This is the first Sparkling Story - a story about how people came together to create a better world. It was something of a coincidence - a very lucky one.
Last summer Amanda decided that she will start working on her long time vision of making people around her realise that they actually can do something about climate change. Felicia and Amanda met for coffee in the summer of 2017. Inspiration was flowing more than coffee, and soon the idea of Spark started shaping. This led to Amanda posting in the Protect Our Winters Facebook group (a group for skiers who are concerned about climate change) - and voilá, the next team member Anna was found.
Anna, like Amanda, has studied renewable energy engineering and she finishes Amanda’s sentences in the discussions about Spark Sustainability’s future. Felicia, with her expertise in journalism and environmental politics, brings a different perspective that helps Spark stay on course. The founding team was gathered, but still needed some some creative direction and marketing know-how: Anna T. and Johanna are both old friends of Amanda’s. The team’s newest addition, Kyara, has a degree in social psychology and knew Felicia because of common studies and a shared interest for sustainability. We were incredibly lucky to get these sparkling talents on board!
The Spark team is based in Helsinki, but as a modern company, much of the work is done online. Inspired thoughts are constantly shared so that everyone can contribute to making the tough decisions, and the team has repeatedly rejoiced that the members’ different backgrounds and opinions are so valuable in these cases.
Amanda Björnberg is the driving force and soul behind Spark. She has an engineering Master’s in Energy and environmental technology and she is devoted to creating the most impactful carbon calculations ever. In her free time, Amanda enjoys freeskiing, reading, cooking and hosting dinner parties. Amanda writes about emissions from energy on Spark's website, she makes sure that the calculator works and coordinates both external contacts and the team so that all the brilliant plans for the future are documented and acted upon.
Anna Eriksson is the second founder of Spark. She is a nature lover who has always been passionate about environmental issues. Anna has studied energy technology at Aalto University, and as the true wind energy nerd that she is, she is now working with increasing the amount of wind power in our power system. When she’s not working she loves doing trail running, skiing, and listening to music. Anna’s role in the company is focused on research, which means sorting through tonnes of data and presenting it in a more comprehensible way.
Felicia Aminoff is the third co-founder. She has kept a personal blog about sustainability for a few years but dreamt of being able to spread information and inspiration about climate change in a more professional way. She started studies in both journalism and economics but she quickly realised that she should be focusing on sustainability. With a background in journalism, Felicia is producing texts for Spark that overcome the challenge of making climate change sound fun and interesting. In her freetime, Felicia enjoys yoga, audiobooks and travelling (preferably by train).
Johanna Rosenlew is the creative spirit behind Spark’s visual identity. She has her own photography business, Johanna Rosenlew Photography, and on the side of that she is passionate about branding and visual communication. Johanna is dedicated to making sure that Spark’s message is not only communicated in text, but also in pictures and other visual elements. She is responsible for building the Spark Sustainability brand on both social media and on the website.
Anna Thorstrup is our corporate social responsibility expert. Anna has a background in business management studies and besides working full time as a consultant, she is also planning the external communication of Spark Sustainability. Within Spark Anna is the “sustainable foodie”, she’s passionate about sustainable food and sustainable consumption.
Kyara Smit moved from the Netherlands to Helsinki to study social psychology as an exchange student. After graduating in the Netherlands, she moved back to Finland and joined the founding team of the charity Nordic Ocean Watch. She joined the Spark team after discovering how similar it was to a business idea she had herself. Kyara makes sure that everything Spark does is consistent with psychological research about how people are motivated for climate action.
Want to know how you can become part of the solution to climate change? Download our app The Donut to calculate your lifestyle emissions, get personalised tips on how to reduce them and track your progress! Find it in the App Store and on Google Play.
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