Chapters for Change
A new book tells the story of inspiring women in social and environmental impact, featuring chapters from Roberta Bosurgi and Leslie Johnston, our CEO and Board Chair respectively.
Standing up for the Planet, an impactful new book, compiles “45 stories of extraordinary women who are changing the world.” A chapter from Roberta Bosurgi, CEO of Impact Europe (formerly EVPA) takes us to an unexpected place:
“The world is not going to fix itself. The people now attempting to fix it usually come to this realisation fairly early in life. Indeed, many of the people I work with, investors for social and environmental impact and members of my organisation, Impact Europe, have a story or even a moment when they realised it – a beach choked with trash, a sea slicked with oil. My story begins in Mongolia.
I expected Ulaanbaatar to be cold. The city is considered the world’s coldest capital, with January temperatures plunging to -40 Celsius – a windless permafrost that can freeze your tears mid-cheek. What I did not expect was the dome of black smoke hovering above the city. One usually thinks of hot cities when one thinks of air pollution: a haze of exhaust, the rattle of overworked air conditioners. This seemed incongruous: black smoke in a clear, cold sky.”
In addition to Roberta’s chapter, the book also features one from Leslie Johnston, Board Chair of Impact Europe (formerly EVPA) and CEO of the Laudes Foundation. The book was released by Una Terra VC Fund, a €200M Venture Capital Impact fund, focused on scaling up European start-ups fostering solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss through circular economy solutions.
“I’m honoured to be included in these pages among so many powerful, purposeful women,” Roberta commented on the release. “Compiled together, our inspiring stories show our collective strength and how environmental and social impact can go hand in hand to accelerate a just and green transition.”
The co-authors were Luca Zerbini, CEO of Una Terra VC Fund, and Francesco Pagano, a Senior Partner at Jakala and a contributor at Il Sole 24 Ore. The book also features a foreword by Riccardo Valentini, Professor of Forest Ecology, University of Tuscia (Italy) and Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2007, jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Readers can purchase a copy here (though for the planet’s sake, we recommend the e-book).