Social Innovation Speech
On 12th of December 2022, I got invited by the Innovators Serendipity Academy to speak at their last event of the year on the topic of social innovation.
Since unfortunately the quality of the recording is a bit shaky (you may still find the link at the bottom of the page) I decided to post a shorter summary of my speech, which are in the end
my personal ingredients for social innovation. The essence for impact.
AI (“drawing of a whale by a 6 year old kid”)
summary of speech
Save the Whales
When I was a kid I saw a documentary about whales and they were telling, that those beautiful animals are becoming extinct. I was shocked. I decided to do something about it, painted a picture of a blue whale and rang every doorbell in the street that I was living in.
DingDong, do you want to save the whales?
At one point, a lady offered me 20 Swiss Francs for my cause, but wanted to at least have my painting as a souvenir.
(thats why the AI painting)
I realized that it works better, with ‘giving something back, and I remember very clearly, that in my childish understanding I somehow calculated, that every street will save a whale, - at least! I was so inspired by the story, that I wanted to take action.
Stories. They were always & since ever used to educate kids, explain them the world; prepare them for the life.
Stories. Something my Italian grandfather was a master in.
We already have the first ingredients, it’s not rocket science in the end, keep this simple:
1) INSPIRATION, by stories
2) EDUCATION , by stories
3) PURPOSE , a cause. heart/soul
AI (Iitalian grandfather tells a story to his grandson )
Education was also something that inspired me when I worked for a large media house in Zurich. I was in a team called ‘Future Audience’ and the aim was to introduce a younger target group to the content strategies of the newspaper. We already presented a platform for university students and wanted to start a concept for teenagers, too.
We organized workshops with the target group to find out, what they are interested and what kind of formats they would enjoy the service. It was exciting to see that the teenagers devoutly addressed, that they want to participate and also write the content and the stories themselves.
A certain group of students stood out, they were the most motivated and in the end, they were allowed to built an own editorial team, and take over the content strategy, accompanied by the senior editors.
NZZ Toolbox, 2015
In the whole creative process something magical happened and the people with the same purpose formed a group, a community.
4) COMMUNITY , a group of likeminded people
As an informational way of communicating with the younger readership, the students opened a WhatsApp -channel, which worked like a newsletter – back in that time, a completely different approach for a magazine - like an uncomplicated way to reach their community using a technological tool.
So we add 5) TECHNOLOGY to the dish of social innovation, it’s almost a given.
Later and in my last job before founding my own business editoria33, I was working at Too Good To Go and committed to the fight against food waste. A 1/3 of all produced food goes to waste again. That's a lot. How do you tackle this dilemma?
Too Good To Go uses a mobile app – again technology – to bring together the producers, the households, retailer, wholesaler and lets them all do business on their platform. Win-Win-Win.
But the company goes a step further, they don’t not call themselves “a tech company” or specifically an app. Too Good To Go built a movement.
A large community of like minded people committing to the fight against food waste; purpose.
Let's talk about EcoNation.
For me, in EcoNation all comes together.
The purpose of EcoNation is to educate people about circular economy, to tackle climate change and the global waste disaster,
+ use new technology.
I met Pascal, the founder of the app through a mutual friend. It clicked from the beginning and we decided to put all the puzzle pieces together and in the end, built a whole Web3 project -slash-platform. Why? Scaling - Impact!
The app has as we speak already 32k users and won a circular economy prize in Germany back in 2021.
The app lets you spot waste-collection points, document and digitalize your recycling, or has a specific cleanup function, – for example for parks or beaches. One may use the app individually or also a group, a class of school kids for example, or, think about team building and social engagement played in a company environment. Therefore, “as a community.”
EcoNation uses Gamification and at the same time educates about circular economy. It shows the saved emissions or even a function for scanning materials. And all. in a fun gamified way, similar to Pokemon Go – very much in the language of a younger traget group. Challenges.
We at EcoNation strongly believe that the pollution disaster should not only be made transparent on the blockchain but should also be incentivized.
Gamification / Incentivisation.
With EcoNation the user collects points – EcoCredits – for their eco-friendly actions.
The community validates the actions by the others on the platform = Is this a PET plastic collection point? If yes, the validator gets EcoCredits, too.
—> “Proof of the community” = maximum transparency.
Screenshot EcoNation App
The users may exchange the EcoCredits for sustainable products in the own app marketplace, download content or since very recently, also connect their wallet and mint NFTs.
To scale the project faster and reach the right target groups (which are of course international), we decided to bring EcoNation to Web3 and for example fractionalize our recycling maps, which are connected to the real world, into Land NFTs.
Now those virtual land owners participate in all eco-credits transactions on their land. Our next step on the roadmap is to create a Token for the EcoCredit, so looking into the whole topic of carbon credits/offset. By that, we are able to build a whole new and own eco-system and “economy”.
