beVisioneers: nurturing tomorrow's innovators

Tell us about your own journey, particularly where your passion for inclusive economies and societies, and making a positive impact comes from.

As a kid raised in Brooklyn, NY, in the 1980s and 1990s, inequality was a very visible reality. My subway ride and walk to school took me past people without homes and struggling with life on the streets. I didn’t understand why, in a city with so much wealth, there were so many individuals and families in need. That question continues to shape my work. 

The issue of inequality is becoming even more pressing, despite incredible advances in medicine and technology, because the gap between those with and without means is widening in most countries. I believe societies and humanity can do better for one another and the planet, and that drives my passion. I’m very fortunate to work at the intersection of the environment, innovation and equity through beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship and at The DO School Fellowships.

How has your approach to things like leadership development, opportunity and inclusivity, and the environment evolved over your career, and how drastically has awareness of these themes grown in response to sustainability challenges? 

Environmental issues in particular require leaders to think and act more inclusively, as those who are most affected by the effects of climate change are the same people with less access to decision-making tables. Networks and power remain concentrated in specific circles, and some of the challenges we face today arise from the fact that those circles are not exposed to diverse, lived realities. At The DO School Fellowships, we work with a wide variety of incredibly smart and deserving people with great ideas coming from lived experience in their communities. Our goal is to ensure they build confidence and develop tools to broaden their reach and impact so the changes societies pursue genuinely address challenges that diverse people face. 

How does your work incorporate environmental impact and the future of our planet, and can you tell us how environmental risks adversely affect the opportunities of young people? 

At The DO School Fellowships, we’re deeply dedicated to helping our partners and young entrepreneurs discover future opportunities in the new economy. There are no long-term economic opportunities or agency without protecting the planet, and labour market trends are starting to confirm this. Data shows that the number of jobs requiring green skills is growing at twice the rate that those skills are available in the market. People with green skills have a nearly 30% higher chance of getting hired in today’s market – in the energy sector alone, we’re expecting a net increase of 13 million jobs by 2030. 

Young people have an enormous chance to pioneer and drive the sustainability transformation we need, and the right training, knowledge and networks will help them to seize this opportunity. Our organisation aims to support a shift in narrative and training around green jobs so that reality reflects the very rich opportunity we have on our doorstep.

What did your time as Head of the WEF’s Forum for Young Global Leaders teach you about the importance of incubating young ideas, encouraging tomorrow’s changemakers, and the role of young people in building a more sustainable and fair future? 

I learned that leadership is most powerful when it combines the experience of established leaders with the dynamism of emerging leaders. At The DO School Fellowships, I continue to see emerging leaders’ willingness to question the status quo as a huge asset to societal transformation. Their risk calculus is different and their read on what’s possible is broader, and the inspiration this questioning and energy offers the world is unmatched. 

However, young changemakers need support and champions to build traction and credibility to get their ideas off the ground. They need resources and the practical know-how that comes with experience and longer-term networks. These, and others, are the assets that established leaders have built over time. When experienced and emerging perspectives and assets are effectively combined, the result can be extremely powerful in driving change. This is why we make sure to integrate intergenerational exchange into our fellowship programs at The DO School Fellowships.

What do you think about alternatives to traditional education in tackling some of the challenges we face, particularly things like leadership and citizenship skills, nurturing innovation and practical application? 

We’re at a moment in time when traditional education needs extreme reinforcing and reimagining – literacy rates across 10-year-olds have dropped by 13% since the pandemic, which indicates just how fragile traditional education systems are. I absolutely advocate that we must figure out ways to ensure universal access to high quality education. However, I also believe that humanity is innately curious and lifelong learning opportunities play an important role in bolstering the best parts of our nature, which is why I am so proud of our work to extend learning opportunities through The DO School. 

Research shows that many of the skills our workforce will need exceed traditional curricula like resilience, creativity, self-awareness, or curiosity. Fellowship programmes, maker spaces, peer mentoring, coaching, and on-the-job training build on tested principles of self-directed, applied and experience-based learning that exercise and prioritise these very skills. For adult learners especially, these more flexible and self-guided formats ensure that skills-building doesn’t end at graduation.

