Stefannia Russo

In a world of dwindling natural resources, complex social challenges and an overload of information—knowing where to start is hard. I got that at an early age and decided to study Design and Scriptwriting because the only thing I knew was that no matter what I ended up doing I had to be able to tell a good story. Visually and in writing. That allowed me to experiment. After all, what field doesn’t need a storyteller? I worked with strategic design, tech innovation and even sales until I realized I could channel all that knowledge and experience into something meaningful. I started a food lab at SPACE10, IKEA’s innovation lab and at the same time I studied a masters in Social Entrepreneurship in Copenhagen. After two years, the output of the lab was presented at London Design Week. LOKAL—the prototype of a educational hydroponic salad-bar won awards by Frame, Dezeen, Fast Company and Wired. Convincing IKEA to take a huge step into growing healthy and sustainable food at the stores. The relationship with the company now continues at IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, where I’ve been on the lead of their first pilot accelerator program supporting 12 social entrepreneurs from 11 countries to scale through systems change.

People

Social entrepreneurship

Backcountry hiking