Kopernik — Goals, Process, & Origins of the @ZFEP Winner

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Originally published on Sustainnovate.

Kopernik COO Ewa WojkowskaKopernik was the big winner in the nonprofit category of the Zayed Future Energy Prize this year. It was an honor to sit down with Ewa Wojkowska, Kopernik’s co-founder and COO, just following the awards ceremony to talk about how Kopernik came about, how it works, what its aims are, and how the name was thought up.

This was a particularly interesting interview for me since Kopernik is the Polish name of Nicholas Copernicus (who was Polish). I live in Poland and actually flew to the UAE out of Kopernik Airport. Ewa Wojkowska, who was born in Poland and lived there till she was 9 years old, told me about the origins behind the name, as well as several other matters regarding the company. Regarding the name, the website states, “Our namesake, Nicolaus Copernicus, changed the way people see the world. Like Copernicus, we want Kopernik to be a catalyst for change.” But Ewa provided more background and nuance on that.

Ewa also answered a handful of questions regarding Kopernik’s impact so far, challenges, donors, its wide range of products, and why Kopernik won the 2016 Zayed Future Energy Prize in the nonprofit category. Have a watch:


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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