Our Story
| It all started with an idea... … or, one might say, with a deceptively simple observation: for the world to properly respond to the global sustainability challenges, new kinds of organisations and partnerships are necessary. Traditional international institutions alone will not suffice. Straightforward as this notion may seem, when we looked around the world in 2007 for such a platform to "plug into", we couldn’t find a home. We were students and entrepreneurs at Uppsala University, all eager to make a difference. Our solution? With a passion for sustainable business and a no-nonsense approach to climate change, we decided to take matters into our own hands. Our task was this: to create an organisation without borders, able to generate ideas and solutions, that contribute to a shared, low-carbon future. “We wanted something that was, at once, holistic and visionary in scope, yet results-focused,” explains Arne Forstenberg, Executive Director and co-founder of GlobalFOCUS. |
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GlobalFOCUS takes shape - and takes off! With the help of critical support from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), GlobalFOCUS was created in 2007, taking the shape of a “project platform” for the enterprising students around us. The first project launched was a review of Swedish climate politics. Deep interviews with all parties led not only to an innovative report, but to several parties pushing forward their positions on climate change. We felt empowered after proving to ourselves that good ideas and hard work can accomplish change. From day one we knew that GlobalFOCUS had to work beyond Sweden to have a real impact. In December 2007 we launched our first project in China called Global Perspective Essay Competition engaging top students at Peking University. Since then, GlobalFOCUS has hosted and supported a range of high-impact projects. Some have focused on investment into Clean Tech innovation while others have dealt with educating the next generation of leaders in China. Others still – have sought to broaden the debate on sustainability, taking it beyond the scope of science and technology to include emotions and visions of the society of tomorrow. We have also introduced a collection of services supporting change-makers within large organizations. The common denominator of our projects and services is the ambition to change mind sets for a sustainable future. |
The word is spreading Good news travels fast and so, despite minimal marketing, our brand is increasingly recognised across Europe and Asia as a mark of a dynamic and innovative approach to sustainability. We have given lectures and seminars at leading universities such as Harvard, Sciences Po Paris, Peking University and Uppsala University, and presented our projects results at the European Parliament, UN Headquarters in New York, and the Clinton Global Initiative offices in Austin, Texas, among others. Media in several countries, including CNN, Deutsche Welle and China Radio International, have covered our projects and studied our overall impact. In response to this positive exposure, we now have a growing network of change-makers and thought leaders from a broad cross-section of global society. |
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