News & Initiatives
Welcome to the pulse of Sumati Group
Step inside our living journey. This is where we share key updates, bold breakthroughs, and behind-the-scenes stories from across our global ecosystem. From the intersections of business, entrepreneurship, travel, environmental stewardship and research to art, health, education, policy, and regenerative innovation, we offer a window into the ongoing evolution of Sumati Group. Discover insights from our Living Labs, updates on transformative partnerships, and invitations to creative collaborations and upcoming events. Here, long-term thinking meets grounded action as we work to co-shape a more conscious, connected, and values-driven world.
Walking the mountain of waste: Lisen’s visits to Suwung Landfill and her ongoing ‘Learning Through Presence’
“I stood atop a mountain made of what the world has thrown away, shoes without soles, old food, diapers, dolls without heads, plastic bottles faded by too many suns.
Around me, barefoot children ran across this moving, rotting earth with the ease of those who’ve never known grass. They smiled. They played. They worked.
I handed out meals that would be gone in hours, and I wondered:
How many of us live insulated from the truth that our waste becomes someone else’s world?
But in the eyes of the mothers, the quiet determination of the fathers, and the joy of children who find ways to dance even on decay, I saw the kind of strength, resilience, heart and human grace no textbook, rapport or numbers could ever teach me...” ~Lisen
Sumati Group founder Lisen, signs international book deal with Olympia Publishers for poetic memoir
Lisen, founder of Sumati Group, has signed a publishing deal with the UK-based Olympia Publishers for her deeply personal poetry collection, Whispers of My Ancestors: A Poetic Journey Through Earth, Spirit and Self. The book blends ancestral reverence, spiritual inquiry, and lyrical storytelling—marking a major milestone for the multidisciplinary creator.
Sumati Group founder Lisen visits Indonesian innovator turning plastic waste into fuel in Bali
When Sumati Group founder Lisen visited a small workshop tucked away in Bali, she wasn’t expecting to find a former T-shirt printer from Java leading one of the most promising grassroots innovations in the region. But that’s exactly what she encountered at Get Plastic, a nonprofit turning plastic waste into usable fuel through a homegrown pyrolysis machine now in its 15th prototype. In a country facing one of the world’s worst plastic pollution crises, this hands-on solution is lighting the way toward a regenerative, community-powered future.
Blog-series: No Step Wasted, Gratitude for the Journey #3 | The Invisible Curriculum: What Home Care Nursing Taught Me About Humanity
For eight summers, I returned home from university in Vancouver to work in home care nursing for Fredrikstad Municipality. What began as a student job became a profound education in humanity. From administering medication to sitting bedside as patients transitioned from this world, I witnessed the quiet power of presence, story, movement, and shared meals. Though my parents hoped I’d become a nurse, I knew deep down this chapter was not my destination, but a sacred foundation for something else. The care, the listening, the intergenerational wisdom I absorbed would later be a key ingredient shaping the soul of my work with Sumati.
Blog-series: No Step Wasted, Gratitude for the Journey #2 | The Jewelry Activist: Crafting Socioeconomic Resilience with Caleb’s Hope
In 2008 and 2009, I volunteered as a designer for Caleb’s Hope, a Canadian charity focused on healing the wounds of war through women-led solutions. I custom designed and donated handcrafted jewelry for two benefit galas, collaborating with their NYARA project, integrating materials created by Ugandan women into my designs. I also had the honor of dressing founder and actress Holly Elissa Dignard, as featured in Hello! Canada Magazine.
What began as an act of creativity became a deeper lesson in ethical collaboration, justice-driven design, and the radical power of beauty. This was the final Vancouver-based project I participated in before moving back to Norway and life pivoted everything.
Blog-series: No Step Wasted, Gratitude for the Journey #1 | The Silversmith: Casting Purpose from Metal and Meaning
We often don’t realize the weight of a moment until years later, when its quiet lessons return to shape our values, our work, our mission. In this first entry of No Step Wasted: Gratitude for the Journey, I return to a formative chapter at Pyrrha Design, a Vancouver jewelry studio where I first touched the sacred link between handwork and heritage. What began as an internship became a blueprint for the kind of life and leadership I strive to embody today: intentional, ancestral, and artful. This is a story of silver, symbolism, and the subtle ways purpose reveals itself, one crafted piece at a time.
Prayers and conversations with Desa Tampaksiring: A night of reverence, ancestry, and renewal at Gunung Kawi
On New Year’s Eve, deep within the ancient mountain temple of Gunung Kawi, I was honored to sit in sacred ceremony with the leaders of Desa Tampaksiring — a gathering born not from invitation alone, but from a shared decision to ask the land, ancestors, and unseen realms for guidance before any work began. As a white woman with a background in waste management, this moment was not only a cultural and spiritual crossing — it was a call to a deeper kind of leadership. What unfolded in the darkness of that cave, beneath the Mangku’s chants and the incense-laced air, has been part of shaping the very roots of Sumati Group and my ongoing journey to help heal our Earth.
Sumati Group founder Lisen, speaks on social impact and youth opportunity in Web3 at Youth Festival 2022, Denpasar
Lisen, founder of Sumati Group, joined a panel of industry leaders at the Youth Festival 2022 in Denpasar, Indonesia, engaging students, professionals, and the public on the power of blockchain for social change and the rising opportunities for youth in the Web3 ecosystem.
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