Arctic Opportunity Explorers 2021 Project Overview by Sustainia

Arctic Opportunity Explorers

2021 Project Overview

Arctic Opportunity Explorers 2021 Project Overview Writers: Lindsey Chaffin, Carolina Chambi Design: Carolina Chambi Editors: Rasmus Schjødt Pedersen Contributors: Lindsey Chaffin, Carolina Chambi, Rasmus Schjødt Pedersen, Jens Friholm, Sara Shafiee, Graeme Stewart This project has been supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers; Novozymes; Thirdroom; Sustainia; College of the Atlantic; University of Greenland; University of Iceland; UiT The Arctic University of Norway; Jönköping University; Technical University of Denmark; National Research University Higher School of Economics; and Northern Arctic Federal University.

Introduction Sustainable development, described by the United Nations (UN) as development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” has received widespread attention in discussions centered around how to respond to the multitude of challenges facing communities worldwide. In the context of a region like the Arctic, where rising temperatures are likely to have a more extreme impact than in any other place in the world, the concept is particularly relevant. We believe that students and young people are key actors in driving future sustainable development, as they are equipped with the essential skills, motivation, and innovative thinking needed to respond to today’s biggest challenges. In recognition of the important role students have to play in deﬁning the future, over the past two years we have worked to build an international collaboration to help young people move from inspiration to action and ultimately empower them to make a difference in the Arctic through sustainable entrepreneurship. Now in its second year, the Arctic Opportunity Explorers challenge continues to work to build professional competencies and strengthen the entrepreneurial mindset of the next generation of changemakers. To do so, we seek to increase collaboration between universities through innovation and entrepreneurship schools of thought and novel technological approaches like Novozymes’ HelloScience digital platform. Over the next pages we want to share activities, results, and learnings from this project, and show how we intend to build on the ﬁrst year of activities moving forward.

Lindsey Chafﬁn

Project Manager at Sustainia

Table of contents Introduction …………………………………………..………………………….. 03 Arctic challenges …………………………………………..………………… 05 The competition …………………………………………..…………………… 06 The partnership …………………………………………..…………………… 07 Innovation process …………………………………………..………………. 08 Educational webinars …………………………………………..…………. 10 Arctic Opportunity Explorers 2021 ……………………..………… 11 Innovative solutions ……………………..…………………………………. 12 Winner spotlight ……………………………..…………………..…..……… 23 Final remarks ……………………..……………………………………………. 25

Arctic Challenges

The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than any other place on Earth, with climate change threatening to accelerate existing risks prevalent in a region characterized by dispersed communities and limited infrastructure. At the same time, rapid modernization and unprecedented cultural interference have also triggered various critical social problems in the region. Changes in the Arctic are linked to global developments. An integrated global economy, climate change and pollution threaten Arctic nature, and can also negatively impact living conditions and livelihoods for communities in the region.

On the other hand, economic development can also open up new opportunities for the area's people centered on collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Given that for young people today climate change is ranked as the most pressing concern, students are more motivated than ever before to make a positive impact, and we believe that equipping this generation with the right support and frameworks will allow them to make a difference in the realm of sustainable entrepreneurship in the Arctic. Read more about why student entrepreneurs should be an integral part of the discussion here.

The competition The goal & link with the SDGs

At its heart, the Arctic Opportunity Explorers challenge is a virtual learning program that aims to equip students with not only the unique problem-solving skills to approach challenges faced by Arctic communities, but also the professional skills needed in today’s digitized and globalized world. Knowledge of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their practical implementation is highly sought after in the job market, where companies from around the world are seeking to create innovative business solutions and drive positive change by integrating these global goals into their business model. In particular, this program is focused on utilizing SDG 17, “partnerships for the goals,” to uplift and promote discussions surrounding SDG 3, “good health and well-being,” and SDG 5, “gender equality.” These three SDGs are sometimes overlooked in discussions that often center on melting ice and climate change, but can nevertheless greatly impact the day-to-day lives of local communities. Read more about why these SDGs should receive attention in the context of the Arctic here.

The partnership Interdisciplinary network

The Arctic Challenge is made possible by Sustainia, HelloScience, Novozymes, and our network of partner universities, with support from the Nordic Council of Ministers. Sustainia: Global sustainability consultancy responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the Arctic Opportunity Explorers challenge and direct communication with the student groups. HelloScience: Novozymes’ collaboration platform responsible for the digital collaboration tool utilized by the Arctic Opportunity Explorers challenge. The platform is serviced and operated by Thirdroom. Nordic Council of Ministers: Support and funding is provided by the Nordic Council of Ministers, as part of their Nordic Arctic Cooperation Programme. This initiative contributes to the overall vision of an “innovative, borderless, visible and outward-looking Nordic Region.” University partners: The challenge is rooted in our network of eight university partners spanning Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, and the United States.

