Section 6
interview
nicole keller
Interview by Armando Camacho Nicole Keller
Armand: I would love to start by hearing a bit more about your journey. What early experiences or influences shaped your passion for sustainability and climate action? Nicole: From when I remember, I always had a very strong feeling for injustice. That I turned into social action early on, while still at university, setting up an educational non-profit. The term sustainability was then still quite new, and only when I was in another job, working on global disaster risk, did I start to turn my attention and passion towards people and the environment. Armand: Climate Hub Davos has become a hub for regenerative thinking. Can you walk me through the core mission and how it has evolved since you first got involved? Nicole: We from GreenUp initiated the Climate Hub Davos in 2024. This after having worked already a few years with the World Economic Forum on circularity and waste reduction during the week of their Annual Meeting. Being the managing director of GreenUp, but also a citizen from Davos, I experienced the “Davos week” for several years and saw
potential to get actively involved with GreenUp, enhancing sustainability and circularity in a tangible way. At the same time, I also experienced that a place was missing where innovators in the space could meet up; an open space for startups and established companies, philanthropy, finance, non-profit and science to share solutions, connect, and inspire leaders from across the globe. That was and is still the core mission of the Climate Hub Davos. Over the years, we have enhanced its impact with additional experiences and have had increasing numbers of participants. Armand: When you’re working across sectors, from finance to grassroots initiatives, what’s one common misconception you encounter about sustainability work? Nicole: Can I mention two or even three? That climate equals sustainability. In my view, a focus on carbon and CO₂ makes people and companies sometimes blind to more holistic views around sustainability, in which biodiversity, air quality, soil quality, but also issues like justice play a role in how our world develops and how we live.
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DAVOS CLUB
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