I grew up in low Austria, where all is plain and you can look over fifteen or twenty kilometers, and there’s nothing besides trees. However, I’ve always loved to travel, and in one of these trips, I discovered mountain climbing and, since then, it became my hobby. I practice it not only as a sport, or for fitness, but also because it allows me to experience and feel nature and empathize with plants and animals.

I studied biology in Vienna and decided not to specialize in only one area, because all in nature is connected, all is a single picture. Of course we need specialists, experts that allow us to connect one part with another, but I wanted to know a little bit of everything.

One day, I went to one of these big supermarkets in the city, and everything there was packed in plastic, everything looked awful. Walking through the fruits and vegetables sector, I even saw one banana in a package… just ONE banana in plastic wrapping! Then I thought “Why do you need to pack one banana in plastic? Or one orange? Who’s responsible for this?”

The overuse of plastic is a huge problem that needs to be solved, we need to find solutions not only for food preserving, but to all the unnecessary uses of plastic. We need the material, actually, in medicine and pharmaceutical research, where it’s one of the most valuable resources, but we need to be more responsible about it. Once the plastic is used and discarded, what happens with it?

We’re contaminating the oceans, we have microparticles of plastic in the air… you can even find plastic waste in Antarctica! It’s time to rethink and look for alternatives. We need way more innovations. The first step to achieve this is to create recycling and reuse awareness. Of course we need legal regulations and policies, but the thing we need the most is to reconnect people with nature.

All this generation that grew up with fossil fuel (my parents included) has lost their confidence in nature. I think I haven’t and I continue recovering it day by day. Now I need to motivate people to recover it as well. We need more scientific research in fields like medicine, find better recipes with nature components, like the gum based on trees project that we’re creating, they make you feel the forest in your mouth. 

My last name means “Falcon Keeper” in German. When I climb, I always look to the skies to watch them fly. However, I think I’m some kind of keeper for something more than just a falcon… like, a nature keeper. Nevertheless, the task is very hard, sometimes I have storms in my way, but what motivates me to keep doing it is the good response we’ve received from the people, they believe in this idea. They see what we can do and not only what could be done. They also see how the project is run and founded by women, and here in Austria there’s not enough female entrepreneurship. Perhaps, with some more time, we can encourage more women to found projects of any kind.

We’re making this change possible, going low to high, just like climbing mountains.