Covestro, The DO School and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) teamed up to support the next generation of environmental leaders from around the world with The Young Champions of the Earth venture program.
The Challenge:
With the rising threat of climate change, sustainability has become a core principle for organizations across all industries. How do we empower the most promising environmental innovators and entrepreneurs to build a brighter future for us all and connect them with established companies to benefit from each others experiences?
How we approached it
Two cohorts of Young Champions of the Earth joined a yearlong mentorship and coaching program to strengthen their resilience and build out their strengths. We matched all participating entrepreneurs with relevant mentors. The DO School team and community provided mentorship and coaching for the finalists.
Together with Covestro and UNEP, we developed and delivered an Incubation program for the winners – both in-person and online. The approach led to increased visibility of Young Champions Winners at the UNGA and it gave participants access to The DO School’s Community – particularly our Expert Network.
In addition, Covestro employees got to share their knowledge and experience with the young entrepreneurs while learning from and about their innovations.
Solutions
The solutions driven forward by the entrepreneurs covered a wide range of environmental challenges – from Gator Halpern restoring coral reefs to Adam Dixon transforming agriculture with hydroponics or Miao Wan and her ocean conservation efforts.
The impact of these exciting global efforts is threefold.
- The Young Champions continue to expand and scale their impactful projects.
- Our corporate partner Covestro was able to connect their employees with young and incredibly driven innovators and environmental thinkers. The Covestro mentors were able to grow their own sense of impact through the engagement and learn from their entrepreneurial, independent and idealistic spirit. Participating employees got a chance to see that Covestro takes sustainability seriously.
- The program highlighted and amplified the work of these young changemakers, inspiring another generation of DOers around the world to think big and take action.
