INSPIRE YOU THEY WILL

Meet a stunning team that will share their experiences and visions in sustainability.
Please note that minor changes may be made.

Andrius Plečkaitis

Andrius is an active contributor to development of innovation ecosystem in Lithuania. His professional experience spans applied research, IT business development, lately focusing on strategic consulting in new product development and expert work in specific topics, as well as broader innovation policy. He has graduated software engineering from Kaunas University of Technology.

Company: INFOBALT
A private non-profit Lithuanian ICT association promoting the use of ICT to benefit society, businesses and public sector. More than 150 members from business, education and research.
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Presentation topic:
Is product innovation about partners? Implementing your sustainable idea usually takes more than just you. Should you create and run your own innovation ecosystem? What are the steps and key success factors to build teams and long term partnerships, run the innovation process together?

Anna Zabezsinszkij

She’s the Founder and Designer of PRIZM, the escape room games with meaning and the Influencers Institute – Accelerate global environmental and social change. She finished as Construction Architect, studied entrepreneurship, coaching, plant nutrition, and public speaking. Anna founded PRIZM in 2016 and the Influencers Institute in 2017.

Anna has a key role in developing ideas, execute design, leadership and organizational tasks, drive and guide the spirit of her companies.

Company: PRIZM
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Presentation topic:
1. Gamification – Adding a twist to boost engagement with sustainability
2. Sustainability on our plates – The power of starting with small changes

Camilo Fernandez

A 23 year old Colombian entrepreneur, co-founder of Kaffe Bueno, passionate about coffee, technology and sustainability. I am an organised, outgoing and practical individual with financial and commercial experience. Lived and worked in London for 3 and a half years, where I got my bachelor degree, and where I had the privilege to meet many people from all over the world and got to see how different cultures react to different issues, and how this issues were resolved with different approaches and different perspectives.

Then, we came to Copenhagen to start my business alongside my 2 business partners, I work mostly with financing, logistics and business development, and even though I do not have much experience being a speaker, I do feel thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to share our story with other young entrepreneurs and hopefully inspire some of you to integrate some of my knowledge in your own solutions taking into account the aspect of sustainability within your business models.

Company: Kaffe Bueno ApS
Kaffe Bueno is a startup based in Copenhagen. We are the 1st company to create a circular economy around coffee, using bio-technology to extract the oil inside coffee’s waste and use it as a main ingredient for natural cosmetics.
HomepageFacebook / Instagram

Cedric Charpenet

Investment professional with 10 years experience in investing/advising startups. Built a coconut water processing plant in 2014 and been interested in health products for as long as he can remember.

Company: Ötzibrew
Ötzibrew brings the highest quality natural remedies – starting with medicinal mushrooms – to the market in a user friendly and environmentally conscious way. We believe that the mushroom kingdom has many treasures to offer the human body.
HomepageFacebook / Instagram

Presentation topic:
Sustainability starts with me

Dalius Aleksiejevas

Currently – Head Chef at Trinity Restaurant, Vilnius, Lithuania.
10 Years of Hospitality experience. Experimenting and developing flavors from secondary foraged ingredients such as pine needles, tree bark, forest herbs, hay, grass, cones, soil to adapt them in everyday cooking.

Company: Trinity
Facebook

Presentation topic:
Secondary Foraged Ingredients – Going beyond mushrooms and berries. Appliance in food industry.

Diana den Held

Diana den Held is a strategist with > 20 years of professional experience. She has worked for companies like IKEA, Yamaha, Telfort, and ABNAmro, walked the red carpet at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, and won a silver Esprix award and a FEDMA-’best of Europe’ award, amongst other recognitions. She describes the common thread in her work as “effective, targeted implementation strategy.”

From 2008 to 2016 she had worked as strategic advisor for one of the two founders of “Cradle to Cradle”; Michael Braungart. During that time she built up substantial expertise on Cradle to Cradle and following from that, Circular Economy. She’s currently in the societal supervisory board for VolkerWessels, one of the largest construction firms in the Netherlands.

