News Interview with Jakob Trollbäck

There is a publically not so well known connection between the recently initiated building of new latrines in Nakamtenga and Mr Bean.

The answer is Jakob Trollbäck. Designer and communicator with a strong social commitment who combined his set up of a company in New York 28 years ago with becoming the interpreter of UN’s Global Goals to the entire human population.

In short (this is a very long story….), Jakob among many clients also produced marketing material for BBC. There he by chance met Sir Richard Curtis, successful British producer of movies like Notting Hill, Four weddings and a funeral, Mr Bean etc…. Curtis had launched his own project to make the new 17 Global Goals for 2030 known to the world.

There was no money, no official request from the UN. But Jakob and his colleagues went into the very complex material and bureaucratic UN language. They managed to transform everything into concise ambitions and above all: They illustrated them and turned the Global Goals into a reviewable system which would have made Carl von Linné envious.

– The main challenge was to explain all these detailed sub targets in a pedagogical and inspiring way.

Through Jakob’s work with the Global Goals, he set up a new company in Sweden, New Division, focusing on “communication for sustainability”. And he came in contact with Yennenga Progress, who has pioneered the use of the Goal’s graphic profile which became the official UN one,

Today, Jakob Trollbäck is a member of the Yennenga Board. Here are some links to more reading about his exciting work and a new interview made by the Swedish Red Cross institute for documentary filming:

A Sustainable Tomorrow

The New Division.

Jakob Trollbäck opens an agency in Stockholm (For Swedish readers).

Interview with Jakob Trollbäck
Interview with Jakob Trollbäck
Play Interview with Jakob Trollbäck