Empowering Eco-entrepreneurship Start-ups Erasmus Project

Project Title

Empowering Eco-entrepreneurship Start-ups

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

In a time when pollution and environmental crisis are on a steep rise, there comes an immediate need to think of solutions which not only help the environment sustenance but also educate and work with young generations, as they are the ones who will have influence on the environment in the future. Drawing from the idea that environmental and social challenges can be transformed into opportunities for youth employment, our “Empowering Eco-entrepreneurship Start-ups”, or Eco-Hub, project aims to empower the environmental and social performance among young people. The project promotes education on entrepreneurship, innovative thinking, and social responsibility with an objective to trigger inclusion and increased employment opportunities of youth. In that way, it contributes to ecological and economic growth by raising awareness and intellectual capacity of budding entrepreneurs who are inclined towards having a business idea, or already have one.

Three partners: Crossing Borders (civil society organisation in Denmark), SwIdeas (medium sized enterprise in Sweden) and Kalevan Lukio (highschool in Finland) have been working in close collaboration in order to meet the above mentioned objectives. Each partner established a knowledge-resource hub in their respective locations, with the main hub in Crossing Borders, where most project activities took place. In these hubs, 7 workshops and multiplier events were offered to young people, who receive educational workshops on environment and eco-eco-enterpreneurship innovation, as well as mentoring sessions. These sessions provided rich opportunities to learn about the necessary and logical steps aspiring entrepreneurs need to take on their way to building a successful enterprise, as well as a platform for practical exercises, where they can put their knowledge in use.

The project activities included four multiplier events, one in each partner country as well as Blended Mobility of Young People which was moved from Finland to Sweden. Followed by the production of first three intellectual outputs which focus on providing guidance in the process of building an enterprise, we disseminated knowledge and information about Eco-Hub as well as spread awareness about the most pressing environmental problems. The purpose was to create a platform for international youth to share their ideas and explore the econ-entrepreneurial field. We organized sessions, during which young aspiring entrepreneurs had an opportunity to participate in practical exercises, such as simulation games. In addition to multiplier events, we organized several workshops in our offices in Humlebæk, where we invited well-established eco-entrepreneurs to share their knowledge and experience in the entrepreneurial field.

As a result, we got a group of young people aspired and motivated to engage in eco-entrepreneurship through several international meetings during which participants visited and learnt about green innovative practices in Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Furthermore, we made a practical use of the produced educational materials during coaching sessions (group and individual). In addition, we managed to create space in which several relationships between aspiring and well-established entrepreneurs were established. As a result of those, a network of eco- and social- entrepreneurs and youth has been growing since, and a wide range of sustainable initiatives have been supported. All in all some 800 youth have directly benefitted from the project. Food institutions were added to the project as associate partners including the Malmø University, Malmø Sustainability Center, Espergæde High School and a green solution company in Tampere. Extra green entrepreneurship theme day was held at Sct. Knuds High School in Odense on 11 April for 150 students, 8 teachers and 17 exchange students from the US with two teachers plus 16 Crossing Borders global studies students at Krogerup Højskole. The 16 students came from Denmark, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, UK and US.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 111806 Eur

Project Coordinator

Crossing Borders & Country: DK

Project Partners

• SWIDEAS AB
• Kalevan Lukio