This initiative gives guidance for caregivers and anyone who wants to enable kids to flourish on a flourishing planet.
The site is under construction and released as a beta for you who want to share what you want to see on the site. If you have ideas, please do get in touch!
Together we enabled the next generations to flourish
Current status and next steps - get in touch!
After having received and incorporated valuable input from leaders and advisors worldwide on the structure and content of this site, it was launched in January 2025.
All main output goals of this project are almost met, with just some improvements left to make. Follow the progress and learn more about the project under "About".
If you're curious to know more, want to bounce ideas or share thoughts on improvements and next steps to scale impacts, don't hesitate to reach out!
Together we can enable the next generations to flourish.
The Wise Wonders Project is launched!
2025
Fun or sacrifice?
In 2012, I faced a decision: Should I dare to take on what seemed like a compelling and crucial but also immense task, to try to make something meaningful for a sustainable future? Although I felt passionate and excited about it, I will not pretend it wasn't a bit daunting too.
Besides, didn't sustainability mean having to live a more restricted life? Or what if I had to spend my days mainly dealing with recycling garbage? Perhaps better stick to something that seemed more easy and fun?
My friend said: "No way, this is what you find truly meaningful. Jump and I'll catch you if you fall". So I jumped.
A leap into the unknown
2012
Discovering a new world
2013
Innovation, art and science for flourishing lives
Entering the entrepreneurship scene, I was fortunate to eventually start working with some of the most brilliant minds at the intersection of innovation and sustainability. From having a limited view of sustainability, a new world opened up before my eyes.
Rather than living a more restricted life, I learnt how true sustainability through innovation, art and science could mean living better, more creative and flourishing lives. Doing something meaningful for the world suddenly turned from crucial but somewhat burdening to fun and intriguing! I also understood the value of surrounding yourself with people who share similar dreams and aspirations as you do. Together you are more courageous and at peace when navigating change.
Working with global risk experts
2015
Science-based solutions
In parallell with the city projects, I worked with The Global Challenges Foundation and Oxford University, including world-leading experts on innovation and global risks like artificial intelligence, pandemics, nuclear war and extreme climate change.
Together with my work as an innovation advisor, this made me savvy in distinguishing between incremental improvements (like recycling) and solutions proportionate to what is required to meet those challenges.
This is also why this site provides an overview of the scientific climate scenarios and frameworks used as a minimum baseline to assess the solutions on this site.
Basic human needs
To put solutions at scale, the collaboration platform I headed to accelerate innovation in cities was launched also in India.
As New Delhi was three times bigger than the entire population of Sweden (the airport even had an annual traffic more than the total population of Sweden), anything they did was basically global right from the start - at least for someone coming from a country that compared to India was Pluto.
While working with entrepreneurs in India made it clear that there are so many similarities as to what solutions were being needed for the cities in both Sweden and India, it also highlighted the question about what "stuff" is truly needed. This is one of the reasons why this site focuses on basic human needs.
Accelerating solutions in India
2016
Preschools and kids
As an innovation catalyst and advisor, some of the projects I came to work with was developing pre-schools with cities.
I remember an intrapreneur in one of the cities saying: "Sustainability in schools is more than energy-efficient buildings, it must be integrated in the pedagogy. Besides, we don't want to be 100% sustainable - we want to be 1000% sustainable, enabling families in their own sustainability journeys too".
So we looked at everything from books introducing children to the wonders of nature to providing parents with climate-smart meals. Obviously, this planted the first seeds to what was actually going to become this initiative.
Working with preschools in cities
2014
Working with youths and systemic change in cities
2017
Mental health and systemic change
Having worked with pre-schools in cities sparked my interest in working with youths. In the evenings I therefore started to mentor teenagers at schools in socio-economically vulnerable city districts in Sweden.
This made it evident how violence and even death is part of everyday life for many of those kids, naturally affecting not only their mental wellbeing but society at large as well.
Parallel to this, my main job at Vinnova - The Swedish Agency for Innovation Systems - further strengthened my understanding of the need for broad collaborations to drive systemic change in cities, including in vulnerable districts.
Affordability for all
In 2018 I went with Doctors Without Borders on a mission to Guinea, Africa, to work as a capacity development leader.
While Africa has a rich cultural heritage and many parts of the continent are lightyears ahead of what stereotype narratives of Africa often tell, Doctors Without Borders work in some of the most distressed areas around the world. On the one hand, I witnessed the profound ingenuity of people finding innovative ways of maximising the utilisation of ocean plastics and other materials exposed once the tide was ebbing. On the other hand, I also experienced first hand the alarmingly polluted air due to cables and electronics being burnt to separate metals from plastics. Seeing children running around those bonfires and heaps of garbage made me even more convinced that sustainable solutions must be affordable to all.