Her main research interest is the transition from Triple Bottom Line to Triple Top Line paradigm in organisations. Her students f.e. do research on technology transfer at the European Space Agency (ESA), experiment with NASA’s plant technology for air quality in office buildings, investigate team diversity for developing healthy cosmetics, look at the CE potential of 3D-printing, or analyse regenerative sustainability strategies at event organisers.

Diana gives lectures and workshops and is one of the 88 renowned Dutch scientists invited by the ‘Groene Zaak’ to contribute to the ‘Groene Brein’.

Company: Rotterdam School of Management

Gavin Stewart

Currently I am a lecturer in applied linguistics at Kaunas University of Technology, where I have been since February 2016. When I am not lecturing, I work as a private chef and restaurant consultant. This started in my last city of residence – Milan – where I worked as a private chef for some of the city’s best chefs, cooking Michelin Star dishes at prestigious events around the city and operating in Italy’s top gastronomic events, including Identità Golose and Taste of Milano.

Company: Kaunas University of Technology
Homepage

Presentation topic:
Youth and Food. Inspiring young people through demonstration of the gastronomic revolution and how they can impact the future of local and international cuisine. What are the best steps to follow? How can you set your own goals?

Greta Radzevičiūtė

Greta currently heads Katalista Ventures – a hybrid startup accelerator and private equity fund. Greta has experience of working with startups and startup accelerators in Lithuania, the UK and Spain which resulted in the passion for the entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Having researched sustainability-oriented startup development in the Netherlands, Greta is particularly excited to share her knowledge on scaling sustainable ventures and using innovative solutions to cope with global challenges.

Company: Katalista Ventures
A hybrid startup accelerator and private equity fund which focuses on supporting high-impact individuals & organisations that are pioneers in our rapidly changing times. Our mission is to provide customised support to enable these teams and scale their high-impact ventures sustainably, leveraging our network of mentors, investors and extensive expertise.
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Hicran Jonmark

She is an award winning marketer with over 14 years of brand and marketing experience in international markets and across different industries. Hicran is a positive self starter with a proven track record of planning and delivering successful marketing strategies.

Company: Bord Gáis Energy – Gas & Electricity Supplier Ireland
Been in operating since 1976 and today they supply over 680,000 customers with energy in Ireland. Since mid-2014 they’re also part of the global Centrica plc Group. Centrica is active in the energy chain – from sourcing it to saving it – and this helps to operate more efficiently.
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Presentation topic:
How to strengthen your brand with social responsibility.

Jakob Lewin Rukov

Jakob has a PhD in molecular biology from University of Copenhagen. He is the co-founder of Syngja, a company that produces beverages infused with crickets and introduces edible insects to the mainstream.

Company: Syngja
Syngja produces beverages containing edible insects. As such, Syngja is the world’s only provider of cricket enriched shots and mixers. We promote a new consciousness on edible insects as a healthy, sustainable and tasty food. Besides requiring fewer resources and emitting much less greenhouse gas than traditional farm animals, crickets also contain large amounts of Vitamin B12 – which (among many other features) helps to convert protein in the body – and is not normally found in fruits and vegetables. Thus, in short, Syngja brings cricket nutrition into an entire product category, where it is virtually non-existent.
Homepage

Presentation topic:
How to introduce edible insects to the European consumer.

Judith Kyst

Today Judith is the director of Madkulturen, Denmark. Prior to that she was the director of Fairtrade Denmark where she over a period of 14 years built the brand of the market and lifted the brand from niche to mainstream. Today she is the chairman of the board. She is educated from the university of Cambridge and University of St Andrews.

