Anett Linno, former Regional Coordinator for Asia in WCD 2018, has returned to the LDIW Core Team as our new CEO! Earlier this week, I had the privilege of interviewing her to talk about the experience she is bringing back into our movement, as well as her vision for the future. Make a cup of tea, sit back, and enjoy this in-depth insight into that vision!
Firstly, what does returning to the core Let's Do It World HQ team mean to you – personally and professionally?
Coming back to this movement is like coming back home. I've been away for five years, learning a lot about things I didn't know that deeply before, like democracy and the principles of an open society, but also about technology, online engagement, argument-based discussions, and many other things.
And, I really feel that the people who are here, in the HQ, and also in the Network, are ‘my people’ – I feel a very great connection, and I’ve maintained contact with many leaders even after 2018. I've always attended the conferences, volunteered, or participated there, so, actually, I never truly left, but it's really great to be back fully again.
If you ask what it means to me professionally, then I feel that the time I wasn't actively involved in the Network gave me an opportunity to learn something new, to grow as a leader, in a different organization. And I'm really grateful to the Citizen OS team as well for this opportunity. I went there after the first World Cleanup Day, in 2018, as Head of Partnerships. Two years later, I became CEO. Now, coming back to LDIW is a really good opportunity for me to implement everything that I have learned within those last five years.
So, professionally, it's a huge leap for me, naturally, because the scale of our organization and our movement isn't comparable with anything else I’ve worked with before – it's very, very challenging, in a very, very positive way!
Could you describe briefly what Citizen OS does and what your biggest learning point as their CEO for the last three years has been?
Citizen OS is a non-governmental organization that develops e-democracy platform for teams and communities. As well as such platform development, Citizen OS also compiled and delivered different educational programs for young activists. So, I learned a lot about open societies, about democracy, how important civic organizations are in democratic and open societies. I would say that I got this kind of ‘big picture’ of how societies work.
But I also learned a lot about participatory and deliberative leadership and what it means to be a leader who considers other people's opinions and feelings and practices collaborative decision-making.
One thing I find is really important to me, as a leader, is creating and nurturing a healthy work environment, where people are appreciated, their work and private life is in balance, and where there are good and respectful relationships between people who work together.
I see that leaders have a great role in encouraging and supporting people in taking responsibility for both their mental and physical health, as well as setting their well-being first. There have to be clear boundaries, agreements, and mutual understanding in how we all work together – and, of course, we have to respect these agreements.
I see that keeping ourselves and our work environment healthy is very similar to how to keep our planet clean and healthy – it all starts from the mindset and decision that we want to have a healthy planet – and then we must act accordingly. Similarly, we all have to take responsibility for keeping ourselves healthy, in order to keep our organization healthy!
Neither the overall mission nor values of LDIW have changed much since you were last here. How does it feel to you to see this consistency remain since the days when you were the Regional Coordinator for Asia?
I think it's a positive thing that our values have remained the same, because it shows that the organization and its people are still acting according to those values.
Values are principles and standards of our behavior and they, together with our mission, are pretty much the basis for making decisions. If someone is acting against our values, let's say one does not value cooperation and does things from their own personal interest instead of finding collaborative solutions, then in our network, it is seen and felt as violation against our collective values.
People's values and beliefs are most difficult to change as they are formed by our culture, family, education, and other external indicators. Organizational values have to be in accordance with people's personal values – otherwise it doesn't work. So, our organization's values reflect back our people’s values: imagine how many people in the world are valuing cooperation, people and positivity!
So, I personally think these are very good values to have.
You've been aware of things happening in and around LDIW, and you can see what's happening from the outside via our blog, social media activity, or through the news. Is there anything that you have seen already that you notice is different from six years ago?
Yes. I have. Definitely the most important change that’s occurred is that, in 2018. “Let's Do It World” was more like a project. We were organizing, one, global, cleanup event, and the whole organization was basically built on a project management basis for this one project. We were like a project team.
But, today, we are an environmental organization. And I see that, within the subsequent five years, the HQ team and the LDIW Network have achieved so much, so many really huge things! The Network is still there – and I see that it's in fact even stronger. As well as the many new members, I still see plenty of ‘older’ names active – and they are stronger than before.