Tell us more about beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship and how it’s helping nurture a global community of planet-positive innovators? 

To build a more sustainable future, we need innovation from young people around the world. At beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship, we nurture planet-positive ideas from their inception, regardless of entrepreneurial experience or economic status. The journey starts with a 12-month hybrid-learning programme focused on the implementation of each Fellow’s project. Funded by a donation from Mercedes-Benz, we provide the programme free of charge to all Fellows and provide basic living and technology support for those who could not otherwise participate. Upon completing the intensive 12-month programme, Fellows continue to receive support to scale their projects and develop their leadership skills.

We’re building the biggest global environmental fellowship, aiming to train 1,000 Fellows annually by 2025. One of our guiding principles is promoting local, regional, and global exchange within our community, enabling us to address challenges locally that we may not be able to solve globally.

It’s a multi-year fellowship, starting with a 12-month intensive programme that provides Fellows with the training, expert support and resources to bring their planet-positive ideas to life. It involves a 24-hour month commitment in a hybrid learning journey, and is centred around three learning labs: Personal Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability and Venture Sustainability. 

Each Fellow gets 1:1 mentoring and is assigned a venture coach to further support them in their journey. Individual mentors offer support to Fellows on their growth as leaders based on real-life experiences and through insights, practices and connections. They also help them sustain their motivation and wellbeing. We’re always on the lookout for mentors and open applications to the public at certain times of the year. If people are interested in what it takes to be a mentor they can visit bevisioneers.world/mentors for more information.

Many barriers to education and entrepreneurship, such as the need for a proven track record, often stand in the way, but we believe that academic or entrepreneurial credentials aren’t the sole indicators of success; a true understanding of a problem and a genuine passion for creating change are the real measures of success. By ensuring that at least 50% of our fellows come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the fellowship empowers grassroots innovators to drive change from within, creating solutions that are both impactful and authentically rooted in their lived experiences.

Are there any projects or innovations from the first cohort that show the innovation or impact potential of the programme? 

There’s so many, but I’ll give you one from each region of our first cohort. In South Africa, Thabo Blessing Mngomezulu is introducing biogas technology in his local community as a renewable energy source to replace polluting fuels like wood, coal and LPG. Bioslurry is also promoted as an organic alternative to chemical fertiliser to improve soil health and crop yields. 61,200 households will have access to affordable biogas for cooking and heating once Thabo scales his project to five plans across several villages. 

In Europe, Saskia Manson is developing a data-driven platform which aims to make it easier for construction professionals to implement reuse strategies. Saskia predicts 98,000 tonnes of CO2e could be saved across London per year if 30% of major construction projects implement reuse strategies with the help of her project.

Chaitanya Sakre is tackling severe flooding in Indian megacity Mumbai. His project focuses on a water-absorbing asphalt that transforms entire neighbourhoods into safer, low-flooding areas. A pilot with flood-proofed road to a newly built hospital is underway. According to Chaitanya’s research 146,000 people could be protected from excessive street flooding if his solution is scaled in just one Mumbai neighbourhood.

How do projects go from ideation to realisation, and can you tell me more about the successes and outcomes of the first cohort? 

Because The DO School Fellowships work with early-stage entrepreneurs, we’re very focused on building their leadership capacity, resilience and peer support for the courage it takes to tackle ambitious projects and face the ups and downs of realising a vision. In the case of beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship, I am proud that over 95% of our Fellows have developed a greater sense of confidence in taking decisions and owning a leadership role within their communities within just 12 months. 

Likewise, our programme not only touches young people directly, but also mentors coming with decades of professional experience. We’re proud to have significantly increased their awareness of and impetus for action around sustainability, as well, across nearly 90% of our surveyed mentors. It is only through this type of intergenerational, international and intersectoral exchange and action that the changes we need will unfold.

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