Europe responds to
global challenges
Accelerators redefine
future of food
MORE THAN A MAGAZINE
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Impact Innovators is a new platform dedicated to using
the power of communication to grow a culture of
awareness and a community of active pioneers from
across the quadruple helix committed to achieving
the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Susan Robertson, Co-Founder, Innovators Magazine
Europe will continue to play a leading role in
addressing many of the global challenges (SDGs).
The EU Top50 Startup competition launched at
the European Innovation Summit in 2017, for
example, supports impact innovators develop solutions
to these challenges. While the recent introduction of the multi-
billion euro VentureEU, a venture capital ‘fund-of-funds’ supported
by the European Commission, the European Investment Fund,
and international investment fund, Axon Partners Group – which
provided an award at EU Top50 – is another example of the joined
up thinking and strategic direction driving progress across the
continent. Efective communication is another important element in
accelerating the transition to a better and sustainable world for all –
and that is where Impact Innovators comes in.
Dr Roland Strauss, Managing Director, Knowledge 4 Innovation
I’m the latest addition to the Innovators team.
I have been selected to kick-start the ‘Impact
Comms’ programme, a new project letting
young professionals experience the power that
communication plays in accelerating progress.
The new Quarterly platform is not just about this magazine; social
media chats, events and networking sessions will be some of the other
tools we will use to generate the connections and exchange of ideas
that can trigger efective action from industry experts, leaders and
people that are passionate about our world, just like you and me.
Carlotta De Toni, Impact Comms Lead, Innovators Magazine
IN THIS ISSUE
CORE TEAM
Welcome
2 Communication as a game
changing tool
4 Q&A with UN SDG advocate,
Marc Buckley
8 Landmark year for European
Innovation Summit
10 Young pioneers take
centre stage
12 Policy makers have a
clear mission
15 Accelerator seeks solutions to
zero hunger
18 Thomson Reuters focuses
on driving positive
societal impact
Editor | Iain Robertson
Partnerships | Susan Robertson
Digital | Ryan McFadyen
Design | Blair Carrick
News & Features | Carlotta De Toni
Operations | Gillian Greig
We accept no responsibility for any efects from errors or omissions. All material is copyright and reproduction is not permitted without express permission. All rights reserved.
Let’s build a better
world together
By Iain Robertson
This century is crying out for a world that can find solutions to
the challenges that threaten its very existence.
he rather long to do list currently
facing humanity is getting a little
longer every day, as the negative
impact of climate change, confict,
dwindling resources and rising populations
present difcult questions on how best to
move forward.
Finding the answers will require everyone
to contribute: individuals, businesses,
governments and academic institutions – and
in a collaborative way. Thankfully we have
the tools to accelerate the desired impact:
innovation and communication. Throw in a
handy international blueprint to guide our
actions: the 17 UN Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) – and we have the means and
direction to build a better world.
Impact Innovators is here to harness
the power of communication to help
fast-track the journey towards that better
world. A new European-based platform,
it has been borne out of an ongoing
collaboration between Innovators Magazine
and Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) - an
organisation which promotes a culture of
innovation across the European Union.
The progress and impact of the European
Innovation Summit (EIS) and EU Top 50
Startup competition (EU50), two K4I-led
initiatives, will be communicated through
the platform.
“Communication is a key element
in accelerating the creation and adoption
of innovations that can overcome
society’s biggest challenges – and
deliver a sustainable future for all. The
European Innovation Summit and EU
Top50 competition are vehicles for
advancing and facilitating change driven
by science, new technologies, research
and innovation. And this new multi-
media quarterly platform complements
them with actionable messages,
discussions and debates that are
designed to mainstream transformative
ideas and opportunities,” said Dr
Roland Strauss, Managing Director
of Knowledge4Innovation.
Walking the talk
Impact Innovators will also showcase the
pioneering companies, programmes and
accelerators - like the EU Top50 - from
Europe and beyond, that are developing
and advancing the solutions and ideas
which will take us closer to realising the fair
and sustainable world we all want.
We’re going to go further than that
though, by taking storytelling full circle.
While examples of great breakthroughs can
undoubtedly provide inspiration; Impact
Innovators must sit at the nexus of innovation
and communication to function as one big
call to action – targeted at all groups.
