Protected: Networking from the Heart: Waves’ Journey Beyond the Awards
How the WSA Winner Navigates Storms, Growth, and Real-World Challenges
Building solutions is one thing. Making them survive in today’s system is another.
After speaking with a specific person about a specific solution, it is hard to give a straight answer as to what happens after – the launch, the awards, the recognition – as experience, emotions, knowledge gained, and the years that have passed add a strange note intertwined with the complexity of life.
For Armin Neises, founder of Waves, this journey is not theoretical; it is a lived experience.
Where Does Waves Stand?
Launched in 2021, the Sustainability Management Platform (SMP), or simply Waves, helped companies make sustainability visible and measurable through digital tools. As a cloud-based platform, it tracked key indicators such as CO₂ emissions across sourcing, production, facilities, and transport. By turning complex data into clear insights, SMP allowed businesses to identify emission sources, implement improvements, and confidently demonstrate their sustainability progress to stakeholders.
Yet building a meaningful solution is only part of the journey. In many ways, Waves followed the rhythm of life itself, and after winning the World Summit Award (Environment & Green Energy) in 2021, it had quite a few storms along the way.
One conclusion became clear: no investors, no future. Activism, passion, connection, heart, and desire provide the drive, but without funding, that drive cannot sustain the project.
As the sustainability landscape and EU regulations began to shift, it became increasingly difficult for smaller solutions to continue independently.
Is that sad? In a way, yes. But there is little point in grieving the nature of today’s system. Ideas do not die, they adapt to survive.
In January 2025, the platform was fully acquired, and Armin sold his remaining shares, transferring 100 percent ownership of Waves to the German company Deciencup Astela. From its beginnings in 2019 to this transition in 2025, the project grew, evolved, and eventually reached the shore of a new chapter.
The Sustainability Problem Today
The development of Waves highlighted questions about how sustainability is treated in today’s world.
To be completely honest, not well. Profit often stands above environmental responsibility, sustainable legal requirements have weakened, and with that, transparency has been pushed to the very bottom. It is not difficult to see where responsibility lies, yet the issue itself remains.
How can someone fight for a more sustainable future when the EU shortened the scope of the legal requirements to the bare minimum in November 2025?
That is where Armin’s expertise comes into play. Sustainability cannot be looked at in the same way it was in 2018 or 2019. It is not sustainable management or sustainable reporting being pushed forward anymore. The focus is shifting toward clean energy, green energy, renewable energy, and decarbonization from the very beginning. Make clean solutions more profitable from the start, because although many things change, one thing does not: profit is the fuel that runs today’s society.
Find a way to present a solution as profitable, and you have found a way to make it work.
What Role Did the WSA Play?
Connection. The stronger the network, the stronger the foundation.
“I think among the collection of different awards we received, WSA sounded global. It carried recognition. Independent experts assessed our solution and confirmed that it is a good solution and that it is needed in the world. That is very positive in an indirect way. For investors who are not in the field, such an award functions as a kind of approval,” Armin recalls.
Surviving the Turbulence
But recognition alone does not guarantee survival. Behind the awards and innovation stories are often difficult decisions, unexpected turns, and personal transitions.
“I’m okay with my exit. I’m starting a new business, consultancy, and different digital ideas using AI. That is my situation now - to be free.
There was a period of severe turbulence that hit really hard. I’m also a musician and a meditation teacher, so I meditate to stay grounded, understand what I want, and follow my path.
The other point is networking. I could not have survived without my network. I built it over many years, and to be honest, when I was younger, I would not have been able to survive without it. Having close friendships and relationships with people in different situations helped me a lot, and that was very valuable.
My recommendation is to build strong networks, communicate openly, and do it with heart. Without heart, it is very difficult to succeed in business and remain happy,” Armin says with a smile.
In the end, the story of Waves is not only about a digital sustainability platform. It is also about the realities behind innovation - the people, the networks, and the resilience required to navigate the changing tides of technology, business, and sustainability.
A big thank you to Armin Neises for such an inspiring and insightful conversation.