I feel the collective motivation to contribute more to the organization’s development and that makes me feel very, very good!, and they want to also contribute to our organizational development.
Now that World Cleanup Day is on the UN calendar, how do you anticipate this positively benefiting the movement?
Well, LDIW is a global movement, right? And the United Nations is one of the few examples of global cooperation that we have in the world. It’s built for international collaboration on the governmental level. For us, a grassroot organization which is working on the global level also with governments, I would say that we are effectively the United Nations' partner.
Being on their calendar will open up new opportunities for international collaboration, because the UN, as an organization, carries high trust among many countries. We have an opportunity to be much more visible than before.
Yes, we have been active in 95% of UN member states, but this inclusion brings us much closer to real, state-level participation and involvement, to be better acknowledged. UN Calendar inclusion has such a high entry threshold and now World Cleanup Day can carry greater significance than before. The fact we have now achieved it shows that we, as a global movement, are trustworthy.
You mentioned that Citizen OS focuses quite heavily on encouraging healthy debate around issues, especially this e-democracy concept. How do you envisage bringing your learning in that principle into a movement which now comprises 211 countries and territories? Not every one of those has a voice at our General Assembly. Is there anything that you would like to see done differently in terms of people's voices being more widely heard, especially those of younger people?
Well, I’d like to move the concept out of the ideological space and grasp the chance to try it out in one huge organization, such as LDIW. I see that we have opportunities to engage more people by using technology for crucial decision-making processes in our organization and Network.
Through that, everybody can have a real and equal opportunity to contribute, regardless of demographic. I think it's important to provide this opportunity equally for everybody involved. I see a huge potential in using online engagement platforms to bring about a more inclusive decision-making process in our organization which takes into account the voices of our Members, our Leaders, our volunteers – everyone!
With effective moderation, all these multiple voices can make a much more positive contribution, having a much more positive influence on the decisions that the organization ends up making.
Differences of opinion are inevitable in a movement as large as ours – and one debate that often crops up is whether we are a cleanup organization that can raise awareness around bigger issues, or we are an awareness-raising movement overall that uses World and Digital Cleanup Days as a vehicle to drive systemic and societal change. Firstly, what's your perception of this, and secondly, what do you see as the biggest challenges ahead for Let's Do It World in order to be perceived in the correct way to generate positive change.
Mhmm. Well, I have always understood that we are an awareness-raising organization that has different projects that help to change people's mindset and subsequent behavior. And maybe we need more scientific research to show that picking up the trash actually does change people's habits. Slovenia is an interesting example – in 2012, they engaged a still-record-high percentage of population (14%), so today their participation figures might look low, but they’ve changed tactics.
They’ve shown a whole generation that the country can be cleaned. Now they're explaining to the new generations why and how that happened, and why it continues to be important. Their focus now is more on going around the country doing educational roadshows in schools and universities and companies, talking about the importance of sustainability – our long term aim!
Latvia is an interesting case too – because although Latvia has had 4 out of 6 cleanups that exceeded the magic 5% participation threshold, each year they still have to clean up. So, what does that tell us? Large numbers of people are engaged, but the required change to generate a lasting effect hasn't yet sunk in at the societal level.
This actually brings us to the challenges as well. I think one of the challenges is that, from year to year, it might be that the same people are coming to the cleanups. So, the question now is how can we get a wider demographic participating?!
Interestingly, we have data that suggests a large proportion of participation comes from younger people (e.g. in Estonia, France, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, etc.) So, the evidence is there to suggest that the younger generations are moving us towards the right direction because we are apparently succeeding in teaching our children to make our planet waste-free.
It's great that the movement is teaching our children the importance of cleaning up – and their behavior should then influence the people who are older, encouraging them to take part too. It will take generations for this behavior to reach across all demographics though…
And if we think about our organization, our vision is very much a long term one, probably 30-50 years. And, now, keeping this understanding in our minds that we are an awareness-raising organization, which is doing different waste management and sustainability projects, I think it's the only right direction in which we can go. We have to focus on first changing people’s mindsets – then on their behavior.
