MBA Sustainability Management: Luca Windolph - Setting sail for change
2022-08-10 The environmental scientist and student of MBA Sustainability Management founded the solidarity-based coffee start-up Sol Nocturno Coffee. With a consistently sustainable and transparent supply chain from cultivation to the cup, as well as through direct contact between producers and end consumers, the Sol Nocturno team wants to set an example against exploitation and anonymity in global supply chains. Luca Windolph's part-time studies at the Leuphana Professional School provide him with in-depth know-how for the start-up.
"The motivation is to let a togetherness grow up instead of a against each other and a learning from each other and over coffee. The intention is to revive the feeling towards each other and towards a product like coffee," explains Luca Windolph. Together with her good friend and colleague from Lüneburg, Kristina Niehoff, Luca Windolph ensures that the coffee from the agroforestry farm Sol Nocturno in Mexico finds its way across the Atlantic on the sailing ship "Avontuur" with low emissions into the cups of all Sol Nocturno friends. In 2019, she made the three-month Atlantic crossing on the cargo sailer herself. Now a cargo bike tour took place to pick up this year's harvest from Lüneburg in Hamburg. The action was supported by Janun e. V., Heinrich-Böll-Haus-Lüneburg, Avenir Rösterei and Radkombinat in Lüneburg.
A three-month stay in Mexico opened Luca Windolph's eyes in 2019. "I was working for another coffee startup at the time. A farmer said to me that he was now meeting someone for the first time who came from a coffee-importing country. His family has been growing coffee for many generations. The earnings are extremely low. Often the farmers are in debt." The team wants to use the start-up to highlight grievances and raise awareness: For example, customers have the opportunity to get to know the producing farm themselves via a digital circuit and to enter into an exchange.
The business model is based on the guiding principles of solidarity-based agriculture: for example, the price of green coffee is based on the needs of the farm instead of being dictated by the end of the value chain. In addition, the coffee is pre-financed far in advance by the start-up and the many end consumers. "In this way, both the farm Sol Nocturno and the team in Germany can be given planning security. Through this basis of trust and cooperation at eye level, it is possible, away from the price fluctuations on the world market, to build up its own sustainable value chain for the farm Sol Nocturno," explains Luca Windolph.
The Lüneburg native is interested in all facets of sustainability. She studied the bachelor's program in environmental sciences at Leuphana College. She wrote her bachelor's thesis on the connection between social psychology and sustainability. She published the results together with Dr. Johann Majer, Prof. Dr. David Loschelder and Prof. Dr. Daniel Fischer in the journal Environmental Psychology. "For me, there were still questions open in the field of business administration, which is why I chose the MBA Sustainability Management. I can deepen the content of my bachelor's degree, build up an expertise in sustainable management and learn methods of sustainable management," says Luca Windolph. Along the way, she is building a network: "During my studies, I have already had the opportunity to meet many exciting and committed people who are not afraid to think big. That's fun and gives me courage."
The MBA Sustainability Management part-time study program comprehensively qualifies students to implement sustainability in an entrepreneurial way. Since 2003, the world's first "Green MBA" has been empowering students with knowledge and tools for tomorrow: with know-how on CSR and sustainability management, innovation management, entrepreneurship, as well as soft skills and a strong network. Luca Windolph can put much of what he has learned into practice at Sol Nocturno: "The start-up is our heart's project and a great way to learn."