Are You Still not recycling? You Might Regret It!

Are You Still not recycling? You Might Regret It!

What is Life Cycle Assessment and How it helped BinFree to discover their contribution to the environment?

Life-cycle assessment for glass recyclables and deposit packages to discover our contribution to the environment.

2021 is behind the door and it’s been almost a year since the first pick up that BinFree delivered for deposit packages! With the incredible work of our intern, Udesh Wickramarathne, a life-cycle assessment was conducted for the pick up services operations for glass recyclables and deposit packages to discover our contribution to the environment.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the techniques of environmental management being developed to assess possible environmental impacts associated with products/services. According to the ISO standards, LCA is defined as a method for analysing and determining the environmental impact along the product chain of the systems. LCA differs from other environmental methods by linking environmental performance to functionality, quantifying the pollutant emissions, and the use of raw materials based on the function of the product system.

environmental protection, nature, light bulb

Why BinFree collects deposit packages and recyclable glass?

BinFree offers pick up services for households, cafeterias and restaurants as well as companies that sort their waste and they want to contribute to their society and enrich themselves with knowledge regarding the environment, for deposit packages and recyclable glass packages.

  • Deposit packages

For deposit packages, a fee is charged on applicable beverage containers at the point of purchase, which retailers are required to collect from consumers. Intended to act as an incentive to recycle, deposits refunded when the consumer returns the empty container to an authorised redemption centre or retailer for recycling. For finding the closest reverse vending machine, Kuhuviia is an excellent digital tool that can help you. The deposit packages have assigned to their package the following labels:

BinFree collects the deposit packages to ensure that the end user recycles the packages and make the returning process smoother, faster and without any physical effort. We provide our service to the society to encourage the disposal of bottles and cans, and reward our clients’ efforts with financial incentives for sustainable purchases and blog articles regarding single use plastic alternatives such as menstrual cups, bamboo cotton buds, solid dish soap and shampoos and stasher bags.

During the past 11 months, we have collected 5120 deposit packages from households and specifically:

–17,4kg of equivalent plastic (with this quantity saved, 24 football teams can make their athletic shirts, as for every 7 plastic bottles, one football shirt can be produced according to Eesti Pandipakend)

–261,8kg equivalent glass (quantity equivalent with 1377 Coca Cola 330ml bottles, as each bottle weighs just 0,19 kg).

–27kg of equivalent aluminum  (quantity that would cover the production needs of 871 iPhones, considering the fact that each iPhone contains 0,031kg of aluminum  )

  • Recyclable glass

After a great demand of our clients, we decided to start collecting also recyclable glass for packages that are not included in the deposit system such as wine bottles, bottles from alcoholic beverages, glass jars from marmalades, sauces, children food, soups etc. as well as oil bottles. Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity.

We are here to help you to get rid of this “guilty” habit that we all have – keeping empty glass jars in a cupboard that we never use. We have unoccupied these cupboards space in many households, releasing space and sometimes we even received bottles from 19th century! We have noticed that creating a relationship of trust and reassurance can bring an increase in the consumers’ patterns regarding the packaging and specifically a preference on glass packaging than plastic, as it is known that the package will be safely and appropriately disposed of.

 We have collected 460kg of recyclable glass and thanks to our partner TVO, we were able to deliver them to recycling facilities and ensure its safe disposal. Recycled glass can be used in the production chain to make a new glass bottle, a soup or a marmalade jar.

  • What would happen without BinFree?

In Tallinn, a major amount of general waste ends up either to incineration plant or to a sanitary landfill. One of the main reasons that waste can end up there, is lack of sorting from the consumers’ side. Taking this into consideration, we analysed and measured the environmental impact in case of landfill and incineration, the amount of deposit packages and glass recyclables collected by us, taking into account 3 main variables: climate change, acidification and human toxicity.

