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Name:
Stoyan Faldjisky
Company/NGO Name:
Ecosystem Europe
Region, Country:
Bulgaria
1. What is the mission of your NGO?
Our mission is to get young people to think about their future and prepare them to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Where are we now? Why are we here? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? These are questions we must ask ourselves if we want to create a future that can be bright for us and for all life on the planet.
2. What is the most innovative or environmentally/socially impactful project/practice your NGO has implemented?
We have pioneered many ideas, some ahead of their time, some even abstract. It doesn’t really matter what you do unless you do it profoundly. Innovation for me means to keep being in-depth. As for an impact, I am probably mostly proud of having inspired hundreds of students to position themselves within the natural world and to feel an integral part of it.
3. What inspired you to choose your career path?
Oh, my heroes are many. Apart from them, the attachment to freedom, beauty and arts, and to nature. Also, another motivation that I wanted to create a livelihood that corresponds to my inner world, to my own understanding of life. I refused to become a screw in those structures that create more wealth for the wealthiest, that shape the consumerism-based values driving much of what is today.
4. Personally—Why do you care about sustainability? What is your story?
Well, if you see the energy flow, if you breathe the clean air, if you drink the sweet mountain water, if you smell the rich soil, if you listen to life and chant along with it, then you live a happy life. Sustainability is a word that has been used for so long by so many people for so many reasons that it has lost its sense. For me, sustainability is simply happiness.
5. What is/are the biggest environmental or social challenge(s) facing your country today?
Negligence. My people are very, very negligent towards the deterioration of our natural capital and thus we have been losing it progressively for 80 years now. We live without thinking about the consequences of our actions in the future. You can imagine what the result of this oblivion is. Many are involved in some schemes and corruption, from the king to the peasant.
6. What are your thoughts on climate change? What is your company/organization doing to help bring awareness or to help mitigate climate change?
Climate change is the most pressing of all our concerns. It is the representation of humanity’s ultimate ignorance. It is the demonstration of our inability to live as one and we are very scared to admit it. Humans who often label themselves as the most intelligent species on the planet are the one creating the most destruction to Earth. However, our intelligence is also a superpower that gives us the opportunity to create change, but do we see this?
Keep up with Stoyan Faldjiyski and Ecosystem Europe on social media: