Qi GLOBAL: Human Progress in Harmony with Nature

Posted on Sep 4, 2015 in August 2015 Edition, Mosaicque Ezine

Kristine Oustrup Laureijs
Co-Founder, Innovation Network & Director, Business Innovation Culture (BIC)

Kristine Oustrup is a creative and dynamic woman, a Goodwill Ambassador of Copenhagen that is committed in using design and fashion in a responsible way on open innovation models, for midsize and large companies. MOSAICQUE magazine was privileged to interview Kristine in regards to her achievement and her future aspirations.

According to Kristine being creative is at the core of being human. And so, she inquires into a most challenging question, if Technology can do pretty much anything in the world, can technology be truly creative? So to address this, BIC tested out an idea called the ICoNS, to see if different people innovate differently.

She co-founded Qi Global to incite such change and believes that innovation happens when there is cross-pollination of knowledge, hence their approach involves reaching out to individuals and organisations from diverse industries. Ideas are the seeds, but we also need passion from the community, and resources from the corporate world to nurture a meaningful space that can allow these ideas to come to fruition. By bridging people from these different backgrounds together, synergistic encounters are engineered, and innovative projects are formed as a result of their collective effort to be architects of a different future.

One of Qi-Global’s current project is the Rainforest Cuisine brand intends to protect the depleting rainforest of West Kalimantan by providing the local tribes an alternative source to livelihood rather than taking part in the oil palm and timber industries which is the cause of Borneo’s rapid deforestation. Encroachment from palm oil plantations was rapidly transforming Borneo’s rainforest, possibly the world’s most magnificent example of biodiversity. Borneo’s primary rainforest is 130 million years old, making it the oldest in the world. There are over 15,000 unique species of flowering plants making it one of the most bio-diverse places on earth. In order to support and develop a long term relationship with local tribes, Chef Andre and Kristine aimed to establish a supply chain for sourcing produce from the rainforest in a responsible and sustainable manner.

With Cathy Henkel, the Director behind “The Rise of the Eco-Warriors”, and Andre Chiang, one of Singapore’s top chefs, they have started an initiative that tackles deforestation in a novel way. The destruction of rainforests stems from the fact that the new forms it takes – such as timber and fertile agricultural land – are far more than profitable than its original state.
Our solution, hence, is to monetise the rainforest as it is by supplying haute cuisine establishments with rare, original and natural rainforest ingredients. The sustainable, fair-trade supply chain they are developing allows the rainforest to continue flourishing, bring equitable returns to the local communities and, on a larger scale, generate interest in protecting rainforests by showcasing its beauty and diversity to the rest of the world. Kristine’s role is to inspire, incubate ideas and help make the impossible happen.

Profile:
Kristine “Kiki” Oustrup Laureijs, is a contemporary visual artist exploring new frontiers.
Using visual and multimedia art installations, her works offers both visionary and sometimes provoking commentaries on contemporary social, political and cultural issues.
Currently she is exploring multicultural identity in a globalising world for FACES of the FUTURE.
A graduate in International Business & Marketing, she originally joined the Scandinavian fashion group METROPOL (St. Martins) in Denmark, before moving to Hong Kong as Head of Innovation for global lifestyle brand DIESEL.
After a move to France in 2001, Kiki became the co-founder of the French trend agency Style-Vision, where she consulted several global luxury brands and initiated the Style-Vision Round Table events, supported by the Financial Times.
In 2009, Kristine arrived in Singapore to establish Qi GLOBAL, an open innovation platform for sustainability, with the mission of “Human Progress in Harmony with Nature”.
During 2012-2015, she pivoted the online platform into Business Innovation Culture, a change management company, served on the advisory board of the Singapore Institute for Innovation & Productivity (SiPi) and as the Chairwoman of the growing CEO Innovation Network.
With her innovative ideas gaining continuous recognition, she has been appointed “Goodwill Ambassador of Copenhagen” under the patronage of His Royal Highness, Prince Joachim of Denmark, to represent and promote the country of her birth.