Milan Veselinov

Who are you?

Milan Veselinov is a sustainability consultant based in Belgrade, Serbia. His particular expertise is the circular economy and he is working on the forming of the Academy for Circular Economy (ACE), together with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce. He feels that using circular economy strategies could be an effective way to tackle not only waste management, but the whole production system in Serbia.

Milan approached the Pioneers into Practice programme as a group project challenge owner, to work with people who were interested in finding innovative solutions to Serbia’s waste management problems. Much of Serbia’s waste currently goes to landfill with little waste separation.

What did the Pioneers work on?

The group used several systems innovation tools taught in the Pioneers workshops to tackle the complex issues relating to waste. This included systemic problem analysis, stakeholder mapping, empathy mapping and backcasting to create a vision of possible solutions. The group tested the vision by communicating with many of the relevant stakeholders and to increase support for the ideas. From their findings, they realised that there were a number of problems associated with urban areas that needed a more systemic approach to solve them.

As Milan and the group had worked together so well, they decided to form a new NGO to tackle sustainable urban development, initially around the waste issues, but also for mobility and green procurement issues. The NGO is called UnBeSo (United for a Better Society) which also means ‘a kiss’ in Spanish symbolising the group’s kind but direct approach to challenges.

UnBeSo was legally established by Milan and four Pioneers and has since secured funding to develop its activities from businesses, local municipality and Climate-KIC. While UnBeSo aims to make a real difference to practical issues in urban areas, it also sees its role as increasing skills of the people it works with and bringing communities together. Its first project is called ‘Youth in haste for no waste’.

In 2018, Milan and UnBeSo became a host for a German Pioneer who helped develop the NGO by creating promotional events and increasing its communication skills. They also participated in Climate-KIC’s Climathon to increase awareness of waste issues.

The Pioneers programme brought tools that developed new ways of analysing environmental problems in Serbia. The momentum that the Pioneers created is massive!

How was your experience with Pioneers?

Milan says that his experience with the Pioneers programme completely exceeded his expectations and he could never have expected that it would lead to the creation of a new NGO. He was very impressed by the professionalism and commitment from the Pioneers, and the tools they used to enable an effective and innovative approach to tackle problems. Milan says that he was impressed that using an analytical approach would lead to some very practical actions.

What happens next?

UnBeSo has big plans for 2019, building on its work over the previous two years. It is securing new financial resources to create waste separation in schools and community venues, and also planning a large promotions campaign to raise awareness of the need to manage waste better. A new app has been developed that brings gamification into the activities and allows schools and citizens to win points according to the amount of waste they separate. To reinforce the promotional activities, a large art production is planned for early 2019 made of the waste that has been collected.