Incineration plant
Climate Change kg CO2 eq 4.07E+01
Acidification kg SO2 eq 5.61E-03
Human Toxicity kg 1,4-DB eq 1.91E+00

Data used from the LCA conducted in November 2020

Landfill
Climate Change kg CO2 eq 2,87E-01
Acidification kg SO2 eq 4,50E-05
Human Toxicity kg 1,4-DB eq 1,48E+01

Data used from the LCA conducted in November 2020

During the period 01/01/2020 to 22/12/2020, the carbon footprint generation of our waste collection process was:

Carbon footprint of the collection process
Km completed 673
kg CO2 eq 180,2

Data used from the LCA conducted in November 2020

According to the above results, waste incineration has the highest impact on all 3 environmental impact categories. Specifically, if the quantities described above 17,4kg of equivalent plastic, 721,8kg equivalent glass and 27kg of equivalent aluminum were incinerated would emit 40.17kg of equivalent CO2 to the environment which would contribute to climate change, 0.00561kg of equivalent SO2 would emit to cause the acidification in air and water, and 7.13 kg of equivalent 1,4-DB will emit into the environment which is toxic to the human health.

We have committed to minimise the possibility of releasing these pollutants to the environment by collecting the materials and recycling them, saving CO2 emissions from incineration. We have achieved to maintain a positive carbon footprint besides the transportation carbon emissions from the collection process (180,2kg of equivalent CO2).

BinFree has saved with its operations 538,69kg of equivalent CO2 emissions!

We are very proud for this work and we wish for a prosperous continuation of our activities and contribution to the society and the environment! We are open to suggestions, collaborations and solutions that might help us minimize the impact of our transportation and collection methods and we are happily announcing that from 2021, it would be possible to make an impact analysis for each pick-up, upon request.

By Katerina Chantzi from BinFree, Estonia

 

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

 

Internship at Social Enterprise Estonia and moving towards a greener lifestyle.

Internship at Social Enterprise Estonia and moving towards a greener lifestyle.

Katerina-Chantzi-Social-Enterprise-Estonia-1536x864I am Katerina Chantzi and I am a social scientist. I am very excited to be an intern at Social Enterprise Estonia during my studies at Tallinn University in Social Entrepreneurship Master’s Programme. I started my internship in June 2020, a time when we were slightly starting to get out of our lockdown “caves” and looking for human interactions. All the colleagues that I was looking forward to meeting and working together in the same place became fascinating squares on my screen on a weekly basis full of creativity, interaction, knowledge and passion to find ways to make this world a better place.

I am very excited and proud of this internship, as my supervisor Helen Mikkov gave me the opportunity to utilise my previous experience and knowledge, encouraging me to discover new paths (by participating in Climate KIC Journey, get in contact with enterprises that are in the network etc.) that would help me to find out what contribution I would like to have in the world and make steps towards that. In the meanwhile, I am running my company, called BinFree, where we offer recycle pick up services in Estonia to facilitate the recycling process for consumers and recycling companies by measuring the environmental impact of both and give practical information to move towards a greener lifestyle and give private consultations to companies and individuals to reduce their environmental impact in their daily life with little effort.

katerina_1

My experience from the education sector, my studies and actions in social policy in different countries,  in combination with my national culture (Greek) that taught me through its ancient literature and drama to live my life by keeping in mind my posthumous fame (“υστεροφημία”) and make decisions throughout my life keeping in mind how I would like to be remembered after I pass out from this life and considering their impact on myself, people around me and the environment around me during my life, made me realise that my mission in this life is to bring people together to act collectively, to help each other in order to increase theirs and other peoples’ happiness by increasing their quality of life. The COVID-19 outbreak is a great example of human responsiveness when in danger regardless of social differences (in front of a virus everyone is vulnerable regardless of social status and wealth), people got together, worked together and acted instantly, responsively and effectively in order to defeat the impending danger. How we respond to the main danger that is threatening us, was created by us and we still feed it, called climate change and how we can defeat it?

By having inefficient state mechanisms to solve social and environmental problems due to shortage of funding, as they considered as unproductive sectors to invest for economic growth due to the fact that they require an interdisciplinary approach, time, expertise, effort to give results and they reveal the vulnerabilities of the dominant social, economic, political system and a dominant neoliberal ideology that influences every sort of today’s policies and politics and has a big negative impact on society and the environment, as it creates short-term financial profits without considering the long term social and environmental impact, there is need to find solutions that protect life and not cold cotton, polymer or paper banknotes.

