Fionn Ferreira--Lessons From a Environmental Innovator Prodigy: Love the Process and More
The Enterprise Engagement Alliance YouTube channel series on Meaningful Meetings, Lessons Shared, features 23-year-old environmental innovator from rural Ireland has catapulted on to the international scene in his passion to eliminate micro-plastics from the environment. He’s already learned some critical lessons he shares at speaking events around the world.Click here for links to information about EEA sponsors; here to subscribe to ESM weekly; here for an ESM media kit.
It’s not every day that a teenager from a remote part of Ireland bursts on to the international scene as an environmental innovator. Fionn Ferreira’s passion: To clean up the environment by removing microplastics from water and contribute to the achievement of a more circular economy. Today, at only 23 years old, Ferreira is a scientist, inventor, sustainability advocate and international speaker focused on helping to remove microplastics from water.
Click here to watch or listen to the show.
Ferreira has created a for-profit company Fionn & Co., for which he is raising funds to commercialize his method to detect and remove microplastics from water using a simple machine and magnetic liquid. He has also created a not-for-profit known as Green Journey Coalition to share the intellectual property with other organizations. His passion for this topic arose as a teenager walking the littered beaches of Ireland well before recent research indicating the prevalence of microplastics in the environment and our bodies.Ferreira has received a lot of accolades for someone so young. According to Wikipedia, in 2018 the MIT Lincoln Laboratory named a minor planet after Ferreira, following his being awarded 2nd place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. In 2021 he was named a National Geographic Society Young Explorer; he has since been working on a new platform for youth in the space of invention with the help of the funding from the society. In 2021, he was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 listee in the Science and Health care category. In September 2021 Ferreira was awarded a Premio Internationale Giuseppe Sciacca award for his conservation and ecological efforts. His speaking experience includes the World Economic Forum, United Nations, and many leading forums around the world.
Here's a summary of some of his key insights from the EEA YouTube show:
• Love what you do. Enjoy the process. Don’t just focus on the outcome. This is essential because persistence is the second biggest lesson he shares.
• Not always having the right tools or necessary resources can be a long-term advantage. It’s a learning process that forces you to be innovative and flexible.
• Never stop playing, especially in the out of doors, it helps foster creativity, imagination and an open mind.
• Don’t be afraid of teaching yourself, in addition to whatever education you pursue.
• Stick to the facts. Be wary of any assumptions or beliefs that might obscure reality.
• When raising money for a business, don’t just focus on the dollars and cents, focus on the purpose of the organization. If people buy into the purpose, they’ll be more likely to invest.
• Don’t think of sustainability in terms of being a responsibility—it’s an opportunity to create new value for customers and to future-proof organizations.
Click here to listen to or watch the show.
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