This means that as well as having
articles on the innovators and innovations
positively transforming our world, the
quarterly magazine element – which
will include a fagship annual edition
distributed at the European Parliament
during EIS – will also link them to the SDGs
they are tackling, and most importantly,
highlight the corresponding programmes
Join the
conversation
Sign up for free regular updates
from Impact Innovators here.
It is where you’ll fnd all our latest
news; and information on our
plans for the platform’s inaugural
Impact Comms Forum, an event
that will examine the types of
communications that have the
greatest impact when it comes to
mainstreaming new ideas.
and initiatives you can join to help achieve
the related goals.
Between editions we’ll have a mix of
podcasts, Twitter chats, webinars and
events to maximise the game-changing
impact of communication; and we’ll raise
awareness across the quadruple helix, in
a way that’s deliberately cross-sectoral,
engaging and digestible.
People power
Our newly launched ‘Impact Comms
Programme’ is an integral part of what
we’re trying to do. It puts people at the
heart of the movement pushing for change.
The sponsored programme asks someone
with skills honed in an industry-specifc
discipline like biotech, food and drink or
clean energy, to report across sectors: to
learn about the growing and necessary
cooperation between them and to take new
communication skills into their future roles.
Carlotta De Toni, who works in food
innovation, is the frst to pilot this programme.
“I’m delighted to be the frst to join the
Impact Comms Programme, designed to let
students and professionals experience the
interconnections between sectors and the
key role communication plays in accelerating
progress and innovation,” Carlotta said.
For students taking industry-
focused uni courses (incl food/
drink; biotech; circular economy)
Apply comms and cross-sectoral
knowledge in future roles
Embark on
role focused on
sustainable and
disruptive innovation
aspects of these
industries - from an
SDG angle
Vlog personal
journey
Report cross-sectoral news and
opinions generated at events
Attend industry events, including
EU50; EIS; Seeds&Chips
Connecting communities
IMPACT
COMMUNICATIONS
PROGRAMME
6 month multi-media
comms role
Feeding knowledge
gained back to sector
Q&A with
Marc Buckley
Member of the Expert Network for the
World Economic Forum for Innovation,
Social Innovation, Climate Change,
Agriculture, Food and Beverage |
Innovation Special Adviser, Bayer Cares
Foundation | UN SDG Advocate
What does ‘impact
innovation’ mean to you?
Impact innovations disrupt, help or
solve more than a million people’s
problem or address a Global Grand
Challenge through meaningful impact to
society and markets. It means bringing
exponential impact innovations to solve
people and planetary problems in
exponential times.
How important is it to
align innovation and
the SDGs?
The world is moving away from
linear thinking and the silo
approach for solving problems. The SDGs
are a systemic approach and are all tied to
the basic needs of life especially those of
humanity. Let us say it this way - it is
harder not to align innovation with the
SDGs than it is to do so. If you do not see
our world from an ecocentric/ecosystem
view you are stuck in a linear/silo view
of the world.
This ‘business as usual’ model is ripe for
disruption in 70+ markets of the world.
Businesses that want to be around in
the future need to make sure they have
dynamic systems and business models,
and include the SDGs as the foundation
that provides the resilience to hold their
business together well beyond 2030.
How should we tackle
the SDGs?
It’s important we understand and
begin to see SDGs as a component of
a holistic system that will help us to
transition to a resilient, sustainable future.
The goals are the largest open
consultation ever held, and represent a
tremendous opportunity to again make
humanity aware of the Golden Rule as a
guiding principle. They were agreed by 196
countries at the 2015 UN Climate Change
Conference in Paris and aim to enable us to
meet the goal of the conference—known
as the Paris Agreement—to keep global
warming below 1.5 degrees by 2030. The
goals are: no poverty; zero hunger; good
health and well-being; quality education;
gender equality; clean water and sanitation;
afordable and clean energy; decent work
and economic growth; industry, innovation
and infrastructure; reduced inequalities;
sustainable cities and communities;
responsible consumption and production;
climate action; life below water; life on land;
peace, justice, and strong institutions; and
partnerships for the goals.
