Entrepreneurs

The third edition of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival takes place from the 16-17th of September at Engelnest, Berlin, to present impactful solutions for green minds.

The two-day event aims to bring together entrepreneurs and citizens to discuss and discover new solutions to build sustainable and zero waste cities.

Topics covered by over 60 speakers focus on the main aspects of creating future cities, such as sustainable food systems and urban lifestyle, mobility and technology, among others.

“We want to create a space where entrepreneurs, companies and people can meet, learn from each other and find resources – Berlin is the perfect place for it,”

says Coral Ruz, Founder of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival.

On the first day, entrepreneurs, companies, institutions and investors will gather to connect and exchange ideas helping the shift to make cities more sustainable.

Coral Ruz, Founder of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival, has started an international zero waste community in Belrin in 2019.

Keynote speaker of the event, Kilian Kaminkski, co-founder of Refurbed, the fastest growing online marketplace for refurbished products, will address attendees with a presentation focusing on why „The future is Circular Economy’.

The second day will focus on citizen engagement in transforming cities and zero waste movements.

Participants can attend conferences, and masterclasses, meet with brands, enjoy an immersive networking experience with the Green Networking Party and meet with local artists thanks to the collaboration with the Berlin Music Commission.

Zero Waste Berlin Festival 2021; Image: Ana Torres

“In curating this year’s programme, our aspiration has been to highlight inspiring and solution-oriented projects across the private, public, and civic sectors,”

shared Therese Sivertsson, Program Manager of the festival.

Speakers include Franziska Voß from BSR, Frieder Söling from Noch Mall, Ana Milhazes from Zero Waste Portugal and many more.

The day will close with Positive Planet Kino; a full program of short films and documentaries addressing the future of the planet with a positive approach.

Tickets and the entire program are available on the event’s website.

The first edition of the Zero Waste Berlin Festival was launched in 2019 as a passion project of founder Coral Ruz and has grown into an international movement ever since, reaching more than 40,000 people.

Headline image: Ana Torres

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September 2022

Why do ambitious changemakers upskill in Climate Entrepreneurship?

Bronagh Loughlin — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 17:21:41 +0000

Why do ambitious changemakers upskill in Climate Entrepreneurship?

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Choosing a trailblazer postgraduate course focusing on climate action is becoming a top choice for innovators wanting to make a positive impact in Ireland.

The first course of its kind, the Postgraduate Certificate in Climate Entrepreneurship hosted by Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workplace in Dublin, offers students a hands-on learning experience to tackle climate change with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Applications are currently open until the 16th of August for this part-time, blended learning experience delivered in person and online, with teaching lessons held two evenings per week.

This unique course was developed in collaboration with the School of Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin and is now kicking off for a second year to equip participants with knowledge and tools to handle both the opportunities and challenges arising from the climate emergency.

Professor Quentin Crowley, Course Director and the Director of Trinity College’s Centre for the Environment, speaks about who the programme is suitable for:

“A key aspect of the course is that it is very multidisciplinary because climate change is very systemic and is not something that will be solved with one solution.

We need different actors, sectors, and thinkers, so regardless of your background, we encourage you to apply.”

The course aims to provide an integrated approach to preparing students for the opportunities and challenges emerging from the climate crisis.

Professor Quentin Crowley, Climate Entrepreneurship Course Director at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin

All those who wish to turn their climate action ambitions into reality can develop their lateral and critical thinking skills in this course, enabling them to take innovative approaches across numerous fields.

Graduates will have the creative confidence to transform ideas into solutions.

Shanna May Breen, a past student from the first intake, shares why she decided to apply for the Climate Entrepreneurship programme:

“I’m a creative, my background is in theatre making. Around four and a half years ago, I became quite worrisome in terms of climate issues. I started developing projects that looked at climate to make that intelligible for me."

Shanna took her idea even further and developed a business called Tree Zero.

Shanna May Breen, graduated from the first Postgraduate Climate Entrepreneurship course.

"I’m not only a Climate Artist now, but I’m also a Climate Entrepreneur.”