Social enterprises are a great response to the dominant economic system and its characteristics, as are more flexible in their operations, are social aim driven without losing their business character, are able to combine and bring together key actors from different sectors (either private or public) and try to make a change in the current system without breaking it but reshaping its core. I could characterise social enterprises as hybrid organisations that are born from social justice and economic growth and would lead us to the future of sustainability and long term by transforming the current economic system and push innovation and technology for social and environmental sustainability.

Climate change is a threat that we need to address as soon as possible, as we have very limited time to act and change our current economic system in terms of production, product design, product life cycle, world trade and product distribution, impact measurement in terms of societal and environmental footprint, resource management (materials and labour force), consumption patterns and social values regarding the way we consume. Social enterprises that are already active in the field of environmental sustainability, have a wide variety of opportunities to invade in those sub-systems and create innovative solutions. The decade 2020-2030 will be a transformative decade towards entrepreneurship and climate change and social enterprises need to take the lead on this, to promote social entrepreneurship, help the social groups that are mainly affected from climate change, either by directly employ them or offer them the possibility to develop relevant skills or by enhancing the current production and consumption system by intervening and creating innovative business models.

katerina_3

The main principle that social enterprises that work with environmental sustainability and climate change are that mainly they work with people that are not aware of the problem, are not experts and cannot relate with the problem and devote time to acknowledge the problem. There is no doubt that this creates a lot of obstacles, but at the same time is a great spectrum that can generate innovative solutions for how to educate, engage, motivate people to change their behaviour patterns, start thinking about their consumption habits and decisions, feel part of the problem and at the same time part of the solution by supporting social enterprises’ aims.

In parallel with that, social enterprises need to benefit from their flexibility, adaptability and expertise, and for their unique characteristic that they make a local impact with strengthening and empowering communities. In the post-COVID world (or even still COVID world) that everything takes place virtually, social enterprises need to connect with each other, communicate their aims, visions, missions and results and combine all these small incubators of social action in a big scheme that is accessible to everyone and introduce themselves to the world (besides their direct beneficiaries), create calls for action and show their overall impact. The more visible social enterprises are the bigger their influence and their impact and recognition.

Collaboration and communication need to happen not only among social enterprises but also with the businesses of the current system of production and consumption. Circular and sharing economy offers a range of possibilities and opportunities for social enterprises to discover and explore what can be created from waste, how logistics can have a less environmental impact and how the 5R’s (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot) can be promoted, adapted and integrated as main practices in our daily lives, as mainstream practices. There is a need to strive from the “Take-make-use-waste” model to “take-make-use-reuse/repair/return/recycle” model and social enterprises have the flexibility to experiment in this transition by increasing the employability of certain social groups that contributes to social coherence, by raise awareness on these topics and present data and facts that people that are not familiar with the sector can relate with. For instance, investigate the environmental impact in terms of financial loss within the upcoming years for corporations.

To sum up, social enterprises cannot change the world alone, however, they can be the main actors in this transition and they need to create demand both to consumers and to providers/sellers/main actors in the current market. To achieve this successfully, they need to establish collaborations with stakeholders from the private, public and third sector, have a clear mission, engage people to their goal, explain the importance of what they do in ways that their target audience understands and have a great marketing strategy in place. National and international governments and organizations need to take some more steps forward and put in place besides financial indicators of growth (a great example is GDP), indicators of social growth. Sustainable Development Goals have achieved to have a common terminology around the globe for sustainable development and certain goals, but still, the call for action is at the discretion of the organization. Legal regulations, taxation and investment possibilities can promote initiatives that respond to climate change and environmental sustainability and offer incentives to social enterprises to increase their impact. COVID-19 world taught us that we can respond immediately and effectively for incidents that we consider as important. Let’s learn to act proactively, collaboratively, human-centred and with the responsibility to ourselves, live around us, our ancestors and our future generations.