Education is one thing that came out of the 2023 Leaders’ Survey actually. Is there any other demographic, not necessarily an age group, any other sector within society that you would like to see more engaged? It took us five years and six WCDs to go from 0% of the global population to 1%. Given we target 5%, what do we need to do to motivate the other 4% that we haven't engaged yet? Who are they?
Well, we know who those people are – and while it differs from country to country, they are mostly those people who actively participate in causes on a voluntary basis – so, the ‘Voluntary Sector’ you might say. We know that, in many countries, the percentage of society that actively volunteers in such activities averages out at 30%. So, basically, each 3rd person is volunteering in one way or another way.
We should think about how we can communicate our events to those people who are willing to volunteer. Maybe they don't know yet about our organization or our events? So, how can we make them more aware? We need to continue communicating and talking about what we do.
What's the vehicle that you think we could be using better to reach them?
We are already approaching schools and universities. We are already approaching business organizations, where huge teams can come out on our cleanup days, to pick up the trash. We want to encourage private enterprises to engage large numbers of their staff, perhaps even involving families. There must be tens of millions of people who could be engaged through Corporate Social Responsibility activities.
We’ve covered groups of individuals from the voluntary sector. We've covered teams from the corporate sector. What role do you envisage governments at state level participation having? What do you think needs to be done extra to encourage them to bring in legislation that prevents waste being generated in the first place?
Well, governments serve as role models for society. If Presidents, or Prime Ministers, or other ministers, attend the cleanup events, then, they are modeling positive behaviors that can impact on the entire society. And when it’s broadcast by the media, it’s more visible.
When it comes to legislation, back when Estonia was under Soviet occupation, I don’t know if you know (and I heard this from my own parents), we had those Thursdays, where people carried out some kind of community work. Either they'd clean up in the forest, or build something, or go into the fields to harvest something. It was pretty much legally forced activity, at first, but in the end, it became something that people chose to do anyway.
That's why I think our cleanup day, in 2008 when Teeme Ära started, has become so successful in Estonia in the first place – because we already have this kind of legacy in our culture.
Wouldn't it be lovely if World Cleanup Day was something that communities, schools, businesses, and state departments actually look forward to participating in?
Encouraged by the media, yes! On that note then, what role does mainstream media have that it hasn't yet fulfilled? How can the media help us achieve the 5% engagement target globally?
The media has a very strong role in all topics – they can either promote it or trash it! But I think change would happen more quickly than is currently happening if the media was more engaged.
The issue is that today's media is built on ‘click counting’ – if there's no news, and no clicks, they won't publish it – and this is the reality we face. So, I think that there is much potential, but the question is how to make it more appetizing for them, or more interesting for media organizations as well…because they want news! You yourself already know how hard it is to get something like World Cleanup Day into the news or the mainstream media!
One of the tactics I want to use this year is to actually appeal directly to media organizations to organize a cleanup, to suggest to them that, as well as reporting the news, to be the actual story, to say to them, “Why don't you join us by organizing a cleanup and then broadcast your own team doing the cleanup, and then engage on an emotional, experiential level!
Yes! And I'm just thinking that media channels could also pick it up in a way that they are showing tangible results, that they’re part of something global, and that we are, right there and then, collecting all the data from different countries. Then it becomes world news.
Moving on then, which specific challenges do you believe LDIW will most need to overcome in the next few years?
I see and feel that there's a bit of tiredness within our Network – and it’s understandable, because we have been working hard as a movement for already six years in most countries, for 10 years and even more in others.
And, yes, we see results – we record and report the amount of waste collected and how many people participated and so on. So we have some kind of data and can see really rapid change in some of our societies, in terms of environmental and waste issues.
Yet it’s natural for people’s enthusiasm sometimes to drop a bit, especially as we are attempting to trigger total systemic change on a global scale. The impact we seek as an organization is a long term one. And it’s hard work.
So, that's why I see that people are a little bit tired, and we need to do something with that, to find a way how we can still continue doing what we do in at least an equally awesome way as we have done it so far – but, at the same time, we need to look at how to keep people motivated and how to keep our Network engaged.
