The SACC DC team has been working hard to develop networking opportunities and insightful events as Covid restrictions loosen and in person activities resume. I am very pleased to share the following upcoming events in the next 2 months:

April 7: Happy Hour at Sequoia 4-6 pm

April 26: The inaugural Scandinavian Innovation Forum "Green Supply Chains in a Carbon-free Future" held at the Royal Embassy of Norway

May 17: Networking and launch of SACC-DC B2B Matchmaking and Trade Services, 4-6 pm

I interned for the first time during my bachelor's in the US in a small town in South Carolina where one of my professors was running for Congress. I actually interned with him for one semester, and found it interesting seeing how a grassroots campaign works in the US. During the internship I attended political meetings and developed an understanding of the US political system. One of my key take-aways was that one person’s campaigning and engagement can have an extensive impact for so many people.

My second internship was conducted at the Swedish mission to the UN in New York, where I was at the fifth Committee of the UN known as the Budget and Management Committee. One could argue it is basically the most important UN committee, with it submitting and deciding who gets the money. Countries essentially use the committee to make power plays. Such committee usage stems from a high degree of micromanage for almost every position that the UN Secretary wants to hire, where approval from the committee is necessary even for junior level position.

After that, I was supposed to do a fellowship at Atlantic Council here in Washington DC, but because of some visa issues, I ended up just going to the U.S. to represent the Swedish Centre Party for about two months until COVID made it difficult to stay in the U.S. As the Centre Party's representative in D.C., I was mostly doing research, meeting with U.S. politicians, as well as NGOs and think tanks. The goal was to develop the Centre Party's U.S. network and see what we could learn from actors in DC. All in all, it's a random series of events that has led me to my current position in the U.S.

The company was founded in 2016 by Ingmar Rentzhog, who previously ran his own communications firm with clients such as JPMorgan and BlackRock. In 2016, when Trump was elected president, Ingmar realized that our leaders would not solve the climate crisis, so he decided to use his expertise in communication to do something. He founded We Don't Have Time, a review platform and social network for anyone passionate about the climate. The platform's goal is to make it profitable to be climate-friendly and expensive to pollute. On wedonthavetime.org, users can give Climate Love to companies, organizations, and individuals that contribute to solving the climate crisis and Climate Warnings to those who destroy it. Today We Don't Have Time has a social media reach of more than 75 million people every month.

On the platform you can contribute to any review system covering climate warnings, climate ideas, and climate love. Climate love is given to companies, organizations and individuals that contribute to improve the climate. We consider climate love an important tool since the climate movement is very negative in tone, which of course reflects the current research related to the climate. However, we aim to encourage the exponential climate actions prevalent today by adopting a positive solution-oriented mindset. Climate warnings put a spotlight on the actors acting in a harmful manner and is followed up by actions from the platform. Lastly, though our petition-based climate ideas we aspire to connect ideas with capital and the right people, to encourage action. At this moment, the platform has over 700 investors. However, we are set to expand and have a series of fundraising rounds active, hoping to raise €10 million during the summer.

I have followed SACC-DC on social media for a while now, and even applied for a position at the Chamber way back. I enjoy the organization because of all the fantastic activities, sometimes hosted at the beautiful venue of House of Sweden. I genuinely value being part of this small, friendly Swedish community in DC. I have always received relevant input and exchanges from my encounters at SACC-DC. I even found a Swedish dentist here in DC thanks to the Swedish community, so you never know what surplus value a membership might bring. I appreciate the Swedish connection and foremost I feel SACC-DC is a great network to be able to tap into both professionally as well as socially.

SACC-USA, the umbrella organization encompassing SACC-DC and 18 other regional chambers across the U.S., recently launched a new talent mobility collaboration program, SIREUS. It's a project involving 12 prestigious Swedish partner universities stretching over three years, with support from the Embassy of Sweden in Washington DC and the Swedish Institute. SIREUS aims to increase the number of trainee exchange programs between Sweden and the U.S., as well as intensifying the knowledge exchange between the two countries through research and innovation.

For additional information about the participating partner universities and contacts, please click here.

June 2, 2022

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