Innovation Process Seven key milestones Kick-off

Program ofﬁcially begins OCTOBER 5TH

Problem identiﬁcation Registration and group formation

Groups begin working together OCTOBER

SEPTEMBER

OVERALL GUIDANCE & COMMUNICATION

In this edition, the challenge consisted of seven milestones, as shown in the timeline above, and included a strong internal support and communication component. During the program, participants had the opportunity to interact with their group and with the Sustainia team through the internal Slack platform. Participants received tailored guidance regarding methodologies, innovation tools and coordination in a straightforward and efﬁcient manner.

ries e s ar bin hip e ors W t n Me

Arctic Opportunity Day

8TH DECEMBER

Iteration

Ideas are tested out through feedback, and solutions are adjusted NOVEMBER

Presentation & Evaluation Ideation

Groups formulate ideas and systematically narrow them down through research

Groups pitch their solutions to the judging panel 1-7 DECEMBER

OCTOBER

PROFESSIONAL MENTORSHIP & EDUCATIONAL WEBINARS

Throughout the challenge, each student group was paired with a professional mentor to assist them in navigating through their chosen project topic, ranging from gender equality, to mental health and professional development. By supporting the students and providing them with practical knowledge and industry experience, our network of mentors played an essential role in guiding students through their entrepreneurial journey. Mentors were selected with support from DTU’s pre-startup mentoring program and Novozymes’ Inspire program. Moreover, through a series of webinars, the groups learned, reinforced and reﬂected on various critical topics related to challenges in the Arctic and business development (see page 10 for more details).

Educational webinars Providing guidance and frameworks Introduction to HelloScience

Learning how to use HelloScience, an open innovation and collaboration platform designed to bring people from around the world together to connect and catalyze a more sustainable future.

Rebecca Busck Bregengård Platform Manager - Thirdroom

Risk-to-Opportunity Mindset

Turning risk to opportunity is an essential mindset shift that enables individuals and businesses to unlock the potential behind climate challenges. This mindset also requires communication techniques to readily articulate plans. Rasmus Schjodt Pedersen CEO - Sustainia

The Abundance Cycle: A Business Model Canvas for Sustainability

Maximize impact by turning ideas into an actionable plan using the Abundance Cycle. The model unveils a new perspective that sparks innovative solutions by putting sustainability at the heart of a speciﬁc plan.

Jay Friedlander Professor - College of the Atlantic

Challenges to Innovating in a Changing Arctic

Identifying the main challenges and opportunities to innovate in the Arctic region from a social, climate and economic perspective. Reﬂecting on how this context shapes elements of ﬁnal users’ solutions. Carolina Chambi Project Coordinator - Sustainia

Experiences from Greenland

Learning about Greenland at a glance, its history, home rules, understanding how it’s pictured in the media, and the current state of entrepreneurship and sustainability. Anne Lise Kappel Professor - University of Greenland

Arctic Opportunity Explorers 2021 58

Universities

Countries

Participants

Sustainable solutions

SDGs addressed 11

Innovative solutions Project Occasio: addressing disparities in Wind Energy: education an alternative to uranium mining AlaskArt: Generating income from NFTs Health policy targeting indigenous people

Greenlandic Guides: Sustainable and authentic tourism NAWS: Network for Arctic Women in Shipping CWM: Collaborative waste management

Not Alone: Psychological & legal assistance for women

CoStrong: a learning community to support mental health

From the 13 teams who initially registered, 9 were able to successfully complete the program and present their innovative solutions. A summary of each of these solutions is depicted on the following pages.

Mentorship

A word from the experts

“

DTU Skylab Business Mentoring have supported the Arctic Opportunity Explorers 2021 with mentors matched to each individual team. We have been pleased to see many of our mentors engaging enthusiastically in this program, with a motivation to support solving real life Artic Problems with solutions based on business.

Jens Friholm

DTU pre-startup mentoring program lead

“

I really enjoyed working with motivated students with inspiring ideas. One of the strengths point of this program is the diversity among the participants from different countries that I never seen before. I was impressed by their diverse solutions targeting the Arctic challenges.

Sara Shaﬁee Researcher & Assistant professor at DTU Founder and CEO of DivERS

Wind energy

An alternative to uranium mining SOLUTION

PROBLEM The uranium mining industry in Greenland is highly invasive and has caused widespread environmental degradation. While mental health challenges in the area are often linked to loneliness, they can also be compounded by “ecological grief,” a psychological response to the negative impact of climate change. The recent ban on uranium mining is a positive step, but an alternative is needed to help stimulate the economy and provide revenue.

