Sustainable Innovator Speaker Series

UW/H students founded the Sustainable Innovator Speaker Series (SISS) in spring 2010. The idea was to add an initiative with a focus on sustainability to the number of existing student projects at the university. Once or twice per semester they invite executives with a record of sustained social innovation. 

The first two events were supported and co-funded by the student initiative oikos International, by Wittener UniversitätsGesellschaft and UW/H in 2010. Dr. Michael Raß, founder-manager of Teutoburger Ölmühle, opened the cycle in June with “Entrepreneur and idealist – an impossible combination?” Raß founded Germany’s first energy self-sufficient oil mill for environmentally friendly production of cold-pressed untreated rape seed oil in 2001 and received several awards for this innovative process. He explained how economic interests and ecological awareness are not necessarily inconsistent. 

The second speaker, Prof. Dr. Frithjof Bergman, presented similar insights – although from a different perspective - in his speech on “New work, new culture” in November. Born in Saxony, Bergmann emigrated to the United States in 1949; he worked as a dishwasher, prizefighter, on assembly lines, in docks and on a farm, and wrote theater plays before he took up philosophy studies at Princeton University, concluded a doctorate with Hegel studies, lectured in Princeton, Stanford, Chicago and Berkeley, and finally was appointed to a chair in philosophy and later also anthropology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1984 he founded the first “New Work” center in the automobile city of Flint (Michigan) and from then on primarily explored ways to transform work into something not tormenting but rather fulfilling. 

Philip Kovce, co-organizer of SISS, on the origins of the initiative: “We wanted to know about the motivation behind entrepreneurship. Is it nothing but greed? Or is there a will to participate and restructure, to change and improve existing conditions?” Fionn Kientzler, another team member, describes the format: “Each semester we invite members of the business community who have designed innovative and sustainable products. The events are not upfront lectures but more like seminars; students are encouraged to ask questions and find pertinent suggestions for activities of their own.” 

The SISS series will continue next year and provide stimuli for thought and suggestions for sustainable management. 

Contact:
Philip Kovce