21. The story of Centro de Innovación Climática y Sostenibilidad in Peru. A Journey entrepreneur’s special episode.

Journey Visions - A Path towards Sustainability

Today, Soham and James present another Special Entrepreneur Episode as they talk to Melissa Capcha Eulogio from the Transalpine Journey!

One of five sisters, from a young age she has wanted to change the world to make it more equal and inclusive. She envisions tackling climate change and sustainability as an opportunity to address the social and environmental challenges she saw when she was younger. Born in a small city, her family moved to Lima, where Melissa saw the pollution and environmental challenges common to big cities. This inspired her to shift towards engineering for environmental solutions. During her project with the NGO she has learnt the importance of being flexible, adaptable and resilient.

In Peru, climate change is not a priority. In 2016, she founded an NGO with some friends to create local climate solutions in Peru, revolving around issues linked to education and public awareness. Her NGO is focused on the valorisation of food waste. The NGO now produces a technical guide for key industry and policy decision makers. This has focused on the techniques and methodologies for the use of food waste in Lima. In parallel, they are involved in communications campaigns to raise awareness of Organic waste at a community and household level. After this, Vanessa and her established their current NGO. Initially they were confident they would gain international funding and focusing all their energy on achieving this. When this proved unsuccessful they decided to re-evaluate where they were putting all their energy. As a result, they slowed down, found ways of combining work and studies with the NGO. This gave them the stability and comfort they needed to grow at a slow yet steady rate.

Tune in to hear more about Melissa’s story and how sustainable development is addressed from a South American perspective.