SavingOurselves: The podcast that looks into climate change through the lens of Nordic businesses
Jennifer Ohemeng and Maija Luukka, co-hosts of SavingOurselves.
The ubiquity of climate change nowadays is only matched by its utmost gravity. While this issue concerns every single one of us, industry leaders have more responsibility for engaging in finding solutions for this scourge. It is exactly this group of people that Maija Luukka and Jennifer Ohemeng converse with in their 10 episodes podcast.
They delve into what some Nordic companies are doing to tackle climate change, and they discuss the way it affects their business, the kind of business opportunities it offers, but also the concrete measures that these companies are taking to ensure a more sustainable future.
The two co-hosts are no strangers to the topic. Our very own Jennifer and Maija are actually very passionate about sustainable development. Jennifer, Ambitious.Africa’s Head of Community, has long been intrigued by the power of circular economy to reduce waste, save money, and generate new business opportunities. As for Maija, co-founder of Ambitious.Africa, she is a fervent supporter of sustainable development in all its facets, from the environmental aspect to the social and financial side of it.
The idea was ambitious considering their relative lack of experience in podcasting. Starting from scratch was challenging according to them, but often when there’s a will there’s a way. And when the will is accompanied by enthusiasm, knowledge of the topic, and Ambitious.Africa’s “learning by doing” DNA, the way is never that hard to find.
SavingOurselves podcast has already managed to get a wide array of guests from different types of industries, in order to be able to cover the topic from a variety of angles and perspectives.
Maija and Jennifer in the studio with Timo Huhtisaari, Business Unit Lead of Sustainability and Future Business of the energy company St1.
Among the other themes covered by SavingOurselves are the legal aspect of sustainability with Anna Kuusniemi (Partner and Head of Sustainability at Castrén & Snellman), the importance of environmental sustainability for banks with Ruut Pihlava (Head of Sustainable Banking of SEB Nordics), the sustainability of food markets with Lea Rankinen (Director of Sustainability and Public Affairs of Paulig), and urbanization with Ulla Leveelahti (Environmental Manager of Finnsementti).
The latest episode to date is “Sustainability=Risk” where Maija and Jennifer invited two representatives of the Finnish pension insurance company Varma: Hanna Kaskela (Director of Responsible Investment) and Katariina Sillander (Team Lead of Sustainability and Communication). They and explore the business benefits of environmental sustainability and decrypt TCFD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures), an acronym you might have encountered if you are familiar with the topic.
You can listen to SavingOurselves on your usual podcast platforms:
By Jasmin Nyqvist