All Posts from Laura Ochoa
“Almost a full-time job”: Leading a team of student reporters – Interview with Caroline D’Angelo
Rio +20 is coming soon, and with it, a great team of student reporters from around the world. Behind all the student reporters, there are outstanding team leaders (like Caroline) who edit their posts and interviews while guiding them through the hectic journey of live conference-blogging. Leading a team of student reporters is certainly not an » read on
About game theory, free riders and climate change
Have you ever heard about Game Theory, the Prisoner’s dilemma, or the Nash Equilibrium? Probably many of us, and –hopefully- the majority of the policy-makers around the world, studied this subject once. For me, the principle taught by this great subject is basically that if players of the game (namely policy-makers, CEOs, etc.) act in » read on
“I don’t care what you think, if I don’t think that you care”
Finally. Someone dared to question the approach of the World Resources Forum, and it was one of the speakers. Marilyn Mehlmann, General Secretary of Global Action Plan International (GAP), said some assertive words that many of us wanted to hear, especially the young ones (coincidence?). I found her speech sincere, which probably made it unpleasant » read on
And what about profit and competitiveness? The Kraft Foods case
Change should always start at some point. Probaby the smaller the change is, the easier it is to make it. But what happens when a big organisation, not to say a corporate dinosaur, is trying to redefine its strategy towards a more sustainable way of doing business? Kraft Foods realised 20 years ago what many » read on
Grow Green!
There is a misunderstanding. We thought growth was about having and producing more, about improving quality of life. What happened? The concept of growth didn’t really take into account the whole life cycle of products and services we created and consumed. Without the internalization of current negative externalities we won’t be able to understand what » read on
Have you ever (consciously) eaten insects?
Have you ever imagined yourself eating a worm-burger, a grasshopper-taco or an insect-cookie? Probably not. For many people, it is hard to think of insects as a sumptuous source of food. This might change in the future. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the world will have to produce 70 percent more » read on
Impotence. Can you feel it?
Impotence. Have you ever felt it? I guess that many of us have at least once felt not having enough power, money, and many other means to shape the future. This feeling can make people give up, or wait until they think they have the means to do something, without noticing they might wait forever. » read on
More about this author
Laura was born 26 years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico. She is currently studying a Master of Science in Management, Technology and Economics at the ETH Zurich and is a board member of the World Resources Forum Association since March 2012, representing the young generation and the Latin American community. She has been working as a research assistant at the Chair Resource Economics with Prof. Dr. L. Bretschger since February 2011. During the summer of 2011, she made a three-month internship in the United Nations Environment Programme at the Economics and Trade Branch (UNEP-ETB) in Geneva, where she specially worked with the Green Economy Report. Laura studied Telematics Engineering at the ITAM University in Mexico City and graduated with honorific mention due to her thesis “Mass collaboration applied to a coordinating platform of joint trips for the ITAM”, a platform which tried to reduce the traffic and parking problems in her University. During a 14-month stay in Germany, she studied at the Kassel University and worked at T-Systems GmbH Frankfurt in the Market Intelligence Area. She believes that collaborative thinking and acting is fundamental to achieve sustainability, reduction of poverty and social equity, and is trying to find out how to engage people and get them to invest in sustainable and socially inclusive businesses. When she finds time, she enjoys going on bike tours or hiking, cooking, writing in any of her blogs, reading and traveling. She speaks Spanish, English and German.