Month: March 2017

The challenge: Come up with a moonshot idea to help mitigate climate change (+ it must have a positive impact on 1 billion people). Easy.

I sat down and did a quick brainstorm. Solving climate change is not really my domain, as most my ideas are oriented towards people and how we can improve their lives. I looked into the meat industry, and how much resources it actually takes to produce one patty. Then I looked into plastic pollution and especially ocean plastics, and how it affects our world. It is such a great initiative to clean up the ocean for plastics, but it does not really solve the problem we have with platics today. We need to dig deeper and talk about human behavior in terms of usage, consumption, and disposal of it.

I clearly remember the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh and in Kathmandu, Nepal, where all the trash is just laying around in the streets. It was really terrible. I needed to solve that problem, but how? I spent quite some time to come up with a sustainable for-profit model! I came up with the idea Trashnology – an incentivized waste management system. People in developing countries collect trash in the streets and get paid per kilo for the waste collected! Not only do we clean up the streets, we also try to nudge people and incentivize them to recycle/clean up for money! We do it to some extent in Denmark with our deposit on plastic bottles. What if… we could use the same model in developing countries and on other plastics too!

I believe this is an idea that can impact our environment and help millions of people in developing countries. I now have my idea for Danske IDéer, now I just need a lot of data and validation from Bangladesh for the idea.

Last week, I participated in the Global Solutions Program, Danske IDéer 2017, which was facilitated by SingularityU Denmark and sponsored by the Danish Industry Foundation. A big shout out to the fantastic organizing team behind that made it all happen! I am grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in such an amazing mind-blowing program.
At the program, there was a focus on creating a positive impact through the use of exponential technologies. The world faces several grand challenges and this workshop focused on climate change. Up until now, the earth lost 52% of its species due to climate change. 64 innovators were gathered to look for opportunities and massive inefficiencies. How can we help as many people as possible? We, as humans, are built to think in a linear way. This is not sustainable as we live in an exponential world. In order for us to understand the challenges we are currently facing, a five days’ program were packed with amazing speakers and mind-boggling discussions. I still cannot wrap my head around all the amazing things that are currently going on. We had several workshops on robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and biotechnology (transhumanism, CRISPR). Some of the things that amazed me were:

1. Scientists are bringing back the mammoths!
2. You can now record your dreams. This is currently being tested on rats, where scientists discovered that your dreams appear to be 6x faster than reality. Being a vivid lucid dreamer, I am super stoked to hear about this.
3. Biolab on a chip that can diagnose diseases from a single drop of blood in a few minutes. I had a similar idea, andI wanted to use the technology behind to tailor-made meals/vitamins supplements based on the blood sample.

Apart from learning about the new technologies, I also met a fantastic crowd of human beings. All of these wonderful people wanted to contribute to saving the world. I have always been a firm believer of Maersk McKineys quote: “Den der har evnen, har ansvaret” (= The one who has the ability, has the responsibility). It was wonderful to meet like-minded people who felt the same way. I feel grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing program.

To add a cherry on the top, I got one of the five finalist spots. I was chosen by my peers, and it is such a great honor! Next step is a pitch March 31st. Unfortunately, I cannot be there in person, as I am pitching an idea at the MIT bootcamp the same day. Luckily, the time difference works to my advance. With the use of technology, I can even beam myself in! I praise that we live in a world with technology that is at such an advanced stage, where you can communicate in real time with persons on the other side of the earth. I am curious to see what the future brings, and I do hope that I will be able to teleport myself from one place to another… or maybe we should just start with the hologram.

The last two weeks were intense, as I had lots of materials I wanted to read prior to the two bootcamps. Danske IDéer 2017 kicks off on Tuesday, and I am now reading up on exponential technologies, and how they might affect our society moving forward. Once I dive into a topic, I can easily sit in front of my laptop screen for 13 hours straight – time just fly by. It is, therefore, important to me that I get out of the apartment and work from different places, so I won’t take root in my office chair at home. This week I went to four different places:

SingularityU Copenhagen: This is a new space that just opened up this week! It is going to be a new innovation hub, and it seems to be very promising. I visited my friend, Jesper, at Ideanote, and got a small tour around the place. It is a vast space with more than 5000m^2. The place is committed to making a positive difference by creating initiatives for entrepreneurs and students for impact activities. Awesome! I have the feeling this is not the last time, I will enter this building.

SOHO: Wednesday, I had a presentation at 10 AM for the Bestseller Foundation on the strategy moving forward with the African company Ogojiii. I really like SOHO (Small Office Home Office) due to the diversity of people and companies. I found a spot on the first floor and began to read about the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

The Black Diamond: I love working from here. I often used to go here to study for my exams. The vibe is great, and their reading rooms allow me to sit down and focus. There are two reading rooms in the building: East with 142 seats and Noth with 99 study desks. The only downside is the opening hours, as they close at 8 PM. My stomach does appreciate it, though, so I will head back home to raid the fridge.

CIID: Today, I am working from Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, where I am visiting my two friends David and Asger at M-Payg. It is great to be able to catch up with friends and work at same time.

Wish you all a lovely weekend!