born in Manila, grew up in Wales (UK) and later settled in Camarines Sur, Philippines. In 2016, typhoon Nock-ten laid waste to over 80% of agricultural land within the San Fernando region of Louise’s native Philippines. Farmers needed urgent help to reinstate their livelihoods, generate income and alleviate the local food shortage. Louise founded The Cacao Project in 2016 in response to the devastating effects of the typhoon. Her vision for the initiative was to provide participating farmers with cacao seedlings (a long-term, resilient crop) and short-term crops such as bok choi, okra and pumpkins (which are productive after 19-30 days) to intercrop with the cacao, plus other resources and training.

World's first land-based coral farm: Coral Vita with Sam Teicher

Sam Teicher

Sam Teicher's solution: Coral Vita

Climate Change

Overfishing

Land-based Pollution

Causes of Coral Reef Degradation

Coral Gardeners (French Polynesia)

MARS (Maldives)

Frozen Ark (United Kingdom)

Other change-makers addressing biodiversity loss

Land-based coral reef restoration farms to grow corals 50 times faster in the Bahamas with Coral Vita

Sam grew up in Washington, DC and earned his scuba diving certification as soon as he was old enough at age 13. This is when he “fell in love with coral reefs.” He attended a local public high school and entered Yale College, where he focused on climate change policy. While pursuing his master’s degree in Environmental Management at the Yale School of the Environment, his passion for reefs and his academic work opened his eyes to the problem of global coral reef degradation. Along with his classmate Gator Halpern, he decided to do something about it. In 2017, they co-founded Coral Vita with a $1,000 school grant and set up their headquarters in Freeport, Grand Bahamas. The company’s mission is to create large-scale, high-tech coral farms on land and plant these corals into degraded reefs, thus bringing them back to life.

Ridding the world of unnecessary packaging: Nohbo with Benjamin Stern

Benjamin Stern

Benjamin Stern's solution: Nohbo

Gjenge Makers (Kenya)

Bye Bye Plastic Bags (Indonesia)

Other change-makers addressing plastic pollution

Ridding the world of unnecessary shampoo plastic packaging in Florida: Benjamin Stern from Nohbo

Ben grew up in Brevard County, Florida and graduated from Viera High School in Viera, Florida in 2017. While a student, he worked part time in a submarine sandwich shop and later as a cashier at a supermarket. After high school, Ben won a Thiel Fellowship, a two-year program for young people “who want to build new things”, with a $100,000 grant attached. In his early teens, Ben realized that the world was choking on discarded plastic products. He decided to target the traditional packaging of personal care products and invented a way of encapsulating the active ingredients of hygiene products in pods made out of water soluble film. His company, Nohbo, gained worldwide recognition when Ben secured a deal with Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban. 

The Transition

Turning our world into a more sustainable one is possible. And many individuals, communities, governments and organizations are already working on some brilliant solutions.

Now is the time to walk the talk. Yes, some things are easier said than done. But we know this can be done. In fact, some things already have been done. And you can take part in the fun. That is where things get exciting. Dive into these videos to learn more.

Environmental Sustainability

Unsustainable Practices

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

How does the world approach sustainability?

Creating a more sustainable world requires us to understand what sustainability means - what is sustainable and what is not?

We aren’t starting from scratch. We already have a base for action. The ball is already rolling. People are talking. Goals have been set. Scientists, politicians, leaders and businesses are collaborating. From the dreamers to the doers. We’re all in this together. Understanding how all this works is what you’ll need in the long term. That’s what you can learn in these videos.

The Anthropocene

Humans are destroying and disrupting the planet. This chapter explains how humans affect the environment and the consequences of this impact

Humans have always left their mark on the environment. But now, it’s happening faster. The climate crisis. Deforestation. Pollution. Biodiversity loss. And everything in-between. This era is ours. Yes, it might seem like an overwhelming problem. But understanding it is the first step to solving it. That’s what you’ll learn in these videos.

Interconnectedness

Our planet

How are our environmental issues connected?

The amazing thing about our planet is that absolutely everything on it is connected somehow.

We are all connected. Interconnected. With each other. With nature. With plants. With the Earth. From symbiosis to the Gaia principle, interconnectedness is important. Important to understand our actions. Important to understand their consequences. And important to understand our potential. That’s what these videos are for.

Next video: Interconnectedness

Do you have questions?

Change-makers' personal recommendations

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Next video: Interconnectedness

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