Do you think making a big splash about how this year is the first WCD on the UN Calendar will make a difference? Do you believe that will boost participation and therefore boost morale and then generate more of a tangible impact?
I think it will breathe new, fresh air and life into our organization, and will energize us. For example, rotating the host country for our WCD Call & Media Center, and rotating Annual Conference, gives our Network an opportunity to actually take responsibility and show what they have already achieved, what they are doing, and to also promote their own country, their own organizations. I very much favor this idea of having a different country do it each year.
So, a ‘bigger picture’ question to end with. You mentioned earlier about how change takes time, and how we're probably looking at a multi-generational shift that’s anywhere between 30-50 years. What do you see as the future of LDIW, of WCD, in, say, 30 years? I’ll be long-gone but what would you say to our younger readers?
Social change takes about two generations and, of course, I'm envisioning a clean world, a clean planet. And, as we talked before, it should be an ongoing task to keep it clean, to maintain the necessary awareness about the importance of keeping our planet waste-free.
I think in 30 years, we’ll be showing people and our children images of what our planet looked like today, asking them, “Can you imagine how much trash and waste there was? There were literally rivers and seas of waste, and see how they look now!” They’d be asking how on earth it was possible…
As an organization, I'm quite sure that LDIW people are good partners for our member countries' Ministries of Climate and Environment, as well as in global environmental alliances as spokespeople on the topic of waste management and sustainability.
We co-create in our Network very unique and valuable expertise, because our leaders have a global view and an understanding of global issues – waste production, littering, and waste management – which is rather unique. That's why I believe that our Network´s knowhow is going to be highly valued.
So you're envisaging a world where our great grandchildren will look back at history and ask us, “What were you thinking?!”
Yes. Exactly. “How could people behave that way? Didn’t they understand how mean and thoughtless their behaviors were?”
So, that's on a societal level – let's take a more scientific and pragmatic approach to this question now. What do you think will have changed in 30 years structurally, legislatively, not just in behavioral change, but in terms of waste management and waste production?
Well, waste management and waste production are definitely important topics, because we all know today that the responsibility of waste management basically lies on the individual – but the emphasis should be on reducing waste production and managing what we still produce. The responsibility should lie on organizations or companies who produce stuff.
Imagine we reach a point where we can only produce things from recycled materials, that the resources we currently overconsume run out. Then the waste that is being picked up becomes hugely valuable, because all the organizations who want to produce something will need to buy the trash. Waste will actually become a valuable commodity!
I'm talking about fundamental change, yes, especially waste management. And I believe that waste is going to be like the ‘goldrush’ of the future. Materials technology is developing rapidly, but still, today, we are unable to recycle or reprocess many types of materials, especially mixed materials. Or, even if we have the knowledge, the recycling process is too expensive to justify the cost of it.
But I believe that in 30 years we will have much better technologies and know how to do it. Therefore, more of the collected waste would go back into the production process.
So, at some point, our lives are going to change enormously. And I don't want to sound alarmist, but we all have to make really big changes in our lives now, in how we consume things, where we get our food and clothes from – everything that we consume – more of it has to come from local sources, with less packaging, and so on.
This idea of repurpose, reuse, recycle, etc. will kick in harder – out of necessity.
What a vision! Let’s wrap this up then with a final word from you. What positive message do you want to leave us? What will Anett Linno's slogan be for her tenure as LDIW’s CEO?
Well, I'm a huge believer in collaboration – we are all responsible for our planet, every single one of us. And, we can only make lasting, positive change by working together. This is really something that everybody has to understand. And why I'm really happy, personally and professionally, to be coming back into this organization as the CEO is because I see the people who are here – they have the same understanding that we can only do it together.
It doesn't matter if only Estonia, or Latvia, or Slovenia are clean – everywhere needs to be – larger nations like the US, or Nigeria, or India, or Indonesia need to follow, to continue setting encouraging examples – because we are sharing the same planet, right? We are all breathing the same air. We all need to come together.
And I see that this network and organization also provide an opportunity to support each other, sharing knowledge, even giving a hug when it gets tough. You know, our Network carries a much greater value than merely doing the cleanups – much more! Let's end it on that note!
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