Kaija Kurme-Jansone

Who are you?

Kaija Kurme-Jansone has a background in international economics, business sales and marketing. For the past few years she has been focussing on sustainable business and waste reduction, working with organisations and businesses to reduce their environmental impact. She runs a start-up called Eco-Buddy which is an educational environmental board game, the method of which is designed to make positive behavioural environmental shifts. Eco-Buddy won Climate-KIC’s national ClimateLaunchpad competition in Latvia in 2017.

Kaija heard about the Pioneers into Practice programme while attending the ClimateLaunchPad final and joined as this would help her meet like-minded people tackling sustainability problems and learn more about climate change programmes.

What did you do?

Kaija had to learn about the detail of the host before she could make feasible recommendations for change, which included understanding intercultural differences. She used a systemic approach to develop the action plans, which is a fundamental part of the Pioneers workshop training, and used her broad experience of fast moving consumer goods to analyse IKEA’s current operations. This helped her take a very broad overview of the factors affecting how a business operates, particularly considering stakeholder influence.

She has applied this approach in her work following completion of the Pioneers programme, helping her create a better understanding of the root causes of environmental problems.

Climate-KIC is the place where bright minds meet! I would definitly recommend the Pioneers programme for people who want to meet other people interested in sustainability.

What happens next?

Following Kaija’s report and presentation, IKEA in Bulgaria has started to implement her recommendations and is continuing to improve its sustainability, which Kaija feels very proud about.

After Kaija’s Pioneers programme finished in Latvia, she was selected to participate in the International Workshop along with 40 other Pioneers from across Europe developing new ways of understanding system innovation. She said she has developed a large network of very smart people who she wants to work with in the future on joint activities tackling global changes.