©  2020 Sotsiaalsete Ettevõtete Võrgustik

This publication has been prepared within SENBS project No. 2020- 1-EE01-KA204-077999. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

New informative material – Social Entrepreneurship: how to create a positive change?

New informative material – Social Entrepreneurship: how to create a positive change?

Entrepreneurship or charity? To make profit or to save the world? To think about yourself or to help others? Social entrepreneurship says a confident “yes” to all of these questions, by showing that with a huge determination and a creative approach we can do much more than we think we can.

Ministry of Welfare of the Republic of Latvia has issued new informative material on social entrepreneurship in Latvia: Social Entrepreneurship: how to create positive change? (you can access the full document here)

The material includes an in-depth analysis of the legislative regulation of this form of entrepreneurship, information on the process of obtaining the status of a social entrepreneur as well as the monitoring and control of the business after this status has been granted. Moreover, this informative material offers a chance to learn about the available support mechanisms and investment options for the social enterprises.

The informative material includes such sections as:

– The legal regulation of the social entrepreneurship in Latvia;

– What should be the social goals of the business?;

– Criteria for obtaining the status of a social enterprise;

– What benefits and support mechanisms for the social enterprise are foreseen in the law?;

– Are there any restrictions for the social businesses that should be taken into consideration?;

– What are the risk groups of social exclusion?;

– Obtaining the status of social enterprise, the monitoring and control of this status;

– The work of the Commission of the  Social entrepreneurship;

– How to measure social impact?;

– How to create social business model canvas?;

– Support and investment options for the social businesses.

As well as other practical and useful information for anyone who thinks about starting a social enterprise or wants to develop an already existing business.

“The Sedge” ideas for social entrepreneurship

“The Sedge” ideas for social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship differs from regular business with its higher goal– while classical companies aim to generate more profit, social enterprises are built with the mission to tackle some specific challenge in the society. Since the goal is different, also the forms of business differ from the classical ones. While identifying the issues may be the easiest part, finding a suitable and sustainable business model to tackle this issue is much more complicated. Sometimes the right path does not have to be invented by you – it already exists and solves similar social issues in another part of the world – or who knows – maybe somewhere really close. Therefore getting to know stories of the most successful cases and looking for ways how people have solved similar issues is very important in the way of identifying the best social business strategy. The Sedge has listed many great social business ideas that may serve as an inspiration for anyone who is looking for ways to solve issues within their community or society as such.

One of the listed social business ideas is to sell discounted products at a social supermarket – where low-income communities would be able to shop at much lower prices than in regular stores. These products can be either donated or sold at low prices to the social supermarket by the chain stores due to approaching expiry dates, some packaging damages or mislabeling.

Another initiative, called textbooks for social change, suggests the idea of investing profit from selling university textbooks in social programmes or developing communities. The programme would work in the following way – students would sell part of the used university textbooks to other university students while other part of the books would be donated to students who cannot afford to buy the necessary supplies for studies. Moreover, the profit generated by selling the books would be invested in social programmes for the underprivileged students.

Social business ideas are not only about providing material support – sometimes the goal is to offer lacking information and education. As an example in this kind of case can be selling innovative information products – such as baby blankets with information about how to take care of the baby, when to immunize, how big a baby should be at a specific age, and how often to feed the baby etc.  These blankets can be sold to wealthier communities and the generated profit can be invested to donate these products to underprivileged communities where people are lacking not only resources, but also education on such matters.

If you are looking for a business that could combine seeing the world and contributing to local communities, maybe it is worth to consider launching an educational travel company – gathering experienced travelers who know a lot about the destination and can provide intercultural learning experience. The profits from organizing these tours can then be invested in the local communities that you have visited. These are only few of the amazing ideas listed in the article – if you are looking for inspiration – visit https://www.thesedge.org/socent-spotlights/22-awesome-social-enterprise-business-ideas and get to know also other wonderful initiatives.

On the way to more innovative, collaborative and inclusive cities
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On the way to more innovative, collaborative and inclusive cities

All around the world urbanization is shaping the ways how societies live and work. The city is a living organism, moreover, it is a mirror of the society – the more creative, innovative and collaborative are the people, the more it will be felt also in the environment of the city.

