BlueMakers Podcast Series | MYRA Base

Yoram Krozer is a researcher and a very enthusiastic person about sustainable innovations. He worked in non-governmental organizations and industries. After twenty years in the private sector, he joined the University of Twente as director of the Cartesius Institute, Institute for Sustainable Innovations of the Netherlands Technical University, thereafter as a professor at the CSTM of the University of Twente. 

After retirement, he continues to support ethical business start-ups in the Sustainable Innovations Academy and is a visiting professor at the TU of Graz. 

His work on the economics of sustainability includes the development of products, software, master and vocational courses, about a hundred papers, and several books.

In this episode, Yoram talks about his perspective of sustainability and innovations. He also shares some information about his research with practical examples. 

Henry Ukoha Ogbonnaya is a systems practitioner and professional in the circular economy. An avid researcher and cleantech enthusiast passionate about developing sustainable business models, optimizing business processes and operations, and designing products and services from an innovative perspective. His intense passion for the environment drives him. He approaches his work from a systems perspective, paying special attention to the circular economy and cradle-to-cradle design principles, thereby strategically positioning an organization in the green economy. He collaborates with both the public and private sectors to create a more sustainable product/service offering. He is a Nigerian from Africa.

Michael Boyle is a regenerative designer, enthusiastic about inclusivity and supply chain management. He organizes great workshops - Design Sprints, where people can learn how to analyze a problem and understand different stakeholders' perspectives with empathy mapping. He is an American from the USA who lives in Austria (Europe).

His passion is directly tied to the 4 components that make up Procurro Solutions LLC, founded by him.

Curt Hallberg is a design engineer, an inventor, and a researcher from Trelleborg, Skane County, Sweden. He's the inventor of Vortex Technology, which is a water purification system - without any chemicals. This method not just purifies water but precipitates minerals like lime in an environmentally friendly and efficient way. This results in cleaner water and conduits and a substantial amount of energy savings in industrial processes at a low cost.

In this episode, he talks about how we can replace chemicals with physics and purify water with simple steps at the industrial and household level. Curt shares his impressions of the Blue Economy, how he met with this concept and how he applies it in practice.

George Strickland is an executive director member at the Circular Economy Club from London, in North America. As a Membership Executive at CEC, he brings together the community of circular economy professionals in Canada and the USA. George is also working in the green & sustainable building field. He is experienced in leadership, business development, global networking, educational course development & delivery, speaker at conferences, trade shows.

In this episode, he shares his point of view of sustainable approaches and system thinking. I liked his expression of the elegance of a tree regarding how we treat nature. He also talks about biomimicry, replicating nature in businesses, waste, sustainable buildings, and materials.

Desiree Driesenaar is a cross-pollinator with a regenerative vision. She is a professional at e.g. EU Commission. Desiree is working with professionals in all sectors to transform governments and businesses with healthy triggers. She aims to make connections between the different stakeholders regarding sustainability. Her primary focus is new business triggers, new governance structures, technology based on the Superformula, combinatorial innovation, ecosystem restoration, it's all part of the same shift.

In this episode, she speaks about how she met with the Blue Economy, how she sees the sustainable transition through the three pillars of sustainability. She shares her point of view regarding biomimicry, Nature-Based Solutions, regenerative vision, and her perspective about the role of all of us in this story.

Dénes Csala is a sustainable energy researcher and professor at the Department of Engineering (Lancaster University - UK) and a data visualization researcher and professor at the Department of Economics (Babes-Bolyai University - Cluj-Napoca, RO). At the same time, he is a jury member at the Zayed Sustainability Prize board, together with Gunter Pauli (father of the Blue Economy). He also has different initiatives, like the Diáksztori with the Érted Organization, where they collect high-school stories from students for raising-awareness. 

In this episode, he talks about his background and all of the things whiches I mentioned before. Also, you can hear his point of view about consumption, the role of individuals in the sustainability transition, and how we can apply the data-visualization for implementing sustainable initiatives.

Christiana Gardikioti is a blue entrepreneur. She shapes her activity based on the Blue Economy by Gunter Pauli. She has been creating Nature Inspired entrepreneurial Ecosystem “the Meraki people” to pilot systemic design in her village(s) in Southern Greece. She is educating and promoting sustainability among the local youth and women by establishing circular economy business projects. She is dedicated to making Mount Parnonas the world’s first Natural Factory while preserving and enhancing its bio and cultural diversity acting Glocally. She is also a fellow member at BioSummit by MIT.

In this podcast, she talks about her impressions of sustainability, nature-oriented businesses, food as medicine, and the community's role.

Raffaele Mancini is a Blue Economy Expert. He has twenty years of professional experience in regional cooperation at the EU and international level. He also has a high level of expertise in marine and maritime affairs (coastal and marine tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, cruise and recreational boating, marine energy) and water resources (water laws and policies, integrated water resources management, climate change adaptation from water-energy-food perspective, sustainable hydropower, stakeholders' capacity building, and networking).

In this podcast, he talks about his perspective regarding the blue economy, maritime tourism, aquaculture, and the role of startups, corporations, and Z gen in today's transition.

Jason Scorse is a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He is also the director of the Center for the Blue Economy, which provides “leadership in research, education, and analysis to promote a sustainable ocean and coastal economy" in California, USA. In this podcast, he talks about his perspective regarding the relation between economy and environmentalism, sustainability, and veganism.

Ivanka Milenkovic is an entrepreneur. She produces mushrooms at EkoFungi. She also a member of ZERI (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives). In this podcast, she talks about her business experiences and her Blue Economy and Sustainability perspective. This episode is the only one which I recorded in the last year. The next episodes are freshly recorded.

Dear Friends, I continue my activity regarding interviews with blue entrepreneurs, professionals who work in the sustainability field, researchers, experts... So, I created this Podcast for a reason, to learn together about these topics.

I am not an expert but an explorer.

So, I hope this podcast can be a great source of inspiration not just for me but for you also. Protecting our Natural areas and restoring the destroyed, polluted areas is a crucial issue to me... And I know we all are just individuals, but some of us have a household, an SME, a corporation, or an organization... It does not really matter, what we own, but it truly matters what we do with the owned position, "power"...

This is the reason why I never gave up on the Blue Economy topic, and I hope I'll never will. I am not a fanatic. I learned about different concepts also, and I think the final goals are the same. Just the implementation and the methods are different, as we - humans being are different too. And I think it is awesome. There are a thousand initiatives, but they still need time to reach more people. Perhaps there are some barriers, like lack of information, lack of resources, lack of knowledge, lack of... who knows? :))

If you think that we have something in common - being curious, willing to learn more about these topics, improving skills, wanting to deepen scientific knowledge --> then let me invite you to listen to this small initiative - the BlueMakers Podcast.

I hope you'll find it useful. If not, please, let me know, so I can learn from my mistakes.

Kindly,

Orsoly