A policy that uplifts a more sustainable sector like wind energy could help provide an alternative to uranium mining. In addition to supplying a source of revenue, funds from the development of wind turbines and the industry at large could also be invested into program development aimed at facilitating community wellness.

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Talia

Melanie

Madeline

Noah

Quin

Scripps College

Vanderbilt University

Cornell University

University of Virginia

Wake Forest University

Sebastian Zastruzny

PhD Fellow at University of Copenhagen

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

Project Occasio

Addressing disparities in education SOLUTION

PROBLEM Youth in low-income, rural Arctic communities encounter more barriers to completing high school and accessing higher education than their peers in urban areas. These areas often experience high levels of emigration and may struggle to draw professionals from more urban areas, leaving communities isolated. At the same time, although the effects if climate change in the region receives widespread attention, there is little collaboration with local people on research projects or policy discussions.

Project Occasio seeks to address educational disparities in Arctic communities by engaging local children in real-world research, with a subsequent goal of inspiring continued education. Speciﬁcally, the project is based on collaboration with professional researchers to send and use permafrost experiment kits, which are easy to distribute but can nonetheless provide meaningful data on changing conditions in the Arctic.

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Melody

Caroline

Cloey

Delaney

University of New England

Ida Andreasen

Supply Chain Development Director at Novozymes

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

Greenlandic Guides

Sustainable and authentic tourism SOLUTION

PROBLEM Although tourism in Greenland has increased in recent years, very few young Greenlandic people work in the tourism sector, and there exists no platform to connect tourists with local inuit guides. A lack of education and training may also mean than many guide jobs go to foreigners, which prevents locals from receiving the economic beneﬁts associated with increased tourism.

The tourism sector in Greenland has the potential to generate economic and job opportunities for youth if grown in a sustainable manner that engages local communities. Greenlandic guides is a combination of an educational platform that teaches Inuits the basic principles of guiding tourists, and an app that facilitates communication between local guides and tourists visiting Greenland.

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Casper

Frederik

Katrín

Evgeny

Roskilde University

Aarhus University

University of Iceland

Northern Arctic Federal University

Sara Mesquita

Senior Data Scientist at Novozymes

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

AlaskArt

Generating income from NFTs SOLUTION

PROBLEM Local indigenous artists can face challenges in reaching customers and wider audiences, and many still struggle to make a living in more remote communities. Simultaneously, in Alaska, there are also abundant wind resources available for energy development that are yet to be realized, and issues related to renewable energy access in Arctic communities still need to be addressed.

This project seeks to educate locals on the opportunity to sell their art, paintings, or other creations as NFT (non-fungible tokens). The income from the sale of the NFTs will be split between the company, artists, and for use for the development of the community and the creation of windmills. In this way, the solution not only provides additional incomes for local communities, but also enhances the sense of ownership and cultural pride

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Yulia

Alberto

Muslimbek

Gabriele

Hope

National Research University HSE

Technical University of Denmark

Northern Arctic Federal University

Technical University of Denmark

College of the Atlantic

Viktor Kihlblom

Global Category Manager at Novozymes

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

A Health Policy

Targeting indigenous people SOLUTION

PROBLEM Melting sea ice has exacerbated the extraction of natural resources, like oil, in the Arctic. The development of oil drilling in the region poses a danger to indigenous people, as daily life depends greatly on the state of the environment. Traditional food sources will also be impacted by pollution, negatively impacting the health and well-being of communities. Compounding this, indigenous people are almost never included in decision-making processes surrounding natural resource management.

This solution seeks to build and implement a policy recommendation that will address unequal position of indigenous people in terms of oil drilling development and health protection in the Arctic. This policy includes potential beneﬁt sharing mechanisms which can be applied in the oil drilling industry and include different groups of actors in the Arctic: oil companies, authorities, local communities, and indigenous representatives.

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Hunter

Arman

Emilia

Paula

Anna

Northland College

Northern Arctic Federal University

Copenhagen Business School

Technical University of Denmark

Northern Arctic Federal University

Michael Persson

Owner of Viridemque Consulting

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

NotAlone

Psychological & legal assistance for women SOLUTION

PROBLEM In the Arctic, unique environmental and societal challenges often intersect with issues surrounding gender equality. While some of the top countries in the world for gender parity are found in the Arctic, like Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, studies have shown that the level of human development and gender equality in far northern regions of each state are signiﬁcantly lower than countrywide averages, owing in part to the colonial history of these areas.

This project is centered on the creation of an online platform that improves conditions for women in the near term. Women will be able to receive legal and psychological assistance through the platform, and will also receive support in the development of socially signiﬁcant projects. By facilitating knowledge-sharing on business and entrepreneurship principles, as well as by matching participants with mentors, this platform aims to empower and increase opportunities for women.

