Studio Nima Winter News 2024

Studio Nima’s winter update is here! We're thrilled to share what we’ve been working on— our new studio space, upcoming exhibitions, quite a few events the last couple of weeks, and projects all focused on enabling impact and advancing circularity and sustainability. Take a look at our journey!

Studio Nima - New Space

We are very excited to share that we have moved into a new space in the heart of Munich! Those of you who follow us for some time know that we love to work on a broad range of impact topics. For us combining different topics is an important aspect of our work since we see them as pieces of a bigger puzzle. Now this new space is another important puzzle piece for us! This former factory is a creative hotspot, where we will work on our upcoming material exhibitions and living labs, showcase innovative circular materials from our global network, conduct our own experiments and develop impactful solutions for our various project partners. From time to time, we will also open our doors for workshops and other gatherings! 

You wanna get a first glimpse of what our new space looks like? Check out www.studio-nima.com/studio for some first impressions.

Material Lab @ ISPO Munich 2024

On December 3-5, we will be curating our next edition of the Material Lab & Circular Experience exhibition at ISPO Munich. In the Material Lab we show a curated selection of innovative bio-based materials including biodegradable yarn and textiles, bio-based polymers and elastane from startups, companies, material designers and research institutions!

Next to it, the Circular Experience will highlight the innovative potential of algae. We will exhibit algae-based materials and applications such as fabrics and yarns, foams and packaging solutions. We will showcase the whole life cycle of algae-based innovations, from nature to algae-based materials and products and finally end-of-life.

Come visit us on site at ISPO Munich in the Sustainability Hub in hall A2! There are many things going on: we are organising a Material Lab Hangout on Tuesday, December 3 at 5pm, daily guided tours through the Material Lab at 3pm, a session on the Green Stage on Thursday, December 5 at 2pm with BIOTEXFUTURE, Reselo and ESG Brands. Reach out to us for details!

Thriving Systems

We are super excited to have teamed up with Brazilian designer and illustrator Rafael Nobre for a collaboration to create two artworks that symbolize the beauty and importance of biodiversity. Together, we want to translate this message into the powerful and universal language of art and inspire and engage people in the collective effort to protect our planet’s biodiversity. 

These two artworks are available as a fine-art print in A2 strictly limited to only 30 copies each. Read more about the collaboration and the underlying ideas at www.studio-nima.com/biodiversity and don’t miss your chance to buy your artwork now.

Impact Festival

Impact Festival 2024 is a wrap! With 4.500 people visiting the Impact Festival, safe to say that the move to Messe Frankfurt was a big success! Leonhard moderated the Impact Stage, this time together with Janina Klabes. Two days packed with a lot of good discussions and impulses, and many top speakers, including Christiane Vorspel, Chief Operating Offer at Commerzbank, speaking about sustainability in IT and of course also the role of banks in the sustainability transformation; with Carlos Alvarez Pereira, the Secretary General at The Club of Rome, reflecting on 50 years of The Limits to Growth, and with Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert, German Institute of Economics on the status quo and outlook of Germany’s energy transition.

One highlight was our panel discussion with Dirk Messner, President of the German Environment Agency, Jeannette Gusko, CEO at correctiv, Dr. Katharina Reuter, CEO at German Sustainable Economy Association (BNW) and Darya Sotoodeh, Spokesperson for Fridays for Future Germany about climate and democracy, diving deeper into the interdependencies of two of the biggest topics of our time.

Hope to see many of you at the next Impact Festival in 2025! Save the date for September 17 & 18, 2025!

Various project updates

And of course there were quite a few more things happening. You might already know about some of our long-term projects, some of them recently entered their final stages. 

BMUV SINA -Final event

The final event of our SINA project together with Yunus Environment Hub on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) marked the end of our three-year research project developing policy recommendations for social innovation. The event featured a fishbowl discussion with stakeholders from the impact sector and welcome messages from Dr. Bettina Hoffmann, Parliamentary State Secretary at BMUV and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. Stay tuned for the final report that will be published soon! 

GIZ DIASCA Strategic Workshop

The Strategic Workshop of DIASCA (Digital Integration of Agricultural Supply Chains Alliance) was about reflecting on the progress of the past two years and envisioning activities for the upcoming phase. DIASCA, a project with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is all about enhancing digital public infrastructure (DPI) in agriculture, ensuring that all actors, particularly farmers, benefit from improved data accessibility and interoperability. The Strategic Workshop brought together key stakeholders from COSA, DIN, Google, Microsoft, BMZ, EU, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Linux Foundation and many more to delve into the next phase of DIASCA, covering key areas such as working on the overall vision, use cases, the establishment of a robust governance structure, and funding requirements.

Various Moderations and Talks

Leonhard gave a keynote on “Circular economy - a bumpy road ahead?!” at the Hack ‘N’ Talk at the Circular Hackfest at Munich Urban Colab. He was diving into several industries to learn more about these bumps and challenges, looking at the status quo of the circular economy in sports and fashion, the automotive industry, packaging and bio-based materials and many more.

Leonhard was moderating the second L'Oréal SustainAbility Forum in Düsseldorf with Anders Levermann (climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University) and Joel Tronchon (Chief Sustainabilty Officer Europe at L’Oréal). On behalf of our friends at Yunus Sport Hub, Leonhard held a workshop on Impact Measurement at the Young Challengers Program in Paris hosted by BNP Paribas. 

That’s it for our Winter News! We hope to see many of you at ISPO Munich in December. And we wish you all a great end of the year. Please get in touch with us if you want to join forces and work on impactful projects! We’re already looking forward to an exciting lineup of projects in 2025. And make sure to follow us on Linkedin or Instagram for all latest updates and news!

Your Studio Nima team