Since the course’s completion, she has been developing this product alongside Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers programme with top sustainable European designers.

The course is best suited to those who want to actively address climate change and equip themselves with the creative confidence and innovation skills to transform their ideas into solutions.

The content covered in the classes is centred around three main modules, including systems innovation for positive climate action, entrepreneurship opportunities in climate adaptation and mitigation, and climate enterprise development.

Caithriona McCarthy, another graduate of the course, speaks about why she decided to join: “For the last 10 years, I’ve been teaching sustainable horticulture and sustainable agriculture in the west of Ireland."

Participating in the Climate Entrepreneurship course helped Caithriona McCarthy to design a climate education programme for children. Image: Edible Landscape Project

"As a result of doing the Climate Entrepreneurship course, we were able to better communicate our message,” McCarthy adds.

She quickly adopted her learning, and by the time Caithriona finished the course, she had designed a climate education programme for children focusing on system thinking with her team.

Joining the Climate Entrepreneurship course will help students be better prepared to reduce the future social and economic costs of the climate crisis while encouraging communities, businesses, and individuals to play their part.

Caithriona also highlights the added value of working in teams:

“I think the group work was brilliant because we were so motivated and that made us work well with each other. I’ve stayed in touch with groups I’ve worked with and bounced ideas off them too.”

Those on the programme benefit from access to leading academics and a world-class entrepreneurial community as well as exclusive networking opportunities with regular guest talks by industry leaders, masterclasses, and events.

About the content, Shanna May Breen adds: :

“I think the course is so interesting that you are eager to log on and meet up each evening.

It was a very active course to participate in, and I would do it again in a heartbeat."

The Postgraduate Certificate in Climate Entrepreneurship will begin in September 2022 and runs until March 2023.

Springboard+ covers 100% of course fees for eligible, unemployed applicants, and those who are employed pay just 10% fees at €375 for a level 9 qualification from Ireland’s leading university.

You can learn more and submit your application here.

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August 2022

Sweetening the deal to make food ethics matter

Business Spirit News reporting — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 13:19:09 +0000

Sweetening the deal to make food ethics matter

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A chocolate range with exceptional taste and high ethical standards was brought to life by an Irish entrepreneur to raise awareness.

Chocolatey Clare, alias Clare Tate followed her passion when she designed a chocolate range in Ireland with a sensational taste while raising the bar to the highest in ethics and sustainability.

In this interview, she shares her secrets of running an ethical food business that goes beyond the usual ‘greening’ strategies.

I set up my business in 2016, knowing absolutely nothing about the food industry. After turning 50, I decided to just do something else entirely and switch to a completely different career by becoming an entrepreneur.

I have been a vegetarian for about 30 years, and I turned vegan along with my whole family about seven years ago. I couldn't find any vegan chocolate that I really loved, even though I tried almost all of them.

So I decided to make my own and started my business by searching the internet ‘How do you make chocolate?’. Besides finding the best taste, I had some other criteria on my list: to start with, it had to be vegan, but veganism extends to an approach to minimise the exploitation of not only animals but humans, the environment and the planet.

In the finished product, you have your in¬gredients, processes, people, packaging, and everything has an effect.

Clare Tate, Founder of Chocolatey Clare is dedicated to raise the bar in food ethics.

Food ethics is one of my main principles, which means no animal or human exploitation in the production of my chocolate.

I strive to ensure that all my ingredients are ethically sourced, so I would investigate the ethics policies and the sustainability commitments of all the suppliers I engage with. For example, when I use organic coconut milk powder, I also need to make sure that no monkeys are used to harvest the coconuts.

I think there is no such thing as a neutral purchase because you support that company every time you buy something.

One of the main challenges for me entering the food industry was having no previous experience whatsoever. I had to research everything, but I don't think it was all negative because it meant that I had no preconceived notions of what should I be doing.

I investigated everything and looked at all possible options at the time.

I went to a lot of trouble to find environmen¬tally friendly packaging. The boxes I use are made from FSC certified paper and printed with vegetable-based ink instead of petroleum basting. The printing company that I work with has printing machines that are actually wind-powered.

