Irina Fedorenko

Irina Fedorenko is the Managing Director of the Caux Dialogue on Environment and Security, a part of the Initiatives for Land, Lives and Peace programme of Initiatives of Change International. The programme runs in partnership with the UNCCD and IUCN and brings together senior policymakers, project managers and social entrepreneurs to examine best practices of land restoration, climate change mitigation and peacebuilding. Irina is also an entrepreneur. She is co-founder of an innovative forestry start-up, BioCarbon Engineering, that uses drones for forest restoration, and of the Kindness Collective, a social enterprise that makes sustainable laundry detergent while providing livelihoods to Indian farmers. Irina has a PhD in Geography and the Environment from the University of Oxford and is a recipient of the Weidenfeld-Hoffman Trust Scholarship. She advises Oxford-based start-ups and is involved in the Beta Earth venture studio and Earthbanc, a green digital banking platform. Her academic interests focus on entrepreneurship in Russia and China, and the use of technology for social and environmental change.