Contributors
A catalyst for ideas
After obtaining a Master’s degree in International Relations, Marie spent the first 15 years of her career in the luxury goods industry, particularly watchmaking and jewelry. There, she built up her experience in boutique and retailer management, marketing, product development and brand creation, at an international level.
Six years ago, she co-founded an eco-responsible watch brand within the Richemont group. This experience enabled him to refocus on the planet, put himself at its service and explore new perspectives in terms of management and governance. She has broadened her vision of the company’s role within its ecosystem, and has chosen to become a catalyst in the transition to a society that acts for a more responsible and sustainable economy.
Drawing on her in-depth knowledge of the luxury world and its challenges, as well as her expertise in sustainable development, Marie is now dedicated to this environmental transition towards which we must all converge. His passion for human relationships and his love of the great outdoors serve as daily inspiration to make people aware of their power to act, and to make the business world a positive force, leaving a better world for future generations.
“Albert Einstein said that you can’t solve a problem with the same way of thinking that created it. The world preparing for tomorrow must reinvent its codes of consumption, marketing, communication, management, law, seduction, production, living together… Tomorrow’s world must rediscover the balance between what it consumes and nature’s capacity to renew its resources. This world will be biocentric, regenerative and equitable.”
Novelist & Journalist
Mélanie is a novelist, playwright, columnist and journalist. She spent her childhood between Latin America, West Africa and the United States. Trilingual, with a degree in contemporary history from the University of Geneva and a DEA from the Institute of European Studies, she works as a journalist and columnist for Radio Suisse Romande. From her nomadic childhood, she has retained a taste for people and trees. She links each of the countries she visits to essences, and claims to be able to recognize them by smell. You might come across her in the forest, eyes closed, nose up against a coniferous tree.
Journalist, producer and author
First on radio, then on television, she produced her own programs and developed a strong network in French-speaking Switzerland. For the past 3 years, she has devoted herself entirely to editorial production. She draws on storytelling methods to rethink communications for companies, cultural players and public structures. Its aim: to create links and help tell the stories of those around us.
“The wonderful thing about thinking about tomorrow is that anything is possible. The world of tomorrow, because it doesn’t yet exist, is entirely up to us to dream, to imagine, to create. And it’s today that we get moving, that we take action. By embodying the transition today, it will come to life tomorrow. The key is to dare to be, to dare to reconnect with what’s essential, to dare to activate our creativity, and to carry loud and clear the spirit of commitment to the environment, to society, to people.”
Journalist
Born in Geneva and based in Berlin for several years, Özgül covers international news on a daily basis for a news agency, and has previously worked for television and the press. With a bachelor’s degree in international relations (University of Geneva, University of Aberdeen) and a master’s degree in international journalism and communications (Free University of Berlin, St Petersburg State University), Özgül is passionate about politics, culture, feminist struggles and sustainability issues. Drawing much of her inspiration from art, literature and encounters, she believes in the power of words and personal narratives to deconstruct, inform and inspire change-makers.
“I hope that tomorrow’s world will be one of solidarity, and I dream of a future where justice, equality and respect for the environment will be the fundamental values of a sustainable society.”
Journalist & Writer
Kyra holds a double master’s degree in international relations (The Graduate Institute) and journalism (City University, London). His interest in humanitarian and environmental causes led him to work as a reporter in Cambodia in 1996. Producer for the CNBC Asia correspondent, she directed a feature-length documentary, Tant qu’il y aura du papier, in 2000. After working extensively in the press, radio and television in France, the United States and Switzerland, she became head of the foreign section of the daily 24 Heures. In 2007, she began writing fiction full-time, publishing several novels: Petit essai assassin sur la vie conjugale (Luce Wilquin, 2011); Le hasard a tout prévu (Luce Wilquin, 2013); Qui sont ces femmes derrière le voile? (Éditions du Moment, 2014), À L’Hermine blanche (Luce Wilquin, 2017); À la frontière de notre amour (Favre, 2019). She also works as a journalist for Geneva Solutions and Heidi.news, and is preparing the text for a fine book on Geneva to be published by Éditions Assouline. She is a committee member of the J’aime ma Planète association and of the Wow Gstaad literature festival.
“For me, the world of tomorrow is a just and sustainable world, an Anthropocene that lives up to its responsibilities;
a humane world whose masters take responsibility for reversing the disruptions they have caused. Whose business leaders act with a clear conscience, whose politicians govern without cynicism, and whose stubbornly green washing;
a green-and-blue world that gives pride of place to trees, biodiversity and the oceans;
a world where we take the time to untangle the false from the true, to be with those we love;
a world sketched out by poets and artists, where everyone makes a gesture for the Planet, a step towards each other. Where the sum of our individual efforts works for the collective good;
a world of sharing and empathy, resilient and bold, that honors the dignity of every human being. The world of tomorrow, my children’s world, sincere, authentic, joyful, going beyond the limits of traditional thinking and moving towards its resilient future;
a world where zero emissions will be achieved by 2050; a world that knows it only has one planet.”
Mathilde Sarasin was born in Geneva. After studying communications, she worked in various fields, including fashion and media. Passionate about travel and art, her view of the world is as mischievous as it is lucid. Humor and determination are two qualities she possesses and knows how to use.
“The wick represents an opportunity for everyone to learn, share and get involved. The ecological emergency must shape tomorrow’s world. There’s still time to think and act. Let’s all be in the wick!”
Photographer
A retrospective at Tokyo’s Wacoal Art Center in 2010, followed by artistic residencies in Japan and Switzerland, led Cedric Bregnard to conceive the Racines du Ciel project, with which he has been working for the past four years, creating over 30 participatory performances in museums, galleries, festivals and theaters, such as at Garaman Hall in Ginoza (Japan) in 2017 or at the Grand Palais for Paris Photo 2019.
Welcoming and accessible to all, this singular project offers each and every one, through the experience of letting go and encountering other cultures, in a sensory and creative movement, the opportunity to produce other narratives for today’s world and to feel in one’s being the strength that is created when a group of people united in a common goal spontaneously takes shape.
Passage, his diploma thesis at the Vevey School of Photography, was both a question of what happens after the last breath and the first step in an artistic reflection on the transitions between life and death. Exhibited in Japan, Mexico, Switzerland and France, his work on the cycles and metamorphoses of living organisms has led him to question the link with nature, our direct environment, through the movement of gesture, contemplation and encounters with different species of sacred trees on Earth.
These venerable trees are none other than the Roots of Heaven.
“This is how I see the world of tomorrow: inhabited by a community of beings connected to the life that animates our planet, felt as one great living organism.”
Fondée en 2020 par Marie Chassot, La Mèche a pour mission d’accompagner les gens et les organisations dans leur transition vers un mode de vie et des pratiques professionnelles plus responsables, à travers un magazine digital, une agence de conseil et un réseau social.