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Anastasiia

Mariia

Anastasiia

Northern Arctic Federal University

Sara Shaﬁee

Founder and CEO of DivERS

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

CWS

Collaborative Waste Management SOLUTION

PROBLEM Even though Greenland has a small population and is remote, its beaches are covered in plastic litter. This waste presents a threat to marine life, has an impact on coastal areas where tourism is an important industry, and can affect human health through its inclusion in the food chain. Due to the dispersed population and harsh weather conditions, waste management presents a growing issue that impacts both health and the environment.

This project aims to create a volunteer center that will support waste management projects in Greenland. Internationals, like those visiting for tourism purposes, and local youth will both be mobilized to engage in these projects. In this way, a diverse group of actors will come together to preserve nature and wildlife all while working towards a circular waste infrastructure.

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Lieselotte

Ana

Ishaan

Raja

Jönköping University

Svend Thomsen

Board Member at DTU Science Park

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

CoStrong

A community to support mental health SOLUTION

PROBLEM

CoStrong is a learning community that provides regular peer-to-peer mental health groups at primary schools in Greenland. The community will aim to both raise awareness of the importance of mental health and provide a safe space for youth struggling with mental health issues. University students studying social work or pedagogy will provide support, and expert workshops will provide ambassadors and coaches with the necessary information and training to make a difference.

Mental health is a serious issue in Greenland, where there is one of the highest suicide mortality rates in the world, speciﬁcally amongst teenagers and young adults. This challenge is often linked to feelings of isolation and depression, and is further impacted by the altered landscapes and ecosystem loss resulting from climate change. Mental health support and guidance in these areas is often lacking, and current policies are not sufﬁcient to address the problem.

SDGs

TEAM

Lotte Jönköping University

MENTOR

Sabijn

Maria

Jönköping University

Lion Jönköping University

Jury Jönköping University

Lenka Jönköping University

Taís Pinheiro

Sustainability Manager at Novozymes

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

NAWS

Network for Arctic Women in Shipping SOLUTION

PROBLEM The recent expansion of trade through the Northwest Passage puts Arctic communities at an increased risk for environmental disasters such as oil spills, which can have a devastating impact on marine life. Furthermore, the maritime industry’s workforce is 98.8% men, with women accounting for only 5% of leadership roles in the sector. This is part of a wider societal outlook in which women are leaving Greenland at a higher rate than men.

NAWS (Network for Arctic Women in Shipping) will curate a website and app for people looking to pursue a career in the maritime industry, with an ultimate goal of creating a pathway to leadership career for women in the sector. To do so, the project will focus on connecting women with mentors in the industry, showcase high paying careers for women in Greenland, and will work with employers looking to diversify their workforce.

SDGs

TEAM

MENTOR

Oliver

Soren

Hayden

Simon

Denison University

Colorado College

St. Lawrence University

Graeme Stewart

Business Analysis and Planning Manager

Learn more about this team’s project via their HelloScience page.

Winner spotlight NAWS project

The winning team's solution gathers unique aspects: High scores across all judging criteria. Relevant SDG focus that tied in with the project clearly. It went the extra mile to incorporate real-world insights and on-the-ground knowledge. With a few additional resources, the proﬁt-generating business could be implemented. Clear communication, coherent and effective argumentation.

“

The AOE Challenge provided us with extremely insightful relationships to our project that resulted in high-end market research. Also, it allowed us to grow in many different ways, both from a professional standpoint, speciﬁcally within our group’s organization, but also in our strategic problem solving and the way that leads to a feasible and meaningful solution. Overall, the AOE Challenge was a wonderful experience.

Oliver, Soren, Hayden & Simon Winning team

Mentorship

A word from the winning teams’ mentor

“

Graeme Stewart Business Analysis and Planning Manager

It was my ﬁrst time mentoring students on the Arctic Challenge. First impressions was that it was a very good idea with plenty of scope for exploration. It was easy to tutor them. They knew what they wanted and who they should speak to to ﬁnd out more about it. They weren’t afraid to reach out to key people in the shipping industry and in the Greenlandic mission in Copenhagen to get their inputs. And those interviews gave them great insights. I was impressed that they delivered while on study trips and managing course work. It was a great effort. From my perspective, it was good learning, listening, trying to help with useful frameworks.

Final remarks The journey continues

HelloScience’s platform will ensure that the journey does not end here for the Arctic Opportunity Explorers. Interested collaborators may access each group’s ideas and progress through their individual case pages, where students can also continue to work on transforming their solutions from ideas into reality. The inclusion of student voices will continue to be more important than ever when discussing sustainable development in a changing Arctic, and we hope to contribute to this conversation by facilitating the Arctic Opportunity Explorers program on a yearly basis. Please check back later for more information and updates regarding next year’s kick-off.

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