I am thinking about the informal sector. A waste picker/collector suddenly gets a transparent value back and even more importantly, has access to the finance world. Imagine a waste picker in Africa, who has almost no chance of getting a bank account, may now connect his wallet, securely, and on top get value with the eco-credits = tokens (= fe plastic credits = value)
Transparent.
EcoNation pilot-project in Bhutan, 1h = 80kg of waste out of nature (Oct 2022)
Web3 Communities and projects meet on different platforms. Instagram or TikTok for example, play only a secondary role and are more of a nice-to-have.
Web3 uses Twitter, where the Twitter-Spaces are a very useful tool to communicate, interact and engage with the community. It’s interesting to see LinkedIn started to experiment with a similar format. The most important communication platform is Discord, a chat which works similar to Slack, which many of us might know from a business context.
What is typical for a NFT/Web3 project, is that you usually don’t show your real face and don’t reveal who you are, your real identity. Like for example we are used to do on LinkedIn, but instead one uses a “PFP”, a profile picture, which is most of the time a NFT project itself.
And I don’t want to go too much in the direction of identity and Metaverse, which is whole topic on itself, but again focus more on the the aspect of community.
Your tribe - it was always like that, right? Identification, Purpose – all plays together.
This is Glatic.
Galactic is 19 and from an Indonesian island. He likes NFTs and so he somehow stumbled over our project and the first thing he did, was post picture in our EcoNation discord showing a local cleanup with kids. He also applied for a job as discord moderator and of course got it, since he has shown us he understood the cause and our vision.
Again. Community.
A very important aspect of the Web3 space: It provides jobs a possibilities.
Not only marketing wise as moderators of projects and community handling, think for example specialized developers with knowledge of smart contract, token economists or blockchain engineers.
This is Izzy.
Izzy might be on of the most genuine persons I have met in a long time and is a team member of EcoNation, our local partner in Bali.
Izzy became friends trough the recycling industry with the founder Pascal some years ago, he is also into NFT but most of all a true waste warrior, a public speaker, ocean steward and very passionate about circular economy and digitalization/Web3 – “a match made in heaven”. BigUp Izzy.
EcoNation at a beach cleanup @ RipCurl surf, Bali (October 2022)
The EcoNation NFT for Indonesia has the real life utility meaning every sold NFT, got 10kg+ out of nature in Bali, with local partner organizing irl cleanups.
With Izzy we are grateful to not have only found a trusted partner with the same vision and values, but also a friend. He is connected with the local shareholders and by that, we are able to scale the impact and built EcoNation faster, more direct. so, BigUp Izzy!
This is nautical33.
Yep. This is actually .. me!
My main PFP and my Web3 Identity in the space.
For me personally the strongest community, super active, all highly active in building a “better space”, very innovative, absolutely respected and constantly pushing the boundaries. PA also supports the research in psychedelic medicine&psychology.
Their main topic is mental health in all his facets and exploring the new possibilities of mindfulness and wellbeing.
By connecting my wallet on their website, the system recognizes that I own one of their Genesis NFTs and by that, get access to a whole platform. I may book a 1:1 with a licensed professional and get support in different fields, from life coaching to breath work/meditation to Web3 development.
Or, I have the possibility to sign in to a group coaching, - again, a group of likeminded people. owning a PA also includes the access trough a mobile app, in the end it’s an absolutely innovative entry point for again, modern mental health support and stands for a exciting community.
https://coaching.psychedelicsanonymous.com/
Web3 constantly develops new stories and finds new, innovative approaches to social questions, – it combines “the ingredients” very well.
Community - the access. Education, the storytelling, new jobs – impact …
and, all of that:
Decentralized.
Since our the second EcoNation Genesis Land NFT Mint was Indonesia, we also had the chance to connect with a large NFT project in Indonesia called Mindblowon and had a Twitter space where in the end had 350 listeners and were able to tell about our cause.
Mindblowon has several Million followers over the channels since it emerged from a popular Indonesia comic. They minted 10 '000 NFTs and became a super large brand. They are already selling merchandise like sneakers, bicycles or even partnered with the largest noodle snack producer in Indonesia. They have for example branded photo booths, partner with music festivals and constantly develop their brand together with their community.
Why I mention it is, they work decentralized, as a DAO.
Decentralized Autonomous Organization
Mindblowon is exploring different fields, not only entertainment and uses their funds for example for supporting the fight against sexual violence against women in Indonesia, pushes education or is very aware of climate change and local pollution.
They decide which topics and involvements together as a community. So a together, a movement - and most of all: transparent (= on a Blockchain)
The members of the organization (or ‘project’/’brand’/..) control and decide – a DAO does not have a boss decides structure, there is not a classic hierarchy. It is very democratic.
So as a resume, lets put it together one last time to conclude.
My personal, intuitive ingredients for social innovation.
.. & let’s not forget the most important one.
Love.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIOvqLRo2Pg
