Celebrating the Grand Opening of our Circular Coworking Space
Innovators, entrepreneurs, and curious individuals of all kinds united at Impact Hub Berlin’s opening party under common themes – the desire to change the world for the better, connect with like-minded changemakers, and have some fun.
The ‘More Space for Impact’ Opening Party last month marked the launch of Impact Hub Berlin’s coworking and innovation space. Party-goers toured the open environment while enjoying delicious catering by Fräulein König.
After lots of laughter, eating, and networking, speakers shared their knowledge with a captivated audience in the spacious Café area.
Presentations included a focus on Impact Hub Berlin’s four impact ecosystems: circular economy, sustainable food, green tech, and diversity and inclusion.
Kim Le Roux, Managing Director at LXSY Architekten and Impact Hub Berlin’s Sascha Stremming explained why they built a sustainable building, called the “CRCLR House” after its circular construction.
Kim explained how she and her team sourced materials from other demolition sites, prototyped, and built the space. The two told the crowd that reusing was their first priority and where that wasn’t possible, they used sustainable materials like hemp to avoid the huge amounts of toxic waste produced by conventional building sites.
Through hilarious anecdotes, Kim and Sascha described their multitude of challenges in building Berlin’s first circular project of this magnitude.
Among the panelists, Dr. Jonas Hüther, a sustainability and circularity expert at Miele, discussed the company’s new partnership with Impact Hub Berlin’s circular economy ecosystem. Hüther said Miele decided to join Impact Hub Berlin because solutions and collaboration cannot happen in isolation.
“We want to make sustainability happen at every step, so from the supply chain, from the production, to the usage, we want to make sure that we are sustainable,” Hüther said. “So we need to collaborate with startups like we’re planning to do here.”
Dr. Christiane Rohleder, the state secretary of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, presented on the role of entrepreneurship and innovation and said that Impact Hub Berlin is what the world needs to “ensure that social and environmental change can succeed.”
“The Federal Environment Ministry sees Impact Hub Berlin as a great location for creating synergies for our own activities in this area,” Rohleder added.
The last speech of the evening was the Ignition Talk by Rebecca Freitag, which urged action and further collaboration in Impact Hub Berlin’s community.
A former youth climate delegate to the United Nations and co-founder of Future Maps, Freitag said the products created need to be convincing, not only idealistic.
She said she sees Impact Hub Berlin as a safe space that brings her inner calmness and fosters belief that sustainable and economic transformation is possible. She encouraged startups to find their courage to leave the safety of the nest and bring the world the fruitful ideas grown at Impact Hub Berlin.
“Only being good is not enough,” Freitag said. “We need to make our impact bigger.”
As you may know, those who create big impact, also create big parties.
After the presentations, a brass band led the crowd down the block to SchwuZ, one of the largest queer clubs in Berlin. The party included DJ-ing by an Impact Hub Berlin insider, alongside SchwuZ regulars, and unbelievable amounts of sustainable glitter.
While this was certainly a party for the books, it definitely won’t be the last. We look forward to seeing you at all our future events, as we make positive change and have fun doing it.