Each and every city has its challenges and problems, and the city itself can become either a place with unsolvable issues or it can bloom as a hub for innovation, collaboration and new opportunities. The most important task for the near future will be to create and promote such urban ecosystems that enhance communication, cooperation among different stakeholders and where the necessity to meet people’s social needs will be put at the top of the priority list. The collection of nine essays by nine innovation leaders from around the world gives an insight in the ways how modern cities work to tackle societal challenges, and what is the role of the city in the development of innovative tools and mechanisms that make the everyday living of the inhabitants better.

Authors of the essays touch upon such challenges as the lack of interest and resources allocated for the collective intelligence – in a time when huge amounts of resources are invested in the artificial intelligence, we cannot forget about the importance of the human collaboration and development of more efficient collective solutions for various societal issues. While the machines may be more effective in many mechanic jobs, they are (at least so far) not able to tackle the challenges present at every community and city in the world. In the collection of essays one can also get to know some key suggestions for more innovation and collaboration within the cities that helps to tackle significant societal challenges. The suggestions of such initiatives include announcing awards and prizes for innovative ideas and practices that enrich community life, providing free, open and engaging spaces for displaying the work of local artists, organization of Community food kitchen labs, providing open and free sources of informal education for everyone, especially emphasizing the digital learning tools. More ideas include organizing children creativity workshops and idea contests, finding the resources for creation of mobile libraries, open wi-fi hotspots, as well as ensuring opportunities and providing the necessary knowledge for launching a social business. Essay authors also emphasize the importance of experiencing the real life of the city and the community in order to find the most effective solutions for issues that the particular city is facing. This may include such initiatives as in the Netherlands where in the municipality of Amersfoort civil servants are doing their job outside of the City Hall in order to be closer to the people and the real situation. Moreover, the necessary effect can be reached also by promoting closer cooperation between the policy makers and other parties – such as NGOs, Universities, interest groups and others.

There are many more thoughts, ideas and initiatives for the creation of innovative and inclusive cities presented in this collection of essays. Read the whole text here: https://socialinnovationexchange.org/insights/future-trends-innovative-cities

Internationalization of the social entrepreneurship

Internationalization of the social entrepreneurship

The concept of social entrepreneurship gets more and more popular and people all around Europe and also the rest of the world start to recognize it as an important tool for attaining the social goals of different societies. Entrepreneurs can use several national and European sources of support in order to start or expand their business, and as many social enterprises keep growing, they also start to think about expanding their business across the borders.

Internationalizing the social business has not yet became a common practice in the Baltic Sea Region. However, given the growing support of the concept, international expansion may be the next logical step to many social businesses also in this region. The obstacle for such expansion, of course, is the limited resources and also the lack of support mechanisms for such actions. Therefore knowing what are the available tools, resources and support mechanisms is of very high importance. What is more, a very substantial source of inspiration and also knowledge is the experience of other social entrepreneurs who already have started their international trading. Information about that and also other important factors that should be taken into consideration when growing your social enterprises internationally, can be found here: http://www.intsense.eu/. In this online platform developed within the framework of a project Internationalising Trading for Social Enterprise Sustainability and Education social entrepreneurs and other interested parties can obtain knowledge of several aspects of international trading of the social enterprises. What is very valuable, is the fact that a huge part of the data that has been produced within this project comes from interviews with social entrepreneurs from Latvia, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Greece and are based on real experiences of success and failure of these social entrepreneurs, therefore rendering the data credible and very useful. The conducted study researched such aspects as motives behind foreign establishment, typical forms of trading international, relevant resources and the barriers and challenges faced when starting the international trading.

The platform offers four different educational and informative materials useful for anyone interested in social business, especially social entrepreneurs who want to start trading internationally:

  • A framework of factors that act as enablers and barriers to the internationalization of social enterprise trading of goods and services that reflect differing business models currently in use. This is an entry level framework and acts as a summary to the whole of the project;
  • A desk-based research report that maps out and appraises the use of current support mechanisms available in Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Greece, the UK and Germany for social enterprises wanting to internationalize their trading practices;
  • Case study materials that act as pilot lights to show exemplars of social enterprise international practices, collected from social entrepreneurs that are already trading their goods and services internationally; and
  • Formal and informal educational and training materials relating to the international trading of social enterprise goods and services, their sustainability and support mechanisms available. The materials will comprise an online interactive business canvas, video summaries and written modules, based on the findings of the project that can be adapted to a variety of educational settings.

