Meet Finland’s young changemakers of the year
Youth leaders take on sustainability, from sneakers to skyscrapers
By Celia Sanchez-Valladares and Hillary Alamene
There are countless ways to make our world more sustainable — and some couldn’t be more different. Take the two teams who received Ashoka Nordic’s Young Changemaker of the Year Award for 2021: While the youth behind Rens Original are focused on re-inventing the shoes on our feet, You Tell Me Collective is looking at how we construct our cities.
Read on to discover how young innovators are using leadership, empathy, and creative thinking to create change in their communities — and the global environmental movement.
What if your cup of coffee could transform into fashionable sneakers?
The young people behind Rens Original have a recipe to make this a reality, using twenty-one coffee cups and six recycled plastic bottles per pair.
Son Chu, co-founder of Rens Original, is creating a more circular fashion industry through up-cycled materials. Hoping to see sustainability factor more into their friends’ consumption choices, Son and his team started Rens Original in Finland to change consumer behavior in the long term.
For other youth wanting to make a difference, Son has three tips: Collaborate with others, invest in your passion and strengths, and always use inclusive communication. “If you want your idea to prosper, invest in your team’s interest [and] align their mission with yours,” Son says.
Let’s talk about city buildings
Buildings and construction currently generate around 39% of global CO2 emissions. As a group of enthusiastic changemakers, the You Tell Me Collective is taking a new approach to architecture education.
The group created “evening schools” via a platform where they host regular meetings with students, architects and experts to share knowledge and best practices. Through these gatherings, they hope to see climate literacy built into curriculum and evaluation criteria across Finland’s universities.
Going a step further, the You Tell Me Collective is working to create more conversation around construction’s environmental impact. We need to broaden the public discussion, they say — moving beyond carbon dioxide and energy efficiency towards issues of land use and biodiversity loss.
Starting a new project can be intimidating. But the founders of You Tell Me Collective are convinced that embracing the discomfort can lead to rapid learning, more self-confidence and a strong sense of purpose. The team urges others not to go at it alone.
“Everyone needs to be part of making the change because of the scope of the challenges we are facing today,” they say. “There are enough questions to solve for everyone to be part of changemaking.”
What’s next
Connecting with experienced mentors from Ashoka’s network, the teams behind Rens Original and You Tell Me Collective are continuing to develop their ideas.
You Tell Me Collective is working to measure their environmental impact and demand more change across the architecture field and construction industry. Meanwhile, Rens Original is looking to accelerate their business through a deep dive into supply chain and social impact.
Each team is taking a different approach to our planet’s most pressing problems, but they show us how we can all be part of the same movement. Being a “collective” is about elevating and encouraging each other, the You Tell Me Collective reminds us: “By acting as a collective we can support and champion each other onward.”
About the award: The jury members of this award included Ashoka Fellow & Founder of Idrott Utan Gränser, Admir Lukacevic, the Founder of Måndag media agency, Arto Salonen, President & CEO of Virala Corporation, Alexander Ehrnrooth, Senior Management Consultant, Bo-Erik Ekström, CEO of Karyon, Mathias Bergman, and Ashoka Finland’s Country Manager, Amanda Sundell.
More changemaking to come: Both awardees will be connected to the Finnish and Nordic community of changemakers in events, summits and online forums this year. The global Ashoka network of Young Changemakers includes more than 40,000 young people across the globe. Find out more about young people who are creating an Everyone a Changemaker world here.
