The Eco-entrepreneurship Knowledge Resource Hub is an integrated project that directly addresses the main objectives of the KA2-Cooperation and Innovation for Good Practices. Focus is on strengthening the capacities of youth and young people for the development of a more sustainable and dynamic Eco-entrepreneurship sector that contributes to economic growth and youth employment.The project will establish close ties between successful eco-entrepreneurs and the aspiring young entrepreneurs. Successful eco-entrepreneurs will play a crucial role in the encouragement, development and implementation of the young people’s eco-entrepreneurial business ideas:• Eco-entrepreneurs will provide guidance for selected small-scale pilot projects that will be experimented with and implemented at the eco-hub facilities in Humlebæk.The project is innovative in that it will boost the eco-entrepreneurial capacity of young people by providing an incubator for youth under 30 for developing eco-ideas and businesses related to food production & systems innovation, eco-tourism, green architecture, green energy generation, climate-smart innovation, and biodiversity safeguarding. A core result will be the support young people in the development of work/business plans for the creation of Eco-entrepreneurship projects and ideas for projects/small businesses, as well as institutional capacity building, training of trainers program and a user-friendly online eco-entrepreneurship toolkit. The project will bring together groups of young people between 16-30 years with a diverse educational background and skills. Young people will be chosen from a wide range of educational institutions, among others farm schools, universities and high schools).Main Activities1. Mapping exercise to formulate the current institutional support and development needs for Eco-entrepreneurship 2. Non-formal educational and international learning program for young eco-entrepreneurs to support exchange of information, know-how transfer 3. Seminars/events to raise awareness about the opportunities the Eco-entrepreneurship generates and impact in other economic sectors. 4. Business support and guidance program for established initiatives, entrepreneurs, including administrative, marketing and management skills; the mastering of information and communication principal tools and skills, including new media mentoring. Includes workshops on how to maintain the sustainability for new projects, gender and equality issues, etc.5. Development of eco-hub as a one-stop-station for all Project beneficiaries and for Eco-entrepreneurs who want to explore other national and international opportunities with their peers.9. Dissemination and exploitation of Project results in each countries 10. Transnational meetings during the life of the project.MethodologyEco-entrepreneurship knowledge resource hub in Humlebæk promotes creative innovative start-up ideas of environmental products, services, and technology transfer. The target group from this project is expected to learn how to move environmental solutions from concepts to market for their start-up ideas and financial benefit, as well as for the betterment of the environment.The main project results will be materials identifying best practices, policies and strategies that create new Eco-entrepreneurial projects embedding socio-economic opportunities for young people and toolkits (curriculum guides, training materials, etc.) which will be available on-line on the Internet through free access Knowledge Resource dissemination tools.The project will be also instrumental for public administrators to put forward new strategies for developing eco- entrepreneurship (services and products) that are outward-looking, as national contexts are as important as across borders’ contexts.
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.