Visit http://www.intsense.eu/ to learn more and download the informative and educational materials.

Project Internationalising Trading for Social Enterprise Sustainability and Education is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

A new player in the digital collaboration tool field – Ryver
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A new player in the digital collaboration tool field – Ryver

Let us introduce you to another highly effective digital collaboration tool that will make the every-day life of your team or organization much easier. Ryver is similar to Slack, however, there are some notable differences. As sated on the Ryver’s website – it is one step ahead of Slack because it offers to turn your conversations into trackable tasks, other than by expensive integration with other apps that have limited functionality. It also allows you to automate mass notifications and task assignments for predictable business processes. What makes Ryver special is the fact that you can create as many teams as you want within the app, and, as is the case with also other digital collaboration apps, you can also use the platform to set up chats with groups and individuals. What is more, Ryver is equipped with some interesting filters – for example, you can choose who can see the things that you post and say on the app and you can join the teams that are most relevant for you. All the public conversations are displayed in a similar style as the Facebook feed and there is also an option to mark some conversations, engagements and news in this feed to come back to them later.

Another reason why Ryver is unique is because it integrates team communication tools, team task management and workflow automation. No other digital collaboration app has yet been able to combine all these three substantial functions into one platform. This integration allows the users to : 1)Collaborate via Chat, Topic-threaded Chat (Topics), and Voice & Video Calls (including screen sharing); 2) Turn conversations into trackable Tasks in a powerful task manager; 3) Automate business processes like notifying teammates, assigning tasks, and delivering information to other apps lightning-fast using Workflow.

Ryver is available for 49$ per month for up to 12 team users and for 99$ per month for unlimited amount of users. Visit https://ryver.com/ to find out more.

20 recommendations from social entrepreneurs

20 recommendations from social entrepreneurs

Various kinds of support is needed when launching your social enterprise. While suggestions and advice from investors and customers is very helpful, nothing can be more valuable than advice from the social entrepreneurs themselves. Here is a list of 20 inspiring suggestions and recommendations from social entrepreneurs from Latvia. (Read the original article in Latvian here: https://sua.lv/20-iedvesmojosi-musu-biedru-ieteikumi/

