Project of the week – Smart Sustainable Valley (Aarhus)

Søren Winther Lundby is the man behind Global Citizen, which has created the project 'Smart Sustainable Valley'. A project that aims to make sustainability cool and accessible and will culminate in 2017 with a festival for 5,000 people in the University Park. A festival that will be a mix of Silicon Valley and Woodstock.

How do we make sustainability cool? This question has occupied Søren Winther Lundby in the recent years. Another one is how to best solve the problems of tomorrow and secure the future for ourselves and future generations.

Søren Winther Lundby developed the project 'Smart Sustainable Valley' in an attempt to answer those questions. The idea is to invite 1000 young enthusiasts from around the world to stay at 12 different folk high schools in 14 days, where they must work together to find new solutions for sustainable economic growth.

Then they will take on 4,000 guests - consisting of both young people and people from the business sector - in the University Park over five days. Here, the guests are presented with new possible solutions and are to live sustainably.

The selection of the dedicated 1000 young people is carried out through various networks such as the University and the UN Sustainability Network. Søren Winther Lundby has a clear plan for the composition of the young people:

"First and foremost, it is important that this is not only grade-A students, but a mixture of different strengths and skills. For me, it is important that it is a motley crew, as my experiences show that it works best. Regarding the future, I firmly believe that the challenges of tomorrow' must be met by a variety of informal constellations across national borders, where mutual trust is important. Therefore, the first two week at the folk high schools are also essential for the project’s success," says Søren Winther Lundby.

Rethink the green and grey gold
Regarding the festival's content and focus areas, Søren Winther Lundby calls it holistic/horizontal. It is all about collaborations across sectors as opposed to today, where working areas a very isolated. Unities must work better, which we are good at in Denmark, so there is great learning to be had for the many international guests. He emphasizes that it is not important what people’s opinions are; it is about doing something and create change.

Another cornerstone of the Global Citizens existence is the thesis that it is necessary to bring together young students – 'the green gold' – and retired experts – ‘the grey gold' - and get them to talk about, develop and start sustainable initiatives:

"In my opinion, we need to rethink the use of students and job-seeking graduates. Students should not only write papers that nobody reads, but instead do something practical, for example in relation to sustainability. There is great value in having them working with older experts - and vice versa. Together they form a powerful resource. For companies, this concrete project is also an excellent opportunity to brand themselves and build a sense of trust in a number of people that will sit in prominent positions in the future," says Søren Winther Lundby.

Strong partnerships
In addition to collaborating with Aarhus 2017, the project has other strong partners to lean on. Among others, a think tank that is dubbed 'The Wave', which consists of Christian Stadil, Annette Heick, Director of Corporate Branding at Grundfos, Kim Klastrup and many more.

Aarhus University is also an important partner. Both regarding the establishment of cooperation between the 'green gold' and 'gray gold', but also in a low practical, logistical sense, since it ensures that the project can use the University Park during 2017. A frame that both Søren Winther Lundby and others involved in the project are happy about:

"One of the members of our think tank is Helene Regnell, who is Director of Sustainability at Danish Supermarket. She believes that the five days in the University Park should be 'Woodstock Festival meets Silicon Valley' - I agree; with the addition that we strive to ensure that 'Smart Sustainable Valley' gives all participants the experience of a lifetime and make sure that the festival leads to action," says Søren Winther Lundby.

Read more about Global Citizen.

Facts:
Søren Winther Lundby has a background in Philosophy and Political Science
He formed Global Citizen with partner Thusan Ceylon four years ago
In 2002, he gathered 1000 young people in 12 folk high schools when Denmark had the EU Presidency. The young people were gathered for the purpose of giving their take on what was to be the European Constitution
Global Citizen have made the world's first taxonomy - a cataloging of the sustainability agenda. There are well over 2,000 items
Søren Winther Lundby has most recently been in New York for the United Nations Sustainability Conference to announce Global Citizen’s plans until and including 2017. The plans were well received.

The think tank is composed of the following members:
• Eva Kruse, Danish Fashion Institute
• Anja E. Andersen, Astrophysicist, Niels Bohr Institute
• Peter Stenbæk, Director, We Love People
• Ole Thyssen, Professor, CBS
• Kim Klastrup, Director of Corporate Branding, Grundfos
• Frederik Topsøe, Director, Grander
• Judith Kyst, Director, Madkulturen
• Helle Gaarn, Leader of the Institute, GEOLAB
• Annette Heick, A-Net
• Lene Becker Mingolla, LAIKA Spatial Design
• Sune Bang, Director, Communications Agency København
• Christian Stadil, Director, Thornico A / S
• Henrik Rud, CEO, Tour Sustainable Europe
• Søren Winther Lundby, CEO, Global Citizen
• Helene Regnell, Director of Sustainability, Danish Supermarket
• Allan Levann, High Performance Institute
• Caroline Boserup, Journalist and author
• Peter Stagetorn Kolos, Director, Danica Invest
• Preben Meier, Innovation Lab
• Lene Tanggaard Pedersen, Aalborg University
• Dan Bjerg, Karma Director, Hummel