GISA Autumn Election 2024 Candidate Profiles: Kata Mims & Amanda Johansson for Environmental Committee Co-Presidents

In conversation with Kata Mims & Amanda Johansson (Second-year MINT and First-year MINT students respectively).

Q. What makes you the ideal candidate for the role of President of the Environmental Committee? 

Our objective is not only to make a meaningful impact at IHEID and GISA but also to foster environmental awareness in every student. We aim to simplify complex sustainability issues so that students from all faculties can engage with them, advocate for accessible and globally conscious environmental policies, and create spaces that foster interdisciplinary and international dialogue, amplifying the voices of students from all backgrounds. Additionally, we are committed to equipping students with the skills needed to address global environmental challenges theoretically and with culturally relevant tools to adapt solutions, ensuring our education in Geneva has real-world applicability. We believe we are uniquely positioned for the role of President of the Environmental Committee because we bring experience directly tied to the initiatives we are proposing. Through Amanda’s work in Sweden and South Africa, she has managed sustainability projects that focused on bridging community needs with green entrepreneurship, which directly informs our clothing exchange initiative at IHEID. By incorporating these successful models, we aim to create a platform for students to embrace circular economy concepts. My experience at the South Centre involved producing research that contributed to global policy discussions, aligning directly with our workshops’ emphasis on critically evaluating Western sustainability models and understanding their global applicability. Together, we can bring these practices to IHEID, making sustainability both accessible and actionable, and ensuring every student has the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to environmental change.

Q. What are the three most pressing environmental issues on your agenda, and how would you tackle them?

The three most pressing issues on our agenda are making environmental issues more accessible, encouraging recycling, and reducing waste.

In order to make environmental issues more accessible to IHEID students, we plan to organize Interdisciplinary Sustainability “Workshops”, coordinating with professors, the AgriFood Collective and other student initiatives, and PhD students to develop themes, ensuring each session has a broad appeal beyond just MINT students. By selecting themes such as “Carbon Neutrality in Resource-Constrained Countries,” we seek to enable students to critique Western sustainability models and adapt them to different cultural contexts, ensuring that environmental issues and dialogue are accessible to all students. In order to improve recycling awareness, we will develop an optional environmental module as part of the educational module series for new students, focusing on recycling practices. This module will help students from different backgrounds adapt more easily to life at IHEID, improving awareness surrounding local recycling and waste management practices. Furthermore, we will encourage waste reduction through initiatives such as the monthly flea market for exchanging clothes and organizing more “sustainability runs” sponsored by organizations that contribute funds to environmental organizations that work to reduce food waste, like La Farce. 

Q. What specific sustainability and environmental initiatives would you prioritize for our campus, and how would you engage the student body to take an active role in these efforts?

We are planning on launching Interdisciplinary Sustainability “Workshops”, and a Sustainability Mentorship + Networking Program, but also believe that to engage IHEID students with environmental and sustainable efforts, students must be offered different, unique ways to take an active role— for us, this means investing in a variety of environmental initiatives, including those that are not necessarily career oriented or academically focused. We have developed three “sustainable lifestyle initiatives” we believe have the potential to involve students in environmental efforts. First, as referenced above, we want to implement a “Give your old clothes new love” monthly flea market. At our home universities, we had the opportunity to bring clothes to a university flea market, trading them and giving them new life. We would like to bring this to IHEID, where students can bring in used clothes, and appliances, and reduce waste in Geneva. Second, we aim to involve those with an interest in athletics by organizing more events similar to our Sustainability Run, where students can participate in environmental exercise or outdoors events to raise money or raise awareness for a particular sustainability issue or effort. Lastly, we understand that coming to Geneva and the Graduate Institute for the first time can be hard to navigate for many of us. We would like to host a series of coffee chats focused on different topics of sustainability and living in Geneva, where we discuss options for affordable food and other topics that students are interested in informally discussing. We hope that by offering a variety of environmental initiatives, we can appeal more personally to students and encourage engagement with environment and sustainability efforts across the student body.

Q. What leadership style do you plan to adopt in this role, and how does your past experience influence your approach?

It is important to us to introduce students to the topics in a meaningful way and to treat sustainability and the environment as an important but also approachable topic.

We want to convey both theoretical and practical content and applications as students. As part of all students, we want to provide input on the topic. We have both noticed in the past that it is pointless to be led from above. This does not lead to acceptance and adoption of the methods and approaches but rather leads to rejection. We have both experienced this first hand in past practical experience and we definitely want to have a different approach.

Q. How will you leverage each other’s strengths as co-presidents to enhance the impact of the Environmental Committee’s initiatives?

One of our strengths is definitely our collaboration. This allows us to combine our expertise, experience, and motivation and thus pursue our common goal in a unified manner. We both have extensive past experience working in the area of ​​sustainability and the environment, which will benefit the entire committee. Furthermore, we both have different approaches, with each method being the most efficient in each case. This combined knowledge means we are prepared for every situation and can therefore act flexibly, quickly, and transparently. What sets us apart is our good team spirit, which not only balances out any individual weaknesses but also allows us to leverage our respective strengths.

Q. As co-presidents, how would you describe your team dynamics, and what methods will you use to ensure effective collaboration?

As co-presidents, our team dynamics are based on mutual respect for one another’s backgrounds and experiences. Coming from different academic years and professional fields, we bring complementary perspectives, with a shared goal of supporting interdisciplinary collaboration. To ensure effective teamwork, we are going to implement clear and transparent communication, hold regular meetings, and keep ourselves updated and involved in all projects that may include support and planning. Our leadership styles are centered on inclusivity and collective problem-solving, encouraging both of us to contribute our ideas. By blending our project management experience and grassroots advocacy, we are confident in our ability to lead effectively.

Editor’s Note: Responses have been edited for clarity.

Voting is now open and will close on October 10 at 10:30 a.m. We encourage all IHEID students to participate and cast their votes!