  1. “I wish you to find an idea that solves a problem, creates positive change in the society and is financially sustainable” – Mārtiņš Gulbis, science school for children and youngsters Laboratorium.
  2. “When starting to work in the field of social entrepreneurship, the most important is to create a team of like-minded people. Without that any project can stay only in your head or on the paper. Learn to speak, convince and defend your idea! Listen and do not be afraid to ask for advice! Even if something goes wrong, it is important to keep going and not give up. The longest road starts with the first step!” Oļesja Petrova, chairman of the board of the  „Support centre for children and young people with limited opportunities „SMAIDS””
  3. “Don’t sit there hopefully waiting that there will come a day when your social business idea will successfully realize. Tell about it to everyone you meet – only then you will find like-minded people with whom to polish this idea and make it happen. If you are constantly afraid that someone will steal your idea, that is an indicator that that is not such a great idea after all. Therefore – think bigger, deeper and more powerful!” Andrs Hermanis, the founder of “BlindArt“
  4. “When busy with every-day tasks, do not forget that a social enterprise should solve a social problem” Eva Viļķina, the founder of “Cerību Spārni”
  5. “Putting terms “social” and “business” in one sentence is not inappropriate. The sustainability of working for the greater cause as well as the freedom to make the decisions is only possible if there is financial independence. Do not be afraid – social entrepreneurship is just another tool in your hands, and your success story will start with the first person that you will help” Madara Makare, the co-founder of “HOPP“
  6. “Choose such goals that are frightening and inspiring at the same time. The goal should be big and oriented towards other people. When it is so, we create new solutions and find new resources. We change the world. When we serve others, our personal goals are achieved automatically” Marina Pjanova, the founder of “Dzīvības Poga”
  7. It is not a secret that the number of Latvian population is decreasing, the population is aging, the energy is becoming more expensive and the stocks of natural resources are decreasing. Therefore such topics as multifunctionality and interdisciplinary cooperation on all levels become more and more important. The time of messuages is over. Social entrepreneurship is a new challenge and a creative solution for Latvia” Una Meiberga, the Lead of Development of Āgenskalna Market
  8. “Social enterprises can be so different but the most important is to clearly define your social goals and business direction” Liene Jurgelāne, director of “Kaņepes Laikmetīgās Kultūras Centrs”
  9. “The most important is not to give up! There always is a solution, sometimes you just need to stand on your head to be able to look from another angle. Talk to people – you can never know who will help you, it can be anyone!” Oļesja Soboļevska, the founder of charity shop „Otrā iespēja” in Daugavpils
  10. “In your every-day work, you have to be ready to deal with all kinds of administrative challenges, resistance, confusion, lack of knowledge, because not everyone around us lives with the feeling of mission. Therefore, it is important to always remember the result that you want to achieve and not to lose the initial social goal, and never stop dreaming!” Andris Bērziņš, director of “Latvijas Samariešu apvienība“
  1. “Every social entrepreneur wants to create a positive change in the society as well as create a sustainable business model. In order to do that, you have to be confident about your knowledge and idea, at the same time keeping the humility and never-ending desire to learn – like the one that children have. ”Elīna Ingelande, the founder and director of the programming school “Learn IT”
  2. “Do not do things just for the sake of doing. Do them when you have the vision and inner calling” Jānis Ģēģeris, director of HOPEN
  3. “When offering your good or service, always think about – what will the buyer gain from it?” Inga Akmentiņa-Smildziņa, director of Mammām un Tētiem
  4. “Be ready that the business environment is changing – it requires the ability to adapt ad to be flexible”Elīna Neilande, the founder and director of the charity shop network “Otrā elpa”
  5. “Do not ever stop, notwithstanding the circumstances. Anyone can find himself in this world, you just have to follow your dream” Natālija Jermolajeva, the founder of “OWA“
  6. “To live in harmony with yourself, nature, society is much more sustainable than just to earn money. The world is shaped within each of us.” Ingūna Semule, the founder and project manager of the social enterprise “Puordare”
  7. “As the basis for social business should serve the willingness to change the world. You have to believe in your idea, then also the others will start to believe and will follow” Rūta Dimanta, director of POGA
  8. “The social entrepreneurship business model provides opportunities and puts on responsibility. It is possible to realize ideas with the help of a motivated team and external specialists. Responsibility is in the hands of the manager, therefore I encourage to build the business on strong values so that it is possible to realize the opportunities”Elīna Novada, the founder of “Svaigi.lv“
  9. “Social entrepreneurs should not be ashamed of the word “profit”. It has to be understood that it is a form of business, not a charity. Profit is important! Only because of it we are able to realize our social goals. Profit=social goals, one is not more important than the other, they are of equal value” Elīna Bērziņa, the founder and director of  “SIA Typical“
  10. “The basis of the social business is the business. In order to help as many people as possible, already from the beginning you have to think what value will this business create and who will be willing to pay for it. Only then this enterprise will be sustainable”  Jānis Kreilis, the founder and director of “Your Move”

 

 

10 revenue-generating strategies for social businesses

10 revenue-generating strategies for social businesses

As in any other form of business, also in social entrepreneurship one of the most important aspects is the ability to sustain the activities in the long term. This sustainability is only possible if the entrepreneur has developed a successful money-making strategy and is able to generate revenue. University of Cape Town’s Innovative Finance course has listed 10 business strategies that can be used for successful social business.

The first one is the collection of data. Many big businesses use various types of data regarding their customers – it can be all kinds of data that helps them to improve their offer. Social business can choose to sell this data collected from the communities they serve, but different privacy laws and regulations should be kept in mind when choosing this path.

