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Sasha Cohen Ioannides, Sustainability Advocate and Entrepreneur

Sustaining the Future of Food and Climate

As a child, Sasha Cohen Ioannides (DC 2020) had an aquaponic system in her basement at home and experimented with an urban farming club at school. These two projects sparked an interest that’s driven her onto an international stage, working on issues related to sustainability in the food system and climate action.

While studying decision science as an undergrad at Carnegie Mellon, Sasha met a group of like-minded environmentalists who pooled their skills to found Ecotone Renewables, a startup that aims to eliminate food waste with an upcycling system for organic scraps. Ecotone Renewables builds anaerobic digesters in shipping containers. When leftover food is dumped in, the system mimics biological digestion to turn the waste into carbon-negative, organic fertilizer.

“It’s all happening on site so there’s no waste hauling. It’s an example of the innovation that we need to handle food waste sustainability on a global scale,” she says.

Through Ecotone Renewables, Sasha was tapped as a youth delegate for a variety of international organizations, including a role as PreCOP26 Cypriot delegate to the U.N. As a dual nationality Cypriot-American, she fits naturally into global conversations.

“Connecting with other Cypriot youth, we realized Cyprus was lacking ways for people to shape policy with the government,” she says. “We built the Local Conference of the Youth Cyprus as the first intercommunal gathering connecting youth over sustainability issues. The U.N. undersecretary general highlighted our efforts as a good case of youth contributing to sustainability and peacebuilding in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Sasha also co-founded FutureFood Makers, a European youth NGO driving a sustainable food system through a change manifesto that guides policy tracking, corporate consulting, youth mentorship and funding.

“A lot of the sustainability work just flows together,” she says.

Story by Elizabeth Speed