This is some of the greatest challenges in developing globally sustainable solutions, and while some needs may differ in different contexts, the ambition with this initiative is to ensure that as many solutions as possible are accessible to all.
Mission with Doctors Without Borders
2018
Supporting pioneers in the ICT industry
2019
Solution mindset and character strengths
At this point, I was working with groundbreaking initiatives to support the ICT industry in not only looking at their solutions from a problem perspective (the negativt impact from ICT itself) but also from a solution perspective (the much greater net positive impacts ICT can have by reducing emissions in all other sectors). This holistic approach to solutions is key at this site.
After having worked with sustainability for some years now, I had also begun to understand more fully the extent to which driving sustainability is about leadership. I got increasingly curious about the psychology in driving change and saw that supporting fundamental shifts in mindsets, values and lifestyles requires character strengths such as curiosity, courage and a growth-mindset, which is at the heart of this initiative.
Outdoor lifestyles and connecting to nature
In 2020 I was fortunate to support yet another forward-thinking initiative, this time exploring how the outdoor and sports industry can enable active lifestyles through its solutions.
This opened up my eyes both for the intriguing opportunities to drive real change through this industry, as well as the fun and adventurous lifestyles it promotes. This for example includes hiking, which in part is why one of this site's sections (Connect to nature) focuses on outdoor experiences.
Funny enough, I got involved in this projects just before the pandemic fully broke out, which would eventually make the public interest in hiking soar to new heights.
Supporting pioneers in the outdoor industry
2020
A source of inspiration is born
2021
Long-term perspective (2100 -)
In late 2021, my daughter was born. While there are many events over the years that have influenced this initiative, her birth naturally would become a strong impetus to create this project.
The drive to contribute to society was something I had had for as long as I can remember and having my daughter made this urge even stronger. How would I be able to look her in the eyes, smile at her and feel sincere joy if I didn't do everything I could to make sure that she (and her fellow 11 billion human beings projected to be alive by 2100) would be safe in the future and flourish, also when we as caregivers are not there?
From chemicals to books and museums
During my daughter's first year we went out on many excursions, such as hikes in the woods and museum visits to connect to nature and the real-world issues often addressed in exhibitions while still being safe for a child.
I also spent a lot of time exploring the magical world of children's books, trying to find books that could support not only her cognitive development but her character strengths as well, including emotional and empathetic development.
Besides this, I also got nerdy when it came to checking the INCI-list of products to ensure that they used as few chemicals as possible.
Exploring the wonders of life
2022
The idea of this initiative is born
2023
Building structures
Having gathered so much knowledge and solutions, I started to get the question from others: "Why don't you share all of this for more kids to benefit from as well?" As the idea of creating this initiative took root, I started to build structures in my head to organise all ideas I had for what to include on this site.
During the pandemic, I had also spent time updating myself on the latest research on how businesses can contribute positively to society through innovation. There I found frameworks to draw inspiration from when developing the framework for this site.
Meanwhile, I continued gathering material to fill missing gaps, to be able to provide a more comprehensive set of solutions.
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Global collaborations to put solutions at scale
First half of 2024 was when I truly realised how fun photography is, documenting as much as I can to bring it to life on this site. After summer, I had enough material to start building it. This went quite fast as I had done most of the groundwork already.
Parallell to this, another project I worked on was with UNDP and a campaign to highlight the voices of African youths. Their stories are a testament to the speed at which Africa is moving. I discovered countless of youths driving innovation and advancing with determination, flexibility and ingenuity.
All of those stories show how many brilliant youths that exist that have so much willpower and so many creative ideas, while also highlighting the importance of global collaborations for more people to be inspired by and learn from their actions.
Building the site and working with UNDP on youth campaign
2024
CONTACT
Stop by and connect!
If you are curious to know more, have feedback or ideas on solutions for kids to flourish, please do send a message.
To get into the more nitty gritty stuff of the previous work this initiative is built on, you can visit my profile on LinkedIn here:
From restrictions to creativity, innovation, art and nature
Tracking the key elements of this initiative based on experiences from the past decade and more
Discover more
ABOUT
ABOUT
The story behind this initiative
In late 2021, the birth of my daughter and the urge to create a safe and flourishing future for her and the next generations became the impetus to this project. The seed to it had however been sown long before that.
Over the last decade, as a lot of time was devoted to developing and leading innovation projects in pursuit of making a small yet strategic contribution to a flourishing future, a series of events eventually led to the creation of this initiative. Sharing some snapshots of experiences below that are of particular relevance to this initiative serves to create a better understanding of what it is all about and why it has been shaped the way it has.
If you'd like to know more, reach out to Madeleine Enarsson, Initiator & Project Manager of The Wise Wonders Project, via this contact form or LinkedIn.
The world we left behind
Photo: Per Grönqvist © 2025