The second business strategy in this list is consulting. Social enterprises very often develop in very narrow niche fields that help them to reach their goals of solving a specific social issue. If the business is successful, social entrepreneurs sometimes can try to develop a replicable system so that this social issue could be solved also in other parts of the world. In such cases, the social business can offer consulting services when the strategy and method is shared with other potential social entrepreneurs in order to transfer knowledge and expertise.

Another business strategy that social entrepreneurs can engage in, is business assistance. Social businesses often work in close cooperation with start-ups and other new establishments, therefore they can provide assistance with such steps as due diligence, investment readiness, and business development.

The fourth strategy that social enterprises can use to generate more revenue is to introduce subscriptions – instead of one-time purchase, offer customers the service or goods on a monthly or yearly basis, therefore making the business more sustainable. Also, more and more social enterprises have chosen to provide pay-as-you-go option when the customer is charged only for the specific amount he has been using the service. This option helps to reach more people, also the ones that would not be able to afford these services in other conditions.

The next method that can be used is to provide education and training. This can be done in different ways – some social entrepreneurs recruit students and then connect them with the employers, moreover, there is also an option to provide training for various organizations and businesses by up-skilling their employees.

This leads to another strategy called revenue sharing. It can happen when the business profits through partnerships – in the most common cases it take the form of market access, but it can also develop to a level of franchising.

The seventh method is risk-sharing. This becomes applicable when social enterprises position themselves to mitigate risks for insurance companies. The popularity of this strategy keeps growing, however it is quite challenging and requires extensive research of risk mitigation and data collection.

The list continues with leasing programs. Named the most underutilized revenue stream among social enterprises, this strategy can prove to be very lucrative if the social enterprise possesses real estate or any other leaseable property.

Another popular strategy is organizing events. This method not only generates profit but, what is more important, helps to accelerate impact through networking and increased visibility. It is a very useful tool for creating fruitful and impactful partnerships as well as gaining the attention of a wider audience to the important ideas or services that the social enterprise is offering.

The list ends with the simplest and most common strategy – product and service sales. This is a known and safe method that many social enterprises use as the starting point of their business, later on complementing it with other revenue-generating methods and strategies.

 

Read the full article here: https://socialsectornetwork.com/social-enterprise-business-models-10-revenue-strategies/

Social Entrepreneurship in education systems
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Social Entrepreneurship in education systems

Education plays a crucial role in shaping the minds and opinions of the future generation. Debate regarding the much needed changes in our current education systems has been ongoing for some time now – if we want to equip children with knowledge and skills that they will need tomorrow, we cannot teach them things that were relevant yesterday. This has been argued also concerning the entrepreneurial education – for too many years teachers in Economics classes have emphasized only the traditional business models – therefore promoting entrepreneurship where the main success indicator is profit.

 

British Council addresses these issues in the report “Social Entrepreneurship in education”, by providing in-depth analysis of the entrepreneurship education in several European countries as well as already existing Social Entrepreneurship education examples and suggestions and recommendations for more successful implementation of SE education in the classes of Business and Economics. This report argues that there are several reasons why national education systems need to seriously consider incorporation of Social Entrepreneurship education, mainly focusing on the fact that the world around us has changed tremendously but education system remains as it was decades ago. Moreover, authors of the report emphasize the importance of teaching students the skill-set that will be useful for children in a variety of future professions, not only encouraging them to strive academically by remembering huge amounts of information: “Many of the skills and gifts that make a great entrepreneur are not highly valued within a traditional school environment, yet they may resonate with children who do not feel engaged by school or by some educational approaches. Social entrepreneurship education could be an opportunity for those children to shine, not another subject to fail.”

 

The report gives a food for thought for everyone who cares about the skills, knowledge and also welfare of the future generations. If we want to equip students with versatile knowledge and teach things that will not only help them to be better entrepreneurs, but also contribute to environment and society, it will require teamwork and collaboration of government institutions, teachers and social entrepreneurs to make the years spent in classroom more meaningful and valuable.

 

Read full report here: https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/british_council_social_entrepreneurship_in_education_web_final.pdf