Company: Madkulturen
Madkulturen is an independent institution under The Ministry of Environment and Food. It was established in 2011 and has 30+ employees. Madkulturen’s vision is to inspire Danes to eat better food. In close cooperation with partners, Madkulturen develops solutions that convert knowledge and insight into specific projects and activities – both for individual consumers and for those who work professionally with food. The aim is to solve challenges in society by strengthening food culture.
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Justyna Wieczynska

Postdoc at Food Department at Aarhus University, working at the department since 2016 on improving quality of fresh fruits and vegetables with active packaging and natural compounds. I hold Master’s degree both in Environmental Protection from Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw (Poland) and in Mediterranean Organic Agriculture from CIHEAM – Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (Italy) and a PhD degree from Parthenope University of Naples (Italy) in the field of Environment, Resources and Sustainable Development. See her publications.

My main research interest: Organic food quality and microbiology. Post harvest handling of organic fruits and vegetables. Use of natural plant extracts with antimicrobial properties to prevent decay and to maintain shelf-life of produce. Development of active packaging with essential oil and plant extracts. Substituting commercial plastic packaging with biodegradable materials.

Company: Food Department, Aarhus University, Denmark
Homepage / Publications

Presentation topic:
Organic produce and biodegradable active packaging with essential oils.

Linus Larsson, Copyright: Photo: Viktor Westin, Apelöga

Linus Larsson is not just the Agency Director in Malmö for one of Sweden’s most sought after digital agency, he’s also somewhat of a digital Swiss army knife. As an SEO expert he knows the need to understand all parts of digital presence like tech, design, content and the business. All of these pillars are equally important for a good digital marketing strategy.

Company: Web Guide Partner
Web Guide Partner is one of Sweden’s leading digital full service agencies with around 35 consultants for search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, content, conversion and analytics. We serve companies all over Sweden and have offices in both Stockholm and Malmö.
Homepage

Presentation topic:
The 5 crucial things your website must do to succeed in 2018.

Lukas Jasiūnas

PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering, freelance science promoter and animal advocate. At the moment I am trying to find sustainable ways to add value to residual biomass, particularly by converting it into a liquid product which could compete with and eventually replace non-renewable alternatives in the production of plastics, adhesives, etc.

I am also writing articles introducing the work of young scientists of KTU to the public and thus presenting science as relevant and attractive. Finally, I review scientific literature on the topics of animal sentience and behavioural psychology to help with eliminating the socially accepted discrimination of animal individuality and sentience.

Company: Kaunas University of Technology, faculty of Chemical Technology, department of Organic Chemistry
KTU

Presentation topic:
The wastefulness of wasting waste.

Fra Grums til Gourmet

Mark is a Bachelor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in Aesthetics and Culture with thesis on ecological consciousness in the Anthropocene. Certified permaculturist and co-founder of Fra Grums til Gourmet.
Lasse, a mushroom enthusiast, is a voluntary member of Fra Grums til Gourmet and Denmark’s ambassador of the Prince mushroom (Agaricus augustus).

He’s currently travelling the world to learn from the best mushroom experts and mycologists while teaching others how to grow edible mushrooms on wasted resources like coffee grounds, sawdust, coconut shells and other plant material.

Company: Fra Grums til Gourmet (From Grounds to Gourmet)
Facebook / Instagram

Presentation topic:
Upcycling of coffee grounds to gourmet mushrooms: experiences from establishing a circular economy project based on voluntary work in Aarhus, Denmark.

Phil Tulba

Phil is an expert social and community enterprise consultant with over 16 years experience. He was recently ‘Head of Services’ for Locality UK managing a team delivering training and consultancy support to community enterprises of different sizes and stages of development.

Support included business and strategic planning, financial modelling and forecasting, skills audit and training and impact measurement.

Company: Phil Tulba Consulting
Homepage

Presentation topic:
Social enterprise and the circular economy: a UK perspective.

Sigitas Žemaitis

I took quite a long and diverse road to where I am now. It all started with a suit & a tie: corporate career in marketing communications, brand management, internal communications, customer experience field in the airline industry, etc. And then I quit.

