How One Engineer Is Bringing Light To The Dark
What does leadership look like when the planet sets the boundaries? How do we bridge technology and ethics without slipping into empty clichés?
Guillaume Burstert, who likes to be known as The Container Guy, offers an answer that is not only innovative but deeply human.
Guillaume is not your typical entrepreneur. Fourteen years in automotive and steel industries in Shanghai, surrounded by massive industrial plants and relentless schedules. That was his world. But beneath the steel and smoke, he began to ask bigger questions.
“Not long ago, I was managing large-scale industrial projects for a global equipment provider. Heavy-duty stuff: steel plants, heat treatment furnaces, high-capacity production lines. Then I started asking myself: How do we bring energy to the 760 million people still living in the dark?”
His journey began with a simple, yet powerful question:
How can we bring clean, affordable energy to the people who need it most?
Guillaume did not ponder this in an ivory tower. Instead, it emerged during his Executive MBA in Dubai, where a collaboration with classmates sparked Sunwise, a mobile, modular solar container designed to flip the script on energy access.
“We started throwing out ideas. Pivoted. Reworked. Pitched. We landed on something that clicked: a solar container solution. It felt innovative, not a gadget full of features, but something simple and scalable.”
Sunwise is not a gadget overloaded with features. It is a straightforward, scalable solution addressing a glaring gap: bringing reliable clean energy to the 760 million people still living without electricity. Schools, clinics, construction sites, crisis zones, that is where Sunwise shines, quietly, emission-free, without costly diesel.
What Does This Teach Us as EcoLeaders?
The Container Guy shows us that courage means stepping off the beaten path, leaving a well-paid job, giving up the comfort of certainty, and venturing into the unknown. His story is not a hero’s legend. It is about the gritty, everyday hustle of real change:
“Quitting a stable job meant giving up a salary, a roadmap, and the comfort of certainty. I had to go back to square one, find suppliers, visit factories, knock on doors, travel to fairs, and learn the language of solar. There were long days. And longer nights.”
This may sound mundane, but it is the core of every true sustainable transformation: consistent, patient effort that creates real impact rather than just signaling it.
Guillaume also started using LinkedIn as a living network, a space for real exchange with people who want to shape the future. This mindset is what makes The Container Guy a beacon for young professionals, changemakers, and strategic thinkers:
“My biggest lesson so far? Show up. Every day. Put in the work. Opportunities come to those who are prepared to see them. And the best part? People in sustainability are generous. They want to help.”
A Vision That Calls Us All
Sunwise goes beyond tech. It is a moral commitment. Access to energy should be a right, not a privilege.
“Sunwise is for the places the grid has never reached. Today, too many communities rely on diesel. Expensive, dirty and unreliable. We are here to replace diesel. One container at a time.”
By 2030, The Container Guy aims to deploy 650 Sunwise containers worldwide, bringing stable, clean electricity to 2.5 million people in Africa and beyond.
What Does That Mean for Us as EcoLeaders?
It means we must radically rethink what success looks like. We need solutions that are flexible, fast, and above all, human-centered. The Container Guy leads the way, proving it is possible.
Questions Worth Asking
- What if we embraced our responsibility for the planet as an invitation to redesign, not a burden?
- How can we, as leaders and founders, ensure technology is not only innovative but inclusive and just?
- And above all: For whom are we building our future?
Guillaume’s journey invites us to keep asking these questions. Because true sustainability is not born from flashy megaprojects, it grows from quiet, persistent change that meets people where they are.
Sunwise brings light into darkness, quite literally. The Container Guy reminds us how we can build a new, fairer energy future with heart and mind.
“It is about responsibility: To the nurse who needs a working refrigerator. To the builder who wants to charge his tools. To the child who dreams under candlelight.”
Leadership is stepping up for those who count on it most. For a world where everyone has access to clean energy.
Curious to learn more about Sunwise? Or want to connect with The Container Guy and other EcoLeaders?
Let us get better together. Every day, step by step.
Follow The Container Guy, Guillaume Burstert (https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaume-burstert/)
www.mysunwise.com