They are often depicted in a linear
poster, but that may disguise the fact that
they must be achieved within the safe
operating space of a resilient and stable
planet. We need to transition the planet
into a safe operating space. Looking at an
exponentially growing problem in a linear
way may not be the best way to understand
it. In the same way that Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs depicts our physiological needs,
it is helpful to look at the SDGs in the guise
of a wedding cake, as devised by Johan
Rockström, Executive Director of Stockholm
Resilience Centre, and Chairman of the
EAT Advisory Board, and Pavan Sukhdev,
Founder and CEO of Gist Advisory. The
base layer is the biosphere: life on land; life
below water; clean water and sanitation;
and climate action. The central layer
contains society: no poverty; sustainable
cities and communities; peace, justice, and
strong institutions; afordable and clean
energy; good health and well-being; quality
education; gender equality; and zero hunger.
The top layer is the economy: decent work
and economic growth; industry, innovation,
and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; and
responsible consumption and production.
And at the pinnacle is partnership to attain
the goals. This shows how all the SDGs
are directly or indirectly connected to
sustainable and healthy food. It is a paradigm
shift to see our planet as non-negotiable,
and not as a factor that limits prosperity,
transformation, and success. It proves that
food is a prerequisite for success. If we can
succeed with food, we will succeed for all
people and also for our planet.
More specifcally, the wedding cake shows
how global food reform can afect the whole
planet. The agriculture, food, and beverage
industries are the greatest strain on natural
resources and on the health and wellbeing
of everyone on Earth. The majority of the
food we grow frst goes to feed cars, then
animals, and lastly humanity. Our food is
creating a pandemic of obesity, diabetes,
asthma, heart, and other health problems.
The fossil fuels and refrigerants we use to
produce and transport these products are
a bigger emitter of greenhouse gasses than
the oil and gas industry, and are keeping that
industry in business. The packaging for food
is causing biodiversity loss in our oceans
and contamination on land. Globally, 30%
of all food produced is wasted or thrown
away before it is consumed. If we dispose of
this waste by burying it as landfll, it comes
back to bite us as methane, which is seventy
times more powerful at trapping heat than
carbon dioxide. Even if this waste is burned
or dumped into water, the long-term
results are not much better. There is a third
component to this. The Paris Agreement and
the SDGs are not the only things that are
required to keep global warming below 1.5
degrees by 2030. An economic and fnancial
fgure was agreed as well: to invest 90
trillion USD worldwide in sustainable
developments in infrastructure,
including private and public energy,
Marc
Buckley
Is Marc speaking near you?
May 7-10: Seeds&Chips Milan, Italy
May 9: FReSH: The 4.0 Food Economy @ Seeds & Chips by AHK German Italian
Chamber of Commerce Milan, Italy
May 16: LifeGate Food Business Bologna, Italy
May 24-25: Pioneers Vienna, Austria
May 30- June 3: Bayer Bejing Beijing, China
June 8: 60 years of Young, Sustainable and Quality Agriculture Giovani di
Confagricoltura – ANGA Rome, Italy
June 11-12: EAT Foundation, EAT Stockholm Food Forum 2018 Stockholm, Sweden
June 19-22: Tech Open Air Berlin, Germany
Check out www.marcbuckley.earth for more details and an updated list of events.
transport, and water by 2030. These
climate-friendly investments will
pay for themselves in the medium
to long-term, and will ensure that
we reach our 2030 goals. This fgure
represents six trillion USD per year
from 2015. We fell 700 billion USD
short of one trillion USD in the frst
year, and 200 billion USD short in
2016. However, we are on track to
break one trillion USD in 2017,
which will still leave us 17 trillion
USD behind in sustainable
developments for 2018.
As well as needing to understand
the SDGs properly, we need to put
the 90 trillion USD by 2030 into
perspective. The UN predicts that
there will be 8.5 billion people on
the planet by 2030; this represents
a spending of about 10,500
USD per person, or 882 USD per
person per month for one year. It
is also important to understand
the resources required to sustain
one human life to a normal life
expectancy in 2017. This has been
calculated at 1.6 global hectares (a
global hectare is an expression of
ecological footprint and biocapacity).