It was time for working as a waiter, volunteering in biodynamic farms in Italy and getting back to the true idea of my path. Couple of years of efforts and Sweet Root restaurant was founded. Here, I regularly take the role of a general manager of the restaurant. But more often and more important – I am a waiter and storyteller.

Company: Sweet Root restaurant
We are a team of young and passionate people driven by the idea of taking a few steps back into the past in order to be able to rediscover the real meaning of a local restaurant – a dinner filled with truth and meals prepared from local ingredients in tune with the natural cycle of nature. On top of that – we want to break the old rules. We want to run our restaurant in a sustainable way and to prove it is achievable, possible, and important for all of us and our businesses.
Homepage / Facebook / Instagram

Presentation topic:
Turning off water tap when brushing your teeth. And other great victories from our journey to sustainability.

Tommy Fagerlund

CEO at Skandia Operations Center and Skandikon Operations Center, Lithuania since 2015. He’s also Founder and Chair of the Board, Lithuanian Swedish Academy, and a board member in the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Lithuania.

In the beginning of 2017, some friends started an academy with the aim to transfer knowledge between Sweden and Lithuania. Our prior project is to establish relations between the countries in road safety of the highest levels and we had our first seminar in Vilnius in October and there are more to come…

Company: Skandia
Skandia started 1855 as a Life insurance company, today Skandia also have a bank, Skandiabanken. Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, have been in Skandia since the beginning, and are even today, very important. In Lithuania, we have developed our CSR and mainly work with day care centres, teaching children school grades 1-5, in economics.
Homepage

Presentation topic:
How to introduce sustainability in a real world project

Vincas Benevičius

Vincas is all about innovations no matter the size. With over 10 years experience in research and development, he believes one should start with small steps, and leap ahead as knowledge, experience and understanding of surroundings sinks in. Full of creativity and energy, he enjoys living trough constant change.

Company: “žali žali”(R)
It’s a brand for the best sprouts you can find around. With over 15 varieties of sprouts and sprouted seeds, “žali žali” is the “richest” producer in the field. For them, its always about quality of things they make, and connection with the people they maintain. Its a family activity after all!
Homepage / Facebook

Presentation topic:
Urban Micro Farmer 2.0, the Next Generation

Visvaldas Varžinskas

Associated professor at KTU, Chairman of the Committee of Sustainable Development and Investment of Kaunas City Council, Partner of The EU Urban Agenda Partnership on Circular Economy, Head of KTU Centre for Packaging Research and Innovations.

Company: Institute of Environmental Engineering (APINI)
APINI performs research in the fields of sustainable development and environmental protection, implements national and international projects, and leads M.Sc. and Ph.D. study programmes. The backbone of APINI activities and research lies in practical engineering as well management and political solutions related to environmental quality, industrial sustainability and circular economy issues.
Homepage

Presentation topic:
EU cities needs in transition to a Circular Economy: future actions for better Regulation, Funding and Knowledge.

Ylva Haglund

Ylva leads Zero Waste Scotland’s consumer food waste work including Love Food Hate Waste, a campaign aimed at helping householders to reduce their food waste, and the recent ‘doggy bags’ initiative Good to Go, working with hospitality businesses.

Ylva’s team delivers a range of behaviour change interventions in partnership with communities, businesses, retailers and the education sector. She is part of the Food & Drink team within Zero Waste Scotland, with the overall aim of meeting the recently introduced Scottish Government food waste target to reduce Scotland’s food waste by 33% by 2025.

Company: Zero Waste Scotland
Zero Waste Scotland exists to create a society where resources are valued and nothing is wasted. Our work is becoming ever more critical against a global backdrop of rising population, climate change and unprecedented pressure on the world’s land, water, energy and raw materials. We’re working to create a more circular economy where products and materials are kept in high value use for as long as possible. This all contributes to the Scottish Government’s circular economy strategy and the EU’s Europe 2020 growth strategy.
Zero Waste ScotlandLove food hate waste

Presentation topic:
Appetite for reduction: Changing behaviours to meet Scotland’s food waste target.

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