My Story

I, Sophie Gripenberg, grew up in a small town outside of Stockholm. My passion for the wellbeing of our society started at the age of eleven when I decided to stop eating meat (since I saw animals as my friends) and engaged in gender equality already in high school.

At university, I pursued a double bachelor's degree in peace and development studies as well as economics, where I discovered that social and economic interests were often contradictory. To deepen my understanding of these conflicting interests and the interlinkages between different development issues, I pursued a master's in socio-ecological resilience for sustainable development. Since then, I have undertaken numerous academic courses, becoming proficient in areas such as planetary boundaries, resilience, systems thinking, and measures of welfare that go beyond GDP. How we measure prosperity and human wellbeing is my academic speciality.

Apart from academic work, I began my career as a change maker at the age of 21 when I joined the Red Cross Youth organization. I spent the first months coordinating education to promote fair trade and eventually became the chairperson of the local youth organization. We created a platform where newly arrived young refugees could meet young people in Sweden, one of the first initiatives of its kind in Sweden. My enthusiasm for sustainable development and humanitarian work led me to a national position as the creator and coordinator of the Swedish Red Cross sustainability work at the age of 27, the first of its kind globally. After three years of hard work, we had trained thousands of volunteers in sustainability and reduced our total carbon emissions by 25% in less than a year. Following that, I moved to Jordan, working with refugees at UNHCR as the Environment Officer and later assisting the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the international implementation of their environmental management systems.

Despite the traditional career path, I believe in following one’s bliss and life journey. I dared to choose the less traveled road to assist more organisations and companies as a self-employed consultant. In the last couple of years, I have had the honour to work with circular businesses in the fashion industry, deliver public speeches in schools, collaborate with philanthropic foundations examining food systems, evaluate governmental bodies’ environmental performance, assist non-profit organisations in implementing Agenda 2030, and engage in political work related to wellbeing economics.

Despite years of study and work, my major passion is travelling. I embarked on my first world trip at the age of 21, starting in Latin America. Since then, I have scuba-dived in the Great Barrier Reef, volunteered in rural areas in Nepal, learned about small-scale Agroforestry farming in Kenya, spent Christmas in Bethlehem, interviewed migrant workers in Indonesia, lived on an abandoned island for a week, hitchhiked from Sumatra to Myanmar, stayed in several monasteries, explored India and Sri Lanka by hitchhiking from state to state for several months, worked remotely from Bali, Vietnam, and the Philippines, road-tripped the West coast of the USA, and travelled far and wide by train, most notably from Stockholm to Hong Kong in 2019.

This story is just an introduction to what I’ve done and might say a little about who I am. The most important journey in life is the journey within, and the most significant achievement, in my opinion, is who I am and become as a person. I attended my first 10-day silent meditation retreat at the age of 25 and completed my yoga teacher training at 27. Since then, I have explored my inner world more deeply with the purpose of finding peace and serving the world. Insights I have gained, I now share in my teachings and coaching.

I’m extremely passionate about life and creating opportunities for nature to heal, animals to be free, and all humans to enjoy their lives based on wellbeing principles. As a geek in economics, I’m here to contribute to economic system change.

Does my story resonate with you? I hope we’ll find ways to create magic together.