My products are more expensive than the mass-produced options. But if you think about it, there is a good reason for that.

Particularly in the food industry, there is an unrealistic expectation from the general public that chocolate should be cheap.

If everybody in the supply chain is fairly paid and the environmental impact is taken into account, the end product will obviously be more expensive.

At the same time, unfortunately, there is still a lot of exploitation and even slave labour involved in the cocoa industry.

The result is that chocolate is cheap when it shouldn’t be, so it is a bit of an uphill battle to convince consumers that chocolate is a luxury item that deserves to be paid for and should be treated that way.

"Chocolate is a luxury item that deserves to be paid for and should be treated that way," says Clare Tate.

One of my other mantras is that you should buy less but buy better. I think consumers have all the power because if we stop buying something, then companies will stop making it or be forced to examine how they produce things.

Most of my customers aren’t vegan and aren't really bothered about buying dairy-free products, but they like the chocolate we make. And this was another thing that absolutely was at the top of my agenda.

Not only do I want to make chocolate according to my principles and my ethics, but it has to be delicious.

Figuring out all the details and building up a business was not easy, and I was glad to receive such tremendous support from the Dublin City Local Enterprise Office. It meant not just being able to have experts helping me but getting great exposure to my products and refining my positioning.

I would love to see many more people stand by the type of business I’m running.

Considering that there are plenty of resources and food out there to feed the world, yet only a few per cent of humanity has the luxury to enjoy it, we would definitely need a systemic change.

How the system works right now, how food is produced, priced, distributed, and consumed, is far from being fair or sustainable.

It might look like an unrealistic or naive paradigm shift, but access to quality and safe food is a basic need and should be available to everyone.

As a small business, I’m doing everything within my reach and power to get people to at least think about their impact when purchasing their food.

Chocolate might just be a sweat first experience for them to feel good about making better choices whenever they buy something.

This content is a piece of an article originally published in the "Make change happen" issue of Profit with Purpose Magazine.

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August 2022

Open call for innovators who want to shape the future of cities

Business Spirit News reporting — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 16:30:58 +0000

Open call for innovators who want to shape the future of cities

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The Urban Future international gathering of changemakers is looking for impact entrepreneurs with projects making cities greener and more accesible.

The Urban Future event, the largest meeting for ‘City Changers’ will return as a live event in Helsingborg, Sweden, on the 1-3 June, bringing together thinkers and doers shaping the future of cities.

Organisers are calling innovators and entrepreneurs with an idea to transform cities to become more sustainable and accessible. They are looking for projects that are tackling environmental or social issues in an urban space, touching the lives of citizens and passionate about driving change.

The application is open until February 6, and 10 selected businesses will receive two complimentary conference tickets and have their travel and accommodation expenses covered.

Gerald Babel-Sutter co-founded the Urban Future global gathering in 2014 with the aim to bring together the brightest minds who strive to make their cities more sustainable and livable.

“We usually choose our topics based on the main struggles City Changers go through when driving sustainability in cities,”

said Babel-Sutter about how they decided on the focus of this year’s event.

Gerald Babel-Sutter, co-founder of Urban Future

The 2022 conference tracks combine the expertise of more than 450 leading urban shapers and will be structured around the following topics: Leadership; Changing Structures; Impact Entrepreneurs; Revitalising Neighbourhoods; Building New Districts; Skills for CityChangers.

One of the highlights of the agenda will be the transformation story of the host city, Helsingborg and how they managed to fundamentally change their operation within ten years to become a top-class hub for innovation.

“We immediately liked the fact that Helsingborg was so open with what it had tried and what worked and what didn’t,” Gerald continues.

“Helsingborg has understood that to reach their goals, they need to experiment and make mistakes along the way. In Sweden’s first municipal innovation hub Hbg Works, any idea to improve the City can be tested. A no-strings-attached vision fund invites residents to join in and realise their city development dreams.”

The Urban Future event takes place in different countries each year, offering a place for urban impact innovators to connect and exchange ideas.

Headline image: Urban Future

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February 2022