Since August 2, 2017 we have
been using 2.87 global hectares
per person, which represents a
defcit of 1.17 global hectares per
person. If we continue with business
as usual, human demand on the
Earth’s ecosystems is projected to
exceed what nature can regenerate
by about 75% by 2020. Similarly, if
we continue on our current path,
the Global Commission on the
Economy and Climate projects
that the world will invest 89 trillion
USD by 2030 regardless, most of
which will be spent on insurance and
emergency response—essentially
Band-Aids for high-carbon, climate-
damaging businesses. By investing the
90 trillion USD in resilient, sustainable
infrastructures and low-carbon,
renewable projects, we would have an
additional 14 trillion USD investment
with long-term returns that will support
8.5 billion people by 2030. It’s been
business as usual for too long. We need
to stop and reverse global warming
now. Businesses that are reducing their
carbon emission by 30% to 60% are
still doing harm, just less harm. If you’re
headed in the wrong direction, you
need to stop and turn around. Slowing
down just means you’re going slowly in
the wrong direction.
What steps can people
take to contribute to
the SDGs?
Have a voice and let social and
political leaders know how you feel.
Break old habits and adopt new ones with
your own personal SDG adoption of the
goals. Innovate within your own life to be
resilient and local with how you eat and
use resources. The reform is not with you
but the agriculture, food and beverage
producers. Currently we have little say in
how they produce. We can make our voice
heard and let them know they need to
change their ways to sustainable
production. There are many tools available
to help and make this easier. It starts with
a desire to change then shaping it into
new positive habits.
The top
three things
we can do
to stop and
reverse
global
warming are:
Global food
reform
Rethink
refrigerants
Empower
women and
girls
Marc Buckley
WE NEED
“If you want to be a startup billionaire, you have to solve a billion peoplesʻ problems”
Thimo V. Schmitt-Lord MBE, Head of Bayer Cares Foundations
We believe in the game changing power of innovation – we support pioneers who apply tech innovations to humanityʼs
biggest challenges around health and food.
In
2018
we
are scouting for
Startups,
Innovators,
and
Impact Innovations
particularly
focused
on
agriculture and food production for our seed funding programs and new book "The Beauty of Impact - Food". We are
searching for innovations that solve the food crisis and other global grand health-related challenges that we
can promote and fund to bring to the rising billions in need around the world.
Seeking funding yourself for a crazy “Innovation-4-Food” idea?
Impromptu Pitch May 10 from 2-4 pm @ AHK German Italian Chamber of Commerce Pavilion Bayer Booth
The next opportunity to meet the Foundations CEO Thimo V. Schmitt-Lord and UN SDG Advocate, Expert Network World
Economic Forum, Open Innovation Advisor and Speaker Marc Buckley is at Seeds & Chips May 7th-10th.
“If you want to be a startup billionaire, you have to solve a billion people’s problems”
Thimo V.Schmitt-Lord MBE, Head of Bayer Cares Foundations
We believe in the game changing power of innovation – we support pioneers who apply tech innovations
to humanity’s biggest challenges around health and food. In 2018 we are scouting for startups, innovators,
and impact innovations particularly focused on agriculture and food production for our seed funding
programs and new book ‘The Beauty of Impact – Food’. We are searching for innovations that solve the
food crisis and other global grand health-related challenges that we can promote and fund to bring to the
rising billions in need around the world.
Seeking funding yourself for a crazy ‘Innovation-4-Food’ idea?
Impromptu Pitch, Seeds&Chips, May 10 from 2-4 pm @ AHK German Italian Chamber of Commerce
Pavilion Bayer Booth
The next opportunity to meet the Foundation’s CEO - ThimoV. Schmitt-Lord, and UN SDG Advocate, Expert
Network World Economic Forum, Open Innovation Advisor and Speaker - Marc Buckley is at
Seeds & Chips, Milan, May 7th-10th
rganised by Knowledge4Innovation
(K4I), and held at the European
Parliament in Brussels, it has frmly
established itself as the continent’s premier
cross-sectoral industry and policy event.
In 2017, lively debate sessions at EIS
focused on the impact and opportunities
being created by global innovation
megatrends, including artifcial intelligence,
big data, the bioeconomy, megacities,
regenerative medicine and cybersecurity.
The summit also included the launch
of the new EU Top 50 initiative for young
innovators. Serial pioneer, Bertrand Piccard,
co-founder and CEO of the Solar Impulse
Foundation was the keynote speaker. He
European Innovation
Summit turns 10 in
November
The annual European Innovation
Summit (EIS) will celebrate